The best deals on travel are never posted on any website and you cannot get them through direct contact with the companies themselves. The only way I have found to access the hidden deals is to bid using Priceline. There are a few other sites that let you bid on travel but none of them are nearly as large in scope as Priceline.
The strategy is simple you just have to do a little research. The first site to check is biddingfortravel.com. At this site you can see what prices other people are getting on their rates to a specific destination (arifare, hotel, and car rental). They also have bidding information on vacation packages.
After I have checked out biddingfortravel I go to Hotwire. Whatever rate I can get on Hotwire for a specific part of my trip I then go to Priceline and bid half of that rate. I will then move my bid up five dollars at a time until it is either accepted or it meets the Hotwire rate. In order to do this efficiently you will need more than one credit card since Priceline will only let you bid once per day per card without changing your options. I will usually save between 25%-50% off the Hotwire rate. Using this method I have gotten deals on a 4 star resort in Hilton Head (a resort city in SC) with an ocean view for $70 a night, a 3 star hotel in Savannah, GA for $42 a night, rented a mid size sedan for $5 a day, and many others. If you are willing to make the effort you can find amazing deals on anything that you can bid on with Priceline. This is by far the best way to go when it comes to travel.
Check Out my other two posts on travel:
Travel Troubles
Travel Websites
[...] Moyer presents Getting the Best Travel Deals posted at Saving Freak. A method through the madness of trying to save money on [...]
[...] using Hotwire and Priceline in conjunction with each other. You can see my post on this strategy Here. In that same post I explained how VRBO.com works. This is another great way to save money on [...]