thrift travel- via air
I have finally been able to pursue a few of my life-long traveling goals.
On my journey to obtain this goal I have learned a few things.
Things any traveler ought to know.
So I'm sharing.
Please ask questions and I'll answer.
I'll discuss specifics of cities we've been, but also broader topics I think people would find interesting.
First, let's discuss air travel.
When we went to Europe we spent $376 rt for our flights.
Let me tell you how.
The tips and tricks I've learned:
1. Be willing to fly out of airports that aren't in your home city.
2. Shop around
3. Sign up for emails/price alerts
4. Use promo codes
5. Rewards points
6. Booking time
7. Know pricing
8. Be flexible
9. Go in the off-season
#1
Be willing to fly out of airports that aren't in your home city.
Look at other airports you can get to for cheap from your home airport.
I've found flights for $400 cheaper or more from airports I can get to for cheap.
This trick is especially useful for people buying more than 1-2 tickets.
Example:
Our home airport would be SLC.
Denver, LAX, and Las Vegas often have foreign deals for hundreds of dollars cheaper.
I can fly to these airports for <$100 or around $100.
Which could save me $400 per flight, depending on the flight.
I spend $400 to get to these airports, but I save $400 per flight (=$1200, so $800 total after cost). That's a whole weeks worth of accommodations somewhere foreign or a whole trip somewhere else.
You may ask, how do we coordinate these flights.
You do have to plan your flight to the airport you're other flight departs from so you'll have time to get to your other flight.
This can be tricky.
The good news is you shouldn't have to go back through security.
Most foreign flights from non-airline hubs will have a stopover.
By flying from a non-airline hub to an airline-hub you could potentially bypass layovers.
You're flight could take less time or it could be just the same amount of time as if you were flying from your home airport but cost you hundreds of dollars less.
#2
Shop Around
I most often check google.com/flights from here I will check out the cheapest dates on momondo.com, kayak.com, and the airline's website.
Southwest is a great airline that you must visit their site to see their prices.
By cross checking your initial search you can make sure your getting the best deal.
#3
Sign up for emails/price alerts
When you're really serious about booking a trip you can set up price alerts on a bunch of different search engines.
I also have signed up for a few emails and follow an instagram account that post flight deals. (I've hyperlinked them below).
scottscheapflights.com (email)
pomelotravel.com (email)
flightsfromhome (instagram)
frontierairlines.com (email)
If you have a favorite airline you can sign up for their email too.
I follow frontier because they have some crazy discount codes and fly cheap from SLC. (We flew to Chicago for $20 one-way one time. They are a discount airline though so this should be taken in to consideration.)
Scott's Cheap Flights and Pomelo send me email alerts for deals.
I don't pay for subscriptions. If I wanted to go a specific place I may consider paying for their subscriptions.
These sites often run deals during thanksgiving or Christmas to get their subscription for cheap.
They don't always list the cities I'd travel from in their deals, but often these cities also have cheaper flights to these destinations available.
So, if I see a cheap deal out of New York to Paris I'll look out of Denver or SLC too and sometimes they will also have cheaper flights.
flightsfromhome posts on instagram deals from different cities.
Using these sources and looking at google.com/flights is how I usually find my greatest deals. I use google.com/flights quite religiously.
#4
Promo Codes
They are the secret trick for deeply discounted tickets.
I most often use them on frontier airlines. I've also used them on southwest.
For example, our family of 4 flew to Dallas, TX for $412 rt.
It could cost this much for one person to fly.
We also flew to Chicago last Fall for $20 one-way. We had some points we used for the return flight or we could have purchased $40 rt tickets from SLC.
These type of deals won't usually show up unless you put in a promo code.
Usually you have to fly on a certain day and within a certain time frame to use promo code deals.
Make sure you read the fine print so you search the specifics for the deal so it will work.
#5
Rewards Points
I am a believer in rewards credit cards- but ONLY if they are always paid off.
Southwest's point system is the best one I've found so far.
Dale and I both signed up for separate cards and got points (5 years ago) and we still haven't used them all.
We've flow to New York and California more than once, Denver, and Chicago. For free.
