I've been lurking and posting on this forum for years, scraping by on budget trips from hostels in Southeast Asia to no-frills flights across Europe, and I'm getting tired of the endless cheerleading for big sites like Expedia's last-minute deals. Everyone acts like they're the holy grail for spontaneous travel hacks, but let's be real-aren't these "deals" often just overhyped inventory dumps that barely beat regular prices once you factor in the baggage fees, resort charges, and that sneaky "service" markup they slap on at checkout?
I just poked around their site for a weekend getaway from NYC to Miami, and the so-called 40% off flight+hotel bundle looked shiny until I crunched the numbers: it came out to $450 after taxes, while piecing it together via Southwest's app and a cheap Airbnb search got me under $350 without the hassle of Expedia's clunky cancellation policies. Is anyone else seeing through this? Have you actually landed a verifiable steal from their last-minute section in the past year that couldn't be matched (or beaten) by going direct with airlines or smaller OTAs like Kayak or even Google Flights? Or is the whole thing just a trap to lure in impulse bookers while the real budget pros stick to fare alerts and off-peak planning? Spill the beans-I'm skeptical, but open to being proven wrong.