The Ultimate Guide To Cheap Travel
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If you'll be traveling by air, you can get the best deals by staying at least 7 days, including a Saturday night stayover, and leaving and returning on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. A single day's difference can mean big savings.
You can find out the optimum dates for your time window by using the search form at Travelocity. Choose the 'flexible dates' option, then look at the 'Latest Travel' date listed next to each airline. Your goal will be to keep your departure and return dates as close to the Latest Travel date as possible. This will help you get the best price.
THE BENEFITS OF GETTING BUMPED
You can score cash or a free ticket for future travel, if you keep your plans flexible. Airlines overbook and that means that you could volunteer to get "bumped":
Bumping - Traveler's Resource Center
HOW ALTERNATE AIRPORTS CAN HELP
Now you know the best dates and times for your travel. Your departure and arrival airports can make a big difference in price, too. The savings are often worth an extra hour or two of driving.
Now you're ready to check for the lowest fares. The companies listed below use a number of different ways to bring you the lowest fares. Some are consolidators, also known as bucket shops. They buy tickets in bulk at wholesale prices.
Others work with numerous partners, letting competition do the work. Still others keep an eye on the airlines every move, letting their visitors in on money-saving scoops. Regardless of how they do it, these sites offer some of the cheapest fares on the Web:
BestFares.com
Cheap Seats Travel
HotWire
Flights.com
LastMinuteTravel.com
OneTravel.com
Smarter Living
Travelocity
TripSpot.com
Yahoo Farechase
For international travel, try Economy Travel.
Fare searches typically check the major airlines only. There are lots of other airlines out there!
Popular budget airlines:
Airline Websites - Independent Traveler
Here's a quick way to find which European budget carrier you need.
If you have a fair amount of flexibility, try AirHitch for travel to and from Europe, Hawaii & the Caribbean.
Are you interested in international destinations? Are you close to an international gateway airport, or can you get there cheaply? Then you might consider becoming a freelance air courier. You can pull off some hefty savings this way and may, with some luck, get to fly free! It's all in the articles below:
The 5 Biggest Myths About Air Courier Travel - Intrepid Traveler
Courier FAQ - The Los Angeles Times
Courier Services - JobMonkey.com
If convenience is important, others can do most of the work for you, but you'll have to pay some sort of fee:
Key To The Airways is a guide to consolidator and courier flights. It's received courier praise as the most complete list available. They also offer a lowest published courier airfare guarantee.
The IAATC (The International Association Of Air Travel Couriers) offers a Members Only website with regularly updated courier company lists, schedules and fares. The IAATC is the oldest courier association.
The ACA (Air Courier Association) offers similar benefits, as well access to other bargain fares. They've been recommended by a Frommer's article.
Courier Travel gives non-members access to their courier fare search engine. The best deals are standby flights, which have a grey background, although these can be hard to find. Joining Courier Travel will give you access to all the details. They've been recommended by a New York Times article.
For those willing to invest the time, frequent flyer miles can be the ticket to great airfares. You can earn all the miles you need without even flying!:
If you're satisfied that you've found the lowest fare available, reverse bidding services are worth a look before you finalize things. To use the sites below, you make an offer and see if they accept it. Some flexibility on dates, flight times and the number of connections could net you big savings. You must agree in advance to complete the purchase if they meet your price. Tickets are non-refundable:
