Thank you to everyone who participated in the Orbitz Twitter Giveaway! As a token of our appreciation, here's a special promo code for 15% off select hotels:
THXTWITTER
Book by June 27, 2009 for travel by September 6, 2009.
Terms and conditions:
Book a qualifying hotel
between June 25, 2009, and June 27, 2009, for 1 or more night for travel between
June 25, 2009, and September 6, 2009, via Orbitz and instantly receive 15% off your booking
through the use of the promotion code. To display qualifying hotels, click "I
have a promotion code." and enter the promotion code, then look for hotels
marked with the icon "COUPON." Limit one discount per hotel room and one
promotion code per booking. Discount may not be used toward the booking of a
vacation package. Discounts are not redeemable for cash for any reason. Any
attempt at fraud will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Void where
prohibited, taxed or restricted. Orbitz reserves the right to change or limit the
promotion in its sole discretion.
When my wife Jenny was nine, her family of seven took a road trip in a ’71 Pontiac station wagon to Mount Rushmore National Park. For a few years now she has been dreaming of taking a similar family vacation with our son, Zeke, who is eleven. While out West, we want to go hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, take in a rodeo at Cheyenne Frontier Days, and, as long as we’re in the neighborhood, visit Yellowstone National Park.
It’s a tall order, I know, and when we consulted an atlas the mileage was daunting. Mapquest confirmed we would log over 3,000 miles on our family sedan if we drove from Chicago. We considered driving out West in a rental car and flying home from Denver after we’d made all our stops, but it was still a lot of miles, and one-way flights plus one-way car rentals were more costly than round-trips. Fortunately, my sister-in-law, (who will be joining us along with her 11-year old son), suggested flying out to Denver and renting a car from there. This ended up being a more cost efficient and hassle-free option. We booked cheap round-trip flights to Denver, and our car rental was considerably less.
Parades, cookouts, fireworks — however you like to celebrate, the Fourth of July is the holiday of summer, and with the 4th falling on a Saturday this year, it's a great opportunity for a short summer vacation. Before you book your flights and hotels, check out these top picks based on Orbitz bookings for travelJuly 3-6:
Top 10 Fourth of July Vacation Destinations for 2009
1. Las Vegas: Las Vegas hotels — with their glitzy shows and gourmet restaurants — are popular year 'round, and it's no surprise that Vegas celebrates the Fourth in a big way. Check out a virtual fireworks show on the Viva Vision canopy at the Fremont Street Experience, or see the real thing — times nine — as nine different Stations Casinos properties display fireworks simultaneously.
2. Chicago: The Fourth of July is a great time to plan a summer vacation in Chicago. Taste of Chicago is in full swing, and you can take full advantage of the lakefront beaches. Chicago's official Fourth of July fireworks take place on July 3 over the lake by Grant Park.
3. New York: Book your New York hotel now and plan to enjoy the Big Apple's Fourth of July fireworks display over the Hudson River. Here are the recommended spots for best views of the fireworks.
AIRPORT REPORT
Fliers Can Eat for a Fin in Two Big Airports: Philadelphia and New York/LaGuardia now have $5 menu-item programs
at some of their food-service outlets. About 50 restaurants are
offering specials under the banner of Wow! $5 Chow! The grub ranges
from a chicken sandwich and a large beverage at Chick-Fil-A in
Philadelphia to dessert and coffee at Todd English's Figs in LaGuardia.
Fighting a steep decline of passengers on its Air Shuttle routes between New York/LaGuardia, Boston and Washington/National, Delta Air Lines has cut some one-way fares as low as $129.
The Northwest Airlines name and brand has disappeared at two more airports — Albany, New York, and Knoxville, Tennessee — and Northwest flights have been moved to Delta Air Lines gates.
Marriott has opened a 187-room Courtyard hotel in Toulouse, France. It is located about three miles from the airport and the home of Airbus.
British Airways says it will launch flights to Las Vegas
from London/Heathrow beginning on October 25. BA will use Boeing 777s
configured with business-class, premium-economy and coach cabins.
AirTran Is Building in Orlando and Taking on Allegiant: AirTran Airways is launching a slew of new routes into Orlando and many of the new flights target Allegiant Airlines, the specialty carrier that has made its reputation serving tertiary nonstop markets. The new Orlando offerings from AirTran are three weekly flights from Charleston, West Virginia (beginning June 25); four weekly flights from Allentown/Lehigh Valley (June 25); three weekly flights from Asheville, North Carolina (June 11); four weekly flights from Knoxville (June 12); and three weekly flights from Atlantic City (June 12). AirTran is also adding daily flights from its Atlanta hub to Portland, Maine, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Both routes are seasonal and will operate between June 11 and September 8.
