CHEAP FLIGHTS 101

Ugh…the one thing I hate about traveling are the ridiculous flight prices but if you are willing to do some work and have some flexibility...Keep on reading!

Tip Number One

My husband and I flew to Costa Rica last November and I used the link below to find the least expensive day to fly. The website is called http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ evidently this is some top secret (maybe, not really) software that travel agents use to locate cheap flights for their clients. Click on the link, insert you departure city and destination…and *here is the critical part*…click “see calendar of lowest fares”. Select the day you would like to depart and how many nights you plan to stay and voila! You have yourself a calendar that maps out the cost to fly on each day of that month. This is the part where flexibility comes into play. Say you wanted to fly out on Friday, November 18th but those flights are currently $688. If you look at the week before…Friday, November 11th is selling for $363.00. Flexibility tells me, I need to select the $363 and plan my trip accordingly.

Tip Numero Dos

If you can help it, try not to fly out on a Thursday or Friday. The flights typically cost more because those are the days most people fly. If you are flexible, fly out on a Tuesday or Wednesday…something real random.

Tip Number Three

Shoot for the middle seat on the flight. Everyone hates the middle seat but the middle seat costs less than the window and aisle seat. If you do not mind being between two strangers, purchase the middle seat and be on your way to paradise!

Tip Number Four

Sign up for price alerts on skyscanner.com and airfarewatchdog.com. Click the link, setup an account, and go to the price alerts section. Enter the cities/travel dates and skyscanner will send you an email every time the price fluctuates for that particular route. THISSSS is how I found out the $600 flights to Belize for our wedding had dropped to $94.30. We promptly purchased them.

Tip Number Five

This brings me to my next point…stop sitting around and waiting for whoever or whatever. When you see a deal BUY IT! It will not be there when you return. I can pretty much promise that. Do you know how disappointed our wedding guests were when they realized they missed out on a $94.30 opportunity? Quite a few people ended up paying $500-$700 for the same flight ….Learn from their mistake and stop breaking the bank for flights! Stop thinking about it, stop waiting until next week, stop waiting until so an so does whatever…..Just shut up and go!

Tip Number Six

Flightdeals.com and Travelzoo.com are your friends. They will send weekly emails with the top 20 travel deals/flights. If you have a preferred airline, they are also your friend, sign up for their emails and follow them on twitter. The airlines are good about announcing deals via social media and you must be ready to pounce. Sign up for Groupon.com and LivingSocial.com because they too are your friends but again be ready to act upon any deals. Do you catch my drift??

Tip Number Seven

Another way to save your coins is to fly into smaller, nearby airports. For example, instead of flying into JFK-NYC…Fly into the nearby airport of LaGuardia and take your $20 UBER to your hotel, hostel, Airbnb etc. As many times as I have flown to New York; I have never stepped foot into JFK LOL.

I am sure I am leaving something out so feel free to leave additional tips in the comments below! These are definitely my “go to” methods when planning trips and I have been very successful in finding “cheap flights” with the exception of Bora Bora…but that is a post for another time. Print these tips, test them out, and come back and let me know how it worked out for you!

Until next time….

Jassmin