A helpful new guide to summer vacation planning

Marriott, Best Western, and InterContinental are among the large hotel companies rolling out the discounts to entice travelers to stay at their properties this summer. With Marriott's Global Rate Break promotion, you get 20 percent off weekend stays at more than 2,500 of its properties, including Fairfield Inns, JW Marriotts, and other brands. You've got to book soon—by June 2—and the offer is valid on Fridays and Saturdays through September 7. Even though you must book early, your credit card isn't charged right away, and there's no penalty to cancel. Use promo code F5X when booking. Best Western, meanwhile, has another summer promotion that must be acted on soon. If you stay two nights at any of its properties by June 14, you'll get a $50 Best Western travel card. While you must stay the two nights by June 14, the card is good for use at any Best Western through July of 2010. InterContinental, which includes brands like Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, and Candlewood Suites, has a third-night free promotion. Here's how it works: You stay two nights at any of its properties by July 3, and then you receive a free night that can be used at any property between July 3 and December 26. The only catch is that you must select to receive either the free night or double InterContinental Priority Club Reward points—you can't get both. Either way, it's an excellent deal. To get either bonus, register at getafreenight.com before making a reservation. We've mentioned this InterContinental hotel offer before, along with a few other fun hotel promotions. And in Budget Travel's June issue story "Extra! Extra!", you'll find more sweet hotel deals, with free nights, cash cards, and special loyalty point redemption promos.

JetAmerica, an upstart airline modeled after Europe's Ryanair, is going the ultra-cheap route to get our attention—and it's working. For departures starting in July, every flight has nine seats that sell for $9 apiece. And yes, we were able to find availability on several dates. JetAmerica only flies to a handful of airports: Newark (N.J.); Toledo; Minneapolis-St.Paul; Lansing, Mich.; South Bend; and Melbourne, Fla. While we were able to find several dates offered at $9 each way, it was more typical to put together a round trip at $9 one way, and either $49 or $59 on the other. Even so, you've got a round trip for under $100, including all taxes and fees. And if you are flexible enough to snag the $9 fare in both directions—which we were on round trips between Lansing and Melbourne, for example—your total comes to just under $50. JetAmerica is the latest carrier to enter the market while flying under the radar—which happens to be the headline of Budget Travel's recent story about other intriguing upstarts. These airlines tend to work with B-list airports, hoping to find niches overlooked by the bigger carriers. One of the airlines in that story is USA3000, which is itself having quite a sale: from $99 each way to Cancun, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, or Puerto Vallarta, from U.S. gateways in the Northeast and Midwest. Check out these deals at jetamerica.com and usa3000.com. EARLIER Airlines that fly under the radar…and offer bargains

In April, Expedia eliminated its online airfare booking fees temporarily through this month. Today the online agency stopped charging these fees for good. Travelers may save as much as $30 per car, hotel, or flights for bookings made via expedia.com bookings. (But phone bookings will now cost $20, reports Dennis Schaal.) What's more, Expedia has eliminated change fees and cancel fees on hotel, rental car, and cruise bookings. The same is true for flights, except for flights that are part of vacation packages will still have change fees and cancel fees.