Can’t find affordable airfare? Try adding a hotel room.

 I’ve been poking around for a while trying to find and affordable and reasonable flight to Lisbon from San Francisco. The best I could find was in the $800s, with an overnight layover each direction in Istanbul. When I go into the less cumbersome itineraries, I could not find anything below $1400. I kept thinking I could hammer out a better deal – fly to a hub, and RyanAir it in to Lisbon, or something like. But then I ran a search on Orbitz including both airfare and hotel. Right out of the gate, my per person price went down to $630. Yes, for flight AND a room. I upgraded just a bit, to get a highly rated apartment and a great itinerary with minimal layovers, and bingo, our family of four is going to Lisbon for Thanksgiving week for $3000. I am hoping this is a trick I can repeat at a later date.