Do Good, Save Money With BiddingForGood

My husband, already a master of Priceline bidding, has come up with another place to find travel bargains.

The website BiddingForGood hosts online auctions for nonprofit organizations. Among the items auctioned off by schools, civic organizations and other nonprofits around the country are hotel rooms and restaurant certificates.

Don’s most recent winning bid was for two nights at the Hotel Andaluz in Albuquerque (its lovely lobby is pictured here) for $75 a night. That was about half the lowest rack rate.

Want to try this site to save money and do good at the same time? A few tips:

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Sort Of Official Bradley Wildlife Strike Report

Every once in a while I feel obliged to report on the statistics gathered by the Federal Aviation Administration regarding bird strikes and other unhappy encounters between wildlife and aircraft at Bradley International Airport.

In addition to 60 bird strikes involving a range of species from larks to kestrels, there were three fatal encounters reported between aircraft and mammals in the period from May 1, 2010 to April 30, 2011. These incidents, which presumably took place on the ground, were:

• On June 23, 2010, an American Airlines 737-800 struck and killed a red fox. The 737-800 is among my least favorite aircraft, owing mainly to what I consider an unfavorable lavatory configuration for the coach passenger in the typical two-cabin layout. This incident suggests that the 737-800 is also a menace to the fox community, which does not surprise me.
• On July 19, 2010, a Virginia opossum was dispatched from this mortal sphere in a manner consistent with an encounter with an aircraft of some kind. The aircraft was not identified. I suspect a 737-800 on the grounds that there is nothing to which this bladder-torturing jet would not stoop. Marsupials, take note.
• On Oct. 15, 2010, an American Eagle Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet hit a striped skunk. This raises the question of whether there are unstriped skunks. The answer is not entirely clear. Let’s just say that some skunks are more striped than others. But none is equal to a collision with a commuter jet.

Passenger Traffic Rises At Bradley

Traffic is up 8 percent at Bradley International Airport, according to the Associated Press, from 5.2 million passengers for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010 to 5.6 million for the year that ended June 30, 2010. That’s the first time traffic at Bradley has increased since 2005, when it stood at 7.1 million, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Southwest Airlines remains the airport’s top carrier, followed closely by Delta Air Lines.

Five New ‘Best’ Small Towns

I’m a bit leery of “Top 10″ and “best” lists for travel. The methodology is usually dodgy and it’s hard to understand how the top 10 beaches or small towns or hotels could change so radically from year to year. And yet, while I don’t take them for gospel, I do often find these lists interesting. Sometimes they turn up a place I’d like to visit. USA Today’s  Five Best Small Towns in America is a case in point.

Coins In The Baptismal Font? Who Does That?

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has this sign posted at the entrance.

Check out the final item. Tourists need to be told not to throw coins into the baptismal font? Seriously?

I have seen tourists do some seriously stupid things but nothing quite that crass.

And what’s next? Please don’t drink the holy water?

Sign Of The Times In Albuquerque

I guess that covers most everything.

Megabus Restores Hartford-Boston Route

Megabus will restore service between Hartford and Boston on Aug. 17, with four trips daily, the Hartford Courant reports.

The company pulled out of Hartford altogether in 2009, abandoning it as a stop on the New York to Boston route. It returned in December 2010 with routes to New York and Amherst, Mass.

Now Boston is back, too. With the resumption of that route Megabus is giving away 1,000 free tickets. A new route between Hartford and New Haven will also start next month with four round trips daily.

The regular fares on Megabus start at $1 each way when bought well in advance, with fees bringing the total to about $2.50 round trip. It’s an incredible deal, but you have to plan ahead. Fares increase as the departure date approaches.

My sister has been a regular Megabus customer with trips between Washington and Hartford. The husband and I recently did a round trip to New York for a total of $4.50 and we just bought another at that price for Boston. The buses, by the way, are equipped with Wi-Fi.

Groupon Launches Travel Site

The new Groupon travel site has launched at groupon.com/getaways. The initial offers include a night at the Las Vegas Palms for $89 and a four-night stay at the swanky Lotus at Diamond Head in Honolulu for $500. I’m thinking the wildly successful Groupon model could become a powerful force in the travel industry.

Save On Travel Expenses With Groupon

I occasionally buy discount coupons from Groupon, mostly for eating out, but it only recently occurred to me that I could use the site for travel.

In advance of an upcoming trip to New Mexico, I started to look not only at the Hartford area deals but also those for Albuquerque, which includes some offers for Santa Fe. (Groupon says a separate site for Santa Fe is in the works.)

I found not only restaurant bargains but deeply discounted tickets for the Road Runner Express, the light rail system between the two cities.

Groupon has also announced a Groupon Getaways travel site in partnership with Expedia, but that doesn’t seem to be up and running quite yet.

Saving Cash in Las Vegas

We just got back from Las Vegas, a fun and exciting city designed entirely to suck money out of suckers’ pockets. So here are my top tips for coming home from with at least enough cash to get your car out of the airport parking lot:

1. Time it right. Las Vegas room rates are less predictable than airfares, owing not only to seasonal fluctuations but to the schedules of major conventions and other events. When choosing travel dates, plan well ahead, go directly to the hotel websites, check the rate calendars for the best prices and book those dates. In general, Fridays and Saturday nights cost more. The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a particular bargain.

2. Don’t gamble. If it weren’t a losing proposition for the gambler, casinos wouldn’t exist. If you must gamble, pick a low-stakes game with decent odds so you will lose less money and it will take longer. There’s a single-zero penny video roulette game at The Four Queens downtown where I swear it could take me all day to lose the price of a latte. At that rate, it’s cheap entertainment, not real gambling.

3. Take an airport shuttle to your hotel. The cost of $6 or $7 a person is usually lower than the cost of a taxi, unless there are more than two of you.

4. Bring enough cash. The casino ATMs typically charge $4.95 per transaction, on top of what your bank may charge you. So if you withdraw money to gamble, you’ve already lost before you start playing.

5. Tip the casino cocktail waitresses. Yes, they’ll bring you free drinks but if you don’t tip, they’ll go elsewhere. And if you give them a few bucks in advance and ask them to keep coming, they’ll do that.