Making Your Money Travel Far - Plane Tickets
By far the most expensive part of your trip is going to be transportation. And the more exotic you get, the more your plane ticket is going to cost. So before you start searching for plane tickets, ask yourself a few things:
1) What can I realistically pay? Chances are you're not going to find the ultimate golden ticket for your trip. So start to ask yourself...whats the most I'm willing to pay to get there? If you can't shell out a thousand dollars for a plane ticket to London...you're probably not going to go to London. The goal is to accept what a normal ticket costs, and then try to save yourself maybe 10%-25%. This may not seem like a lot, but when you're paying $1500+ to get to New Zealand, you're going to be glad for that 150 dollars you get to pocket.
2) Where do I want to fly from? Living in Reno, NV, we don't get a lot of flight traffic coming through these parts. Since we don't often get the direct flights to where we're going, we travel to other cities first with a larger airport. You can usually expect to add another 200-300 dollars to fly to any cities nearby: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Sacramento, etc. You may be blessed to live in one of these international hubs, but for us smaller town folks, this is somewhere we need to consider to try to find some cost savings. Driving to the nearest city may take longer, but will save you a considerable amount of money. This of course can backfire with high fees for airport parking. Taking the bus is another good option to keep it cheap to get to the next leg of your destination.
3) How many flights will I be taking? You may need to take multiple flights, not only getting there, but around the country(ies). Depending on how much you care about your inflight service, you may want to consider taking a low cost flight carrier. These will be different in every country you go to. In the U.S. you're looking at Southwest, Jetblue, or Allegiant, in Europe Ryanair is a good option, and in South America Taca, Sky Airline, and LAN are all cheap enough to consider. (Note: There are far more options to choose from, do some research and see what you find!).
4) When will I be flying? Obviously airline prices fluctuate during the year and during the destination's most popular times. If you can travel during shoulder season (not always a good idea, more to come on that), then you can find an exorberant amount of savings.
Now that you've considered what flights you need to start your vacation, I'll go through the steps I use to eventually get to the lowest price I can find.
Steps to finding a cheap flight:
Step 1: Do an overall search on a booking site (expedia, priceline, travelocity, etc.).
This will give you a ballpark estimate of what you're going to pay. A lot of factors will go into this however; how remote your location is, what time of the year you're flying, and what day you're flying on during the week. If you can be flexible on when you leave for you trip, you can find some huge cost savings in flying out on a Tuesday rather than a Friday.
Step 2: Pay attention to the airlines that come up during your search.
Most of the time, I find more cost savings on the actual airline's site than I do on a booking site. Booking sites tend to have the regular cost of a ticket, but airline sites will often have limited time discounts, and if you catch them at the right time, you can find your cost savings of 10-25%. Pay attention to what carriers come up while doing your initial search on a booking site, then go to those carriers websites and see what they are offering directly through them; you may be surprised by what you find.
Step 3: Search often, and at different parts of the day.
You may be discouraged at first at the prices you're seeing to fly to your destination. I usually allow myself a month or so to get accostumed to what I'm going to pay, and what discounted prices I can find. Try to find what other people have paid and give yourself a REALISTIC goal. And when you search, don't check every Monday at noon. I've seen prices drop on flights consistantly during the day, and have bought some of my best airline tickets late at night.
Step 4: If you think you've got a good deal, go for it!
Often, a better one isn't going to come along as long as you realize how much you should be paying. There may be times that the golden ticket shows up later on, but don't be dissapointed; you still had some major savings.
**note: I always check to see what the cancelation policy is on anything I buy before hand. If you find a deal that comes along that will save you more money AND will cover your cancellation fee, than go for it! The hassel is usually worth the extra cash.**
Step 5: Keep your eye open even after your ticket is bought.
You read my note above right? Good. This not only goes for trying to save money on something you've already bought, but also on any changes you may want to make. You may stumble across something you want to add to your vacation along the way that you can't live without! See if you can change your flight to incorperate it; it might just be the best decision you've ever made.
