Here's one tip: Always aim high. Don't start Priceline bidding at a low star quality level.

If you start low, let's say start by bidding on 2-star hotels, Priceline considers that a bid for 2-, 3-, and 4-star hotels. That means if your bid fails, you'll have to wait 24 hours before bidding again if you want only that neighborhood.

However, if your bid on 4-star hotels fails, you can immediately rebid in the same neighborhood on 3-star hotels and so on.

That means extra chances to save.

Can you sometimes pay less than these examples?

Yes.

However, be sure that you have time to rebid if your first one fails. Remember that you have to wait 24 hours before bidding on the same neighborhood and star quality.

Amtrak took a quieter approach, with the most visible component being reducing the amount of luggage that you are allowed to carry on board. (An important change, because you can't check bags to or from most Amtrak stations.)

Last week, however, Amtrak instituted mobile security teams to go from station to station inspecting passenger luggage. These random checks with explosive detection machines come without warning.

If pulled out of line for a check, you can refuse, but, if so, you won't be able to travel.

We like this new system, which preserves the ease of boarding for most Amtrak passengers.

There were lessons to be learned by everyone. You stay number 1 by hard work and focus. You become number 1 by hard work, focus—and patience.

SC fans had an important travel lesson too: That using alternative airports can sometimes save you money--big money.

Last-minute travelers who unthinkably flew into Lincoln Airport from Los Angeles probably paid 2 or 3 times or more than what those who used Omaha Airport paid. Yet, Omaha is less than 60 miles away.

Why? Omaha has more airline competition. Importantly, it has budget airline competition, with service by Southwest and Frontier. This brings the prices of all airlines down.

Look for these situations when you travel.

For example, everyone has heard of London Heathrow and Gatwick.

But, have you heard of London’s Luton and Stansted airports? These usually have the cheapest fares, especially to points in Europe.

There are dozens of metro areas in the U.S. with similar situations.

That means special discounts on its "Name your own price" tickets, as well as no booking fees for travelers who prefer to choose their airlines and departure times.

With flights so full this summer, airfare bargains have been hard to find.

Strong demand and earnings have more than doubled Priceline share prices during the past year.

It's interesting how companies like Priceline and Southwest that offer good values are making a profit, while many of those that charge much higher prices are not.

You can now book up to 9 rooms at one time using Priceline's "Name your own price" bidding.

This means extra savings for class field trips, teams, small business conferences, weddings, and family reunions, because "Name your own price" discounts are usually greater than group discounts.

Remember, though, that Priceline bids are for standard hotel rooms, which especially in a few older hotels in large cities may not have room for more than two persons.

That means that, for the duration of the summer sale, priceline.com customers will pay less for their airline tickets than they would at any other major online travel reservation service, including Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Cheap Tickets.

Travelers choosing priceline.com for their airline tickets will enjoy other significant benefits besides no booking fees.

In addition to round-trips on the same airline, priceline.com allows customers to "mix-and-match" their flights, choosing one airline and itinerary for the outbound leg of their trip and another for the return.

Combining airlines can improve itineraries and savings, which is why approximately 20% of priceline.com's retail tickets now sold include two carriers. Even smaller so-called "screen-scrapers" such as Kayak and Sidestep only offer this feature with a booking fee attached.

On April 29th, the gasoline tanker truck that overturned and exploded north of Oakland Airport caused the collapse of a portion of the freeway that is the usual route to San Francisco and Marin County. If you try to drive this way, you'll face major delays and frustration for the next 6 months.

Take our detours instead!

That means airlines will NOT let U.S. residents fly into Canada unless they have a passport (with a few exceptions that do not apply to the majority of travellers) for the return trip.

During 2007, auto, bus, and rail passengers, if U.S. citizens, can continue to enter the U.S. from Canada with either a passport OR an official copy of their birth certificate ALONG WITH a government-issued photo id such as a driver's license. (A driver's license alone does not prove citizenship.)

Although passengers entering the U.S. from Canada by ship do not yet officially need a passport, they should contact their cruise company for its policy, which may be more stringent than the government one.

Please, no.

It’s not the anti-competitive issues we worry about. Not that those huge potential problems don’t exist. Between them, BNSF and UP control nearly every major rail line west of the Mississippi.

No, it’s the impact this merger would have on Amtrak that concerns us. A viable Amtrak keeps airfares lower on competing routes.

On the tracks of most railroads, Amtrak tends to run reasonably on time or nearly so.

But when it uses rails controlled by Union Pacific, Amtrak routinely arrives 5 or 10 hours behind schedule and even later.

Amtrak has tried to work with Union Pacific. It has padded its schedules and changed its departure times, but nothing seems to overcome what appears from press reports to be gross operational mismanagement.

Union Pacific cites freight congestion for the delays, and it’s true that UP like other U.S. railroads faces unprecedented volumes of freight.

However, BNSF, which shares fully in the growth of western freight traffic, handles its Amtrak trains well. Routine long delays that ruin Amtrak’s public image and provide fodder for Jay Leno are not a problem on BNSF.

Where there’s a will there’s a way.

In fairness, UP’s current operators must deal with chronic underinvestment in railway infrastructure by previous corporate managements, which perhaps allowed these to show better short-term financial results.

But, current UP management cannot claim innocence—not at all.

Although Amtrak’s contracts with Union Pacific specifically give passenger trains preference over freight trains, both Amtrak passengers and the press report that this has obviously not been happening. This has not been happening for many years.

Until these problems at UP are resolved, please support no merger that combines BNSF and Union Pacific corporate officers.

Want an innovative photo gallery to share them with your friends and family?

Professional travel photographers as well as vacation photo enthusiasts will enjoy FotoMaps. FotoMaps is a new flash photo gallery that lets you put your photos on a map. Choose any map you like, then place each photo at the exact location where it was taken. This geographical context gives your photographs more meaning. It allows them to tell a story.

FotoMaps has a cool floating interface that lets you zoom in and out or drag the map around to explore your photos. It's very easy to add photos to the gallery by editing an external XML file. You can add single photos or group photos into slideshows.

For more information, demo, and purchase see: www.fotomaps.net.
You can also download a free trial version at download.com.

- Benek Lisefski
Bidontravel.com webmaster & FotoMaps creator

If you already have a passport, this means last-minute bargain opportunities.

Mexico, Jamaica, and the Bahamas traditionally attract many last-minute travelers. But this year, quickly obtaining passport at the last minute can be an expensive proposition.

Check for Priceline and Hotwire deals on hotels and packages. You may be very pleasantly surprised.

On the other hand, expect Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and perhaps even Florida to be more expensive.

At the moment, Canadian and U.S. officials continue to work on an identification card that can be used in lieu of a passport once the U.S. begins to require auto, bus, rail, and ship passengers to have passports when entering the U.S. This should be cheaper and quicker for immigration officials to scan.