HOTEL HOT SHEET Recession Be Damned. The New Properties Keep Opening: The number of new hotels opening would be overwhelming even if the economy were still roaring along. Now it just seems, well, chaotic. But here we go.
Marriott has opened a 118-room Fairfield Inn in Schertz, in suburban San Antonio.
Starwood has opened side-by-side properties in Arundel Mills, Maryland. One is a 147-room Element and the other is a 142-room Aloft hotel. It has also added a 91-room W Hotel in Doha, Qatar.
Overseas, citizenM, a prefab, high-tech hotel concept, has opened its second property. The 215-room hotel in Amsterdam's financial district complements the original citizenM, located within walking distance of the passenger terminals at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
Kempinski has opened a 98-room lakefront resort in the High Tatras Mountains of Slovakia.
Marriott has opened a 118-room Renaissance hotel in Paris near the Eiffel Tower.
Southwest Airlines Decides It Can Make It in New York: It's the reverse of that song New York, New York: Having already made it anywhere, Southwest Airlines is hoping to make it "there," meaning New York. The 800-pound gorilla of discounters and the nation's only consistently profitable airline, Southwest adds New York's LaGuardia Airport to its route map on June 28. The initial schedule includes five nonstops a day to Chicago's Midway Airport and three nonstops to Baltimore/Washington. Although Southwest is trimming its total capacity this year, the LaGuardia launch is part of the carrier's push into big cities that it once shunned. In March, Southwest began flying from Minneapolis-St. Paul; it began with flights to Midway and adds three MSP-Denver flights on May 26. The carrier also launches flights at Boston's Logan Airport in the fall. About the only major metropolitan area still off the Southwest route map now is Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport.
By Barney Harford, President & CEO, Orbitz Worldwide
We’re announcing today the launch of Hotel Price Assurance, an industry-leading innovation that promises you the best Orbitz rate when you book a hotel on Orbitz.com. Hotel Price Assurance is all about providing peace of mind to customers who want to book early but be protected in case rates drop later — and it’s completely automatic.
No one else is doing this for hotels. Once again Orbitz is leading the way, as we did with the launch of Flight Price Assurance last year.
Here’s how it works: You book any pre-paid hotel on Orbitz, another Orbitz customer subsequently books the same hotel stay at a lower rate, and Orbitz automatically sends you a check for the difference. If you’re really lucky, we’ll deliver it by hovercraft.
The launch of Hotel Price Assurance comes on the heels of the groundbreaking introduction of Total Price hotel search results at the same time as the launch of our aggressive Hotel Fee Cut promotion just a couple of weeks ago. And the launch a month ago of our Biggest Hotel Sale Ever.
There’s really no reason to look anywhere else when you need to book a hotel. And we’re taking that message to America in the new Orbitz TV ad that airs for the first time today. Check it out here:
American Airlines Drops Dallas/Love Service–Again: Business travelers have lost count of the number of times the bosses at Dallas/Fort Worth-based American Airlines have launched flights at Dallas/Love Field. Whenever a competitive threat appears at Love Field, American begins flying inexpensive, competitive service. And as soon as the threat disappears, so does American. But this time American ran into Love-based Southwest Airlines, a competitor it couldn't push around. After a change in the Wright Amendment permitted Southwest to fly to new cities from Love in 2006, American piled in, too, launching flights to Chicago/O'Hare, Kansas City and St. Louis. The St. Louis and Kansas City flights disappeared almost immediately. American has now announced that it'll drop the O'Hare service on June 11. But don't worry, American says it'll be back at Love in 2013, when a new terminal is due for completion.
By Barney Harford, President & CEO of Orbitz Worldwide
Big day today. At Orbitz.com we just announced the launch of Total Price hotel search results, making it dramatically easier for consumers to search for hotels.
Until today, there was no convenient way for consumers to compare multiple hotels on a Total Price basis. Consumers had to click through to the hotel details page for each hotel to see how much it would cost to book.
With Total Price hotel search results Orbitz is changing that, and making the world a better place. As of today, we’ll be showing you the base rate, taxes & fees and Total Price per night upfront on the initial search results page.
And that’s not all. We’ve also dramatically cut booking fees on all of our hotels around the world for bookings made by July 15. Of course, lower booking fees mean a lower Total Price.We’re daring you to compare the Orbitz Total Price before booking your hotel anywhere else.
This comes on the heels of the recent launch of our "Biggest Hotel Sale Ever," featuring discounts of 30% or more at thousands of properties worldwide through May 31.
Are you kidding? There’s really never been a better time to travel. So get busy, get booking!
