The advertised package price is built from the least desirable version of every choice, and the gap to what you will actually pay is predictable.
Airlines price the last three weeks upward on purpose, so the late-booking strategies that work for hotels and cruises do the opposite here.
Miami flights are cheap and Miami itself is not, and the transport cost after landing surprises people more than the hotel rate.
All-inclusive is good value in isolated resorts and expensive countries, and a way of paying extra to eat worse in Spain or Thailand.
London has six airports and the cheapest fare frequently lands at the one furthest away, where the transfer erases the saving.
Vegas advertises low room rates and adds a mandatory resort fee that can exceed the room, which makes the headline price close to meaningless.
Cancún has the sharpest seasonal price swing of any major leisure route, and the cheapest months are the ones people are told to avoid.
Most deal-hunting effort goes into the smallest lines. Ranked by actual money saved, the order is almost the reverse of where people spend their time.
Europe from North America has a clear price floor by season and route, and knowing the number is what lets you recognise a fare worth booking.
A discount measured against a rack rate nobody pays is not a discount, and most of the travel industry's headline savings work exactly that way.
Alert services don't find cheaper fares than you can — they tell you a route dropped while you were doing something else, which is the entire value.
A Thai resort advertising 60 percent off is telling you something true and something misleading at the same time. Here is how to work out which part is which.