1) What can I realistically pay? Chances are you're not going to find the ultimate golden ticket for your trip. So start to ask yourself...whats the most I'm willing to pay to get there? If you can't shell out a thousand dollars for a plane ticket to London...you're probably not going to go to London. The goal is to accept what a normal ticket costs, and then try to save yourself maybe 10%-25%. This may not seem like a lot, but when you're paying $1500+ to get to New Zealand, you're going to be glad for that 150 dollars you get to pocket.
2) Where do I want to fly from? Living in Reno, NV, we don't get a lot of flight traffic coming through these parts. Since we don't often get the direct flights to where we're going, we travel to other cities first with a larger airport. You can usually expect to add another 200-300 dollars to fly to any cities nearby: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Sacramento, etc. You may be blessed to live in one of these international hubs, but for us smaller town folks, this is somewhere we need to consider to try to find some cost savings. Driving to the nearest city may take longer, but will save you a considerable amount of money. This of course can backfire with high fees for airport parking. Taking the bus is another good option to keep it cheap to get to the next leg of your destination.
3) How many flights will I be taking? You may need to take multiple flights, not only getting there, but around the country(ies). Depending on how much you care about your inflight service, you may want to consider taking a low cost flight carrier. These will be different in every country you go to. In the U.S. you're looking at Southwest, Jetblue, or Allegiant, in Europe Ryanair is a good option, and in South America Taca, Sky Airline, and LAN are all cheap enough to consider. (Note: There are far more options to choose from, do some research and see what you find!).
4) When will I be flying? Obviously airline prices fluctuate during the year and during the destination's most popular times. If you can travel during shoulder season (not always a good idea, more to come on that), then you can find an exorberant amount of savings.
Now that you've considered what flights you need to start your vacation, I'll go through the steps I use to eventually get to the lowest price I can find.
Steps to finding a cheap flight:
Step 1: Do an overall search on a booking site (expedia, priceline, travelocity, etc.).
This will give you a ballpark estimate of what you're going to pay. A lot of factors will go into this however; how remote your location is, what time of the year you're flying, and what day you're flying on during the week. If you can be flexible on when you leave for you trip, you can find some huge cost savings in flying out on a Tuesday rather than a Friday.
Step 2: Pay attention to the airlines that come up during your search.
Most of the time, I find more cost savings on the actual airline's site than I do on a booking site. Booking sites tend to have the regular cost of a ticket, but airline sites will often have limited time discounts, and if you catch them at the right time, you can find your cost savings of 10-25%. Pay attention to what carriers come up while doing your initial search on a booking site, then go to those carriers websites and see what they are offering directly through them; you may be surprised by what you find.
Step 3: Search often, and at different parts of the day.
You may be discouraged at first at the prices you're seeing to fly to your destination. I usually allow myself a month or so to get accostumed to what I'm going to pay, and what discounted prices I can find. Try to find what other people have paid and give yourself a REALISTIC goal. And when you search, don't check every Monday at noon. I've seen prices drop on flights consistantly during the day, and have bought some of my best airline tickets late at night.
Step 4: If you think you've got a good deal, go for it!
Often, a better one isn't going to come along as long as you realize how much you should be paying. There may be times that the golden ticket shows up later on, but don't be dissapointed; you still had some major savings.
**note: I always check to see what the cancelation policy is on anything I buy before hand. If you find a deal that comes along that will save you more money AND will cover your cancellation fee, than go for it! The hassel is usually worth the extra cash.**
Step 5: Keep your eye open even after your ticket is bought.
You read my note above right? Good. This not only goes for trying to save money on something you've already bought, but also on any changes you may want to make. You may stumble across something you want to add to your vacation along the way that you can't live without! See if you can change your flight to incorperate it; it might just be the best decision you've ever made.
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