<p>watergirl, did you book through expedia? I learned the hard way that expedia, travelocity and other sites I used to use extensively are actually bucket shops – in case of change of plans due to emergency, no airline honors their tickets. I got stranded in Paris, when Air France would not switch an expedia ticket, because it was not a ‘legitimate’ ticket. There was this also:
[Business</a> & Technology | Expedia ordered to pay $184 million in lawsuit over hotel taxes, fee | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009286951_webexpedia01.html]Business”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009286951_webexpedia01.html)
We check out costs using SideStep, (and my S likes Kayak dot com) and book with the airline directly. For hotels, I used to always use my Hilton Honors membership, but they are changing their policy so that it’s tied to their credit card. Forget that! I look at TripAdvisor and use memberships or AAA. Soon I’ll be eligible for AARP discounts, booyeah!</p>
<p>In Orl. we chose a hotel that had a partnership with Sea World, which was a deal when factoring in the cost of Sea World tickets, the breakfast and the shuttle (avoids the $12 parking). All the parks have hotel partnerships, and those can be really good, depending.</p>