Übercheap Weekend Getaway to San Francisco

The fabulous deal I got on next weeks trip happened like this. I went to United's e-fare website, where they post weekend deals every Tuesday morning. I found Santa Barbara (SBA) to San Francisco (SFO) for $74, round-trip. We'll leave Saturday around noon, and come back Monday around noon. The total price came to a little over $100 for each ticket, after taxes. Still, that's $100 for a round-trip ticket!

The hotel came through Priceline. Just like on TV, I bid a ridiculously low price for a 4-star hotel in San Francisco. The first bid was $50, which was declined. But Priceline said I could raise my bid by $14 and bid again. So I did, and it was accepted. So Saturday and Sunday night, we'll stay at the Hyatt Regency, for $64 each night. $155 after taxes.

And the rental car. I went back to United and used their offer for Hertz. A midsize car was $55 for two days, taxes and everything included. Plus we get a ton of United miles.

And then I went to Restaurant.com, typed in a zip code for San Francisco, and bought a few gift certificates for restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf.

The only thing I don't have are the Broncos/Raiders football tickets for Sunday!

Pimp United Airlines with eBay

No joke. I went on eBay to see how much United Airlines vouchers were going for. BTW, you know you can sell those free flights you get for volunteering to get bumped? Anyway, they were going to about $350. Great deal if your reg flight is more than that.

But mine is usually right about there, so I didn't want that. Then I saw these United Airlines $100 vouchers going for $19.99. I thought it can't hurt to try it, but I kinda thought it was a scam too. So I used Buy-It-Now, and the seller emailed me the promotion code within 30 minutes.

I checked how much my flight was on United first... it was $419. Then I went right back and entered the code, and voila, $319. Simple as that. I bought and paid for my flight immediately, still fearful that the men in black were about to show up at my door and arrest me for something.

I also went right back to eBay and bought another one from the seller. Which I just used today for another flight that was $339. I used the code, and abracadabra, $239.

Not to mention I also went through United to book my Hertz reservation at the end of the month. A whole week for $143, including taxes. It's a Ford Focus, but I have a double-upgrade coupon. So for $143, we get an Impala (or similar, as they say).

So let's tally that up. It looks like $700 for TWO roundtrip tickets to Colorado Springs and a full one week car rental (which happens to be over Memorial Day weekend). Damn, I should be a travel agent. I'm a travel goddess. I'm a roaming gnomette.

So let eBay hook you up next time you need a plane ticket!!!