Cheapflights augments great deals with Travelnomics reports and flight and travel guides

February 13, 4:27 PMLouisville Travel ExaminerZach Everson

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Louisville Travel Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Travelnomics reports and flights and travel guides are two features Cheapflights offers in addition to
deals on airfare. (Photo: Cheapflights)

Last week I learned that Cheapflights.com is a great website for finding great deals on airfare.

My rational was threefold:

• it provides the best selection of cheap flights
• it allows travelers to search for cheap airfare without having to enter specific dates
• if there's not a deal you like, Cheapflights' newsletter will alert you when new deals are entered into its database

While great deals and flexibility matter most to me when choosing an airfare aggregator, Cheapflights has two other features that are worth exploring.

Travelnomics reports
Per its website, Cheapflights's quarterly Travelnomics reports "provide a unique perspective on the ever-changing leisure travel landscape. Reports range from best places to travel affordably to the cost of air travel by city, to what’s on the horizon for the travel industry. The reports are written to help the traveler find deals in a down economy and reassure travelers that travel is easy and affordable."

The most recent report, Travelnomics Top 2009 Destinations, was released last week. While some of the 13 destinations are not surprising (such as Prague and Hawaii), others are a little more offbeat (I don't think anyone's ever suggested Kansas City before).

But what differentiates Travelnomics's suggestions from, say, the lists that most travel writers seemingly generate every day?

"We can actually highlights actual airfare deals to be able to get there," said Carl Schwartz, Cheapflights's chief travel officer.

Ah, yeah. I don't always do that.

Flights and travel guides
In addition to the Travelnomics reports, Cheapflights's website has travel guides covering countries, cities and travel tips that can save your life---like its Beer Lover's Airport Guide.

"We've got over 700 guides on our site now," Schwartz said. "We also have a tremendous wealth of travel tips, what to pack, how to get through security with ease."

And as you'd expect for a website named Cheapflights.com, the guides are written with budget travelers in mind. "Instead of just a straight travel guide, we try to offer things to do on the cheap or even free when applicable," Schwartz said.

Cheapflights publishes 20 to 30 new guides a month. New locations are determined in part by their popularity in search inquiries on the website.