Budget-travel tips for great golf trips

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Time to spare? Chronically overbooking airlines will often offer you a deal to wait for a less-crowded flight. (Courtesy Marc Navarro)

The Cheap Bastard is always on the lookout for a deal. You'll usually find my many musings and brilliant savings ideas at my Budget Golf blog. But once in a while - say, as we ease into a new year - El Cheapo needs a bigger forum to dispense the full panorama of his penny-pinching wisdom.

Just as the Cheap Bastard will never stop going to buffets regardless of his expanding waistline, Americans have shown time and again that nothing will keep them from traveling. Despite several years of escalating fuel prices, Americans continue to vacation by land, air and sea.

So it appears for 2007. Here are a few travel tips to squeeze your vacation budget without cramping your style.

At the airport

Seasoned air travelers know that the moment you step into the airport, you begin a game within a game. Until you actually board, there's still time to get some deals and save some money.

Overbooking is an air-traffic reality that can work to your advantage if how (or how cheaply) you reach your destination is more important than when. Dollar-savvy travelers go to the airport braced to be bumped.

In fact, as soon as you get to the gate, ask if your flight has been overbooked. If so, the airline will always have an offer. If you don't like the first one, wait them out - the closer to takeoff, the better the deal. If you don't mind the waiting game, you could snag an upgrade to a higher class on that later flight, or a free ticket for future use.

If time is a priority, you can save it by finding your airport's less-used security checkpoints. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration lists every U.S. airport's checkpoints, and their average wait times, at its Web site. Another time-saver: Hotels attached to airports have separate screening areas, which any traveler can use.

Hitting the hotel

These days it's harder and harder to book a room anywhere but the Internet. Any good online hunt for cheap lodging needs to start at reseller sites like Travelocity and Expedia.

For those times you can pick up a phone, eschew the 800 number and call the hotel directly. The chains' national call-center operators do not always the most up-to-date info on vacancies and deals; on-site management does. Go to the source.

Want a room upgrade? At the front desk, play nice. Talk about how excited you are to be spending this great event (feel free to tell them it's a wedding anniversary, birthday, etc.) at their hotel. Make small talk, offer compliments - the payoff might just be a nicer room. It's far from foolproof, but it happens more often than you might think.

Golf packages

A good packager can set you up at the course you want to play and the hotel you want to stay in for less than if you did it yourself, and with plenty of added perks. Take a look at WorldGolf.com's list of globe-spanning packagers for more information.

January 17, 2007