The travel review site Oyster Blog breaks down a Sheraton Nassau vacation deal that actually costs more than it would if you purchased the flight and hotel stay separately.

Kelsey writes in the post:

Sheraton package breakdown

* Four night stay in a resort view room + ground transportation to and from airport + taxes: $1450
* Northwest Airlines roundtrip airfare for one + taxes: $384.40
* Northwest Airlines roundtrip airfare for one: Free
* Total: $1834.40

Hardly inexpensive, but we figured it might still be cheaper than paying for everything ourselves. To check, we turned to Oyster’s handy pricing matrix and picked the cheapest hotel rate listed, from Orbitz.com. We also used Orbitz to check rates for the same Northwest Airlines flight the Sheraton representative selected for us (which was indeed, as she promised, the least expensive option). Here’s what we found:

Booking engine breakdown

* Four night stay in a resort view room: $827 ($206.75/nt)
* Hotel stay taxes: $115.64
* Ground transportation to and from airport: $64
* Two roundtrip flights on Northwest Airlines, including taxes: $582.40
* Total: $1589.04

What do you do to trim travel costs?

A package deal that ain’t no deal: The Sheraton Nassau’s “Companion Flies Free” promotion [Oyster Blog]

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