Last-Minute Travel Booking for the Professional Procrastinator

During the cold winter months, its easy to think of being anywhere but home. You may wish that you were in a beachfront condo or on an island fishing in the sun.

If you’re thinking of jetting off someplace warm, check out these last-minute travel tips for booking flights:

Contact an Airline

While your first thought may be to go to a discount travel booking site, don’t think so fast. During the holidays many major airlines offer some killer travel deals that you won’t be able to snag any other time of the year.

JetBlue recently ended its 12 Days of Deals promotion, but is still offering discount services with its Best Fare Finder service, which can help you book discount flights to the U.S., Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

United is also offering discount flights out of many American cities for as low as $121 roundtrip.

If you’re hoping to rack up some points from American Airlines, you may be in luck with some of these last minute flight options to luxury resports like Atlantis on Paradise Island or the Secrets Resorts and Spas throughout the Caribbean.

Look at Travel Sites

While there usually aren’t any discounts on top of the prices that travel sites like Kayak or Orbitz already offer, these sites are usually good about aggregating as many potential trips as possible and helping you file through and choose the most viable option.

Right now, Orbitz is actually running a special that gives a 50% discount for a number of flights to the Caribbean.

The upside to using these sites is that you can book all of your vacation rental accommodations all at once — from your flight, to your hotel or condo, to a rental car.

While you may not be able to book a vacation at the last minute, you can surely look at vacation rentals for the year ahead and give yourself something to look forward to. But even if you’re booking last-minute, your trip could still be possible.

Sometimes it pays to be a procrastinator. Take a stab at it and look into vacation rentals to leave holiday stress behind, escape the snow and cold, and take off to white sand beaches and crystal clear blue waters.