Reply #24: Maybe it's crazy but...

[Firespirit]

I don't use travel sites.

I am a bigtime "do your own research" control freak sort of person, really... I decide what sights I want to see on the trip, hit Yahoo, type in the locations, search for nearby lodging, and check out basically everything whose name I recognize to be in my price range.

(I do realize that this method doesn't appeal to too many people.)

Airline tickets, that's a different story... Right now I am located literally in the sticks. At the closest airport to me, there is one carrier, so I'm pretty limited unless I want to drive to a different airport. Anyway I'm accumulating frequent flyer miles with them and am pretty well boxed in now. :P But all in all it's the same method, I hit the airline's website and do a search for all possible itineraries, sometimes looking at more than one airport for departure.

And yes, booking early does get you some tremendous discounts.