Delta's is pretty much worthless.... not only does it cost an outrageous amount of points to go anywhere, but they also charge you an outrageous fee.
So I'm anti-Delta rewards points unless you're trying to fly foreign from SLC..... but I do love flying Delta.
If you can control your spending then signing up for rewards credit cards are a great way to fly places for nearly free (you'll have to pay the taxes and fees).
#6
Booking Time
Not all browsing times are equal.
Nor are all travel days equal.....
I have found that usually weekends are a bad time to look for flights. During the week is usually much better.
Same goes with flying.
Friday travel is often more expensive than Thursday, and Tuesday is better than Sunday.
I always look at a price calendar to see which days are best for my intended travel.
By going on a Saturday instead of a Friday you can sometimes save a couple hundred dollars.
#7
Knowing pricing
It's important to know a good deal when you see one and to book it immediately when you do. Say you want to go to Australia- tickets are usually $1000 or more, you see a flight deal for $400- if you weren't aware that it's usually $1000 then you wouldn't know $400 is a crazy deal. It pays to know how much flights usually are so when you see a deal you know how good it is.
#8
Be Flexible
This isn't always a possibility, but being flexible can save you a lot of money and provide a lot of opportunities in travel.
These are a few of my tips for finding cheap flights. I'll do a post about other airline travel tips in another post. Please let me know in the comments section if you have any specific questions. I'll also put together a step by step of what I do to find a cheap flight including pictures. I'll put together a more detailed post of this post with pictures and things to help make more sense of this post. Until then, let me know if I can help in any way to help you travel for cheap!
#9
Go in the off-season
There are a few perks to flying in the off-season.
1. Less people.
2. Cheaper everything.
3. Less people.
4. No crowds.
5. Cheaper.
If you can- go in the off peak season.... Even if you go a week or so prior to peak season you still get the good weather but for a lot cheaper and with a lot fewer people. I shouldn't tell you this fact because then the off-season will become the on-season, but trust me, try to travel off peak season.
These are some of the main tips I'd give to anyone looking to find cheap flights. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'd love to help!
On my journey to obtain this goal I have learned a few things.
Things any traveler ought to know.
So I'm sharing.
Please ask questions and I'll answer.
I'll discuss specifics of cities we've been, but also broader topics I think people would find interesting.
First, let's discuss air travel.
When we went to Europe we spent $376 rt for our flights.
Let me tell you how.
The tips and tricks I've learned:
1. Be willing to fly out of airports that aren't in your home city.
2. Shop around
3. Sign up for emails/price alerts
4. Use promo codes
5. Rewards points
6. Booking time
7. Know pricing
8. Be flexible
9. Go in the off-season
#1
Be willing to fly out of airports that aren't in your home city.
Look at other airports you can get to for cheap from your home airport.
I've found flights for $400 cheaper or more from airports I can get to for cheap.
This trick is especially useful for people buying more than 1-2 tickets.
Example:
Our home airport would be SLC.
Denver, LAX, and Las Vegas often have foreign deals for hundreds of dollars cheaper.
I can fly to these airports for <$100 or around $100.
Which could save me $400 per flight, depending on the flight.
I spend $400 to get to these airports, but I save $400 per flight (=$1200, so $800 total after cost). That's a whole weeks worth of accommodations somewhere foreign or a whole trip somewhere else.
You may ask, how do we coordinate these flights.
You do have to plan your flight to the airport you're other flight departs from so you'll have time to get to your other flight.
This can be tricky.
The good news is you shouldn't have to go back through security.
Most foreign flights from non-airline hubs will have a stopover.
By flying from a non-airline hub to an airline-hub you could potentially bypass layovers.
You're flight could take less time or it could be just the same amount of time as if you were flying from your home airport but cost you hundreds of dollars less.
#2
Shop Around
I most often check google.com/flights from here I will check out the cheapest dates on momondo.com, kayak.com, and the airline's website.
Southwest is a great airline that you must visit their site to see their prices.
By cross checking your initial search you can make sure your getting the best deal.
#3
Sign up for emails/price alerts
When you're really serious about booking a trip you can set up price alerts on a bunch of different search engines.
I also have signed up for a few emails and follow an instagram account that post flight deals. (I've hyperlinked them below).
scottscheapflights.com (email)
pomelotravel.com (email)
flightsfromhome (instagram)
frontierairlines.com (email)
If you have a favorite airline you can sign up for their email too.
I follow frontier because they have some crazy discount codes and fly cheap from SLC. (We flew to Chicago for $20 one-way one time. They are a discount airline though so this should be taken in to consideration.)
Scott's Cheap Flights and Pomelo send me email alerts for deals.
I don't pay for subscriptions. If I wanted to go a specific place I may consider paying for their subscriptions.
These sites often run deals during thanksgiving or Christmas to get their subscription for cheap.
They don't always list the cities I'd travel from in their deals, but often these cities also have cheaper flights to these destinations available.
So, if I see a cheap deal out of New York to Paris I'll look out of Denver or SLC too and sometimes they will also have cheaper flights.
flightsfromhome posts on instagram deals from different cities.
Using these sources and looking at google.com/flights is how I usually find my greatest deals. I use google.com/flights quite religiously.
#4
Promo Codes
They are the secret trick for deeply discounted tickets.
I most often use them on frontier airlines. I've also used them on southwest.
For example, our family of 4 flew to Dallas, TX for $412 rt.
It could cost this much for one person to fly.
We also flew to Chicago last Fall for $20 one-way. We had some points we used for the return flight or we could have purchased $40 rt tickets from SLC.
These type of deals won't usually show up unless you put in a promo code.
Usually you have to fly on a certain day and within a certain time frame to use promo code deals.
Make sure you read the fine print so you search the specifics for the deal so it will work.
#5
Rewards Points
I am a believer in rewards credit cards- but ONLY if they are always paid off.
Southwest's point system is the best one I've found so far.
Dale and I both signed up for separate cards and got points (5 years ago) and we still haven't used them all.
We've flow to New York and California more than once, Denver, and Chicago. For free.
Delta's is pretty much worthless.... not only does it cost an outrageous amount of points to go anywhere, but they also charge you an outrageous fee.
So I'm anti-Delta rewards points unless you're trying to fly foreign from SLC..... but I do love flying Delta.
If you can control your spending then signing up for rewards credit cards are a great way to fly places for nearly free (you'll have to pay the taxes and fees).
#6
Booking Time
Not all browsing times are equal.
Nor are all travel days equal.....
I have found that usually weekends are a bad time to look for flights. During the week is usually much better.
Same goes with flying.
Friday travel is often more expensive than Thursday, and Tuesday is better than Sunday.
I always look at a price calendar to see which days are best for my intended travel.
By going on a Saturday instead of a Friday you can sometimes save a couple hundred dollars.
#7
Knowing pricing
It's important to know a good deal when you see one and to book it immediately when you do. Say you want to go to Australia- tickets are usually $1000 or more, you see a flight deal for $400- if you weren't aware that it's usually $1000 then you wouldn't know $400 is a crazy deal. It pays to know how much flights usually are so when you see a deal you know how good it is.
#8
Be Flexible
This isn't always a possibility, but being flexible can save you a lot of money and provide a lot of opportunities in travel.
These are a few of my tips for finding cheap flights. I'll do a post about other airline travel tips in another post. Please let me know in the comments section if you have any specific questions. I'll also put together a step by step of what I do to find a cheap flight including pictures. I'll put together a more detailed post of this post with pictures and things to help make more sense of this post. Until then, let me know if I can help in any way to help you travel for cheap!
#9
Go in the off-season
There are a few perks to flying in the off-season.
1. Less people.
2. Cheaper everything.
3. Less people.
4. No crowds.
5. Cheaper.
If you can- go in the off peak season.... Even if you go a week or so prior to peak season you still get the good weather but for a lot cheaper and with a lot fewer people. I shouldn't tell you this fact because then the off-season will become the on-season, but trust me, try to travel off peak season.
These are some of the main tips I'd give to anyone looking to find cheap flights. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'd love to help!
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