In my last post, I shared how I add money to our budget so that we can afford to travel. Affording travel is really two-fold. Adding money to the budget is the first step but the second step is really making sure that money goes as far as possible. Today I’m going to share with you some tips for making that money go a bit further.
Finding Cheap Flights
Flights are generally our biggest expense which probably isn’t surprising for any one who has booked a flight before. If you just search for a flight without too much forethought, you might experience a little bit of sticker shock but it really isn’t necessary to spend exorbitant amounts of money to fly.
The first thing I do to reduce the costs of our flights is to monitor flights like it is my second job. Now, this really doesn’t take as much time as you might think. There’s an app for that, as they say!
The first thing I do is set up price alerts on an app called Hopper and on Google Flights. Both of these services will alert you when the price drops on the flights you are looking at. As soon as you know when and where you are planning to travel, set up a flight watch on one or both of these services. The earlier you set alerts, the more likely you are to score some great deals. In 2018, Daniel and I took a trip to London and Paris. We were monitoring our flights more than six months in advance. One night we got an alert that our flight prices had fallen to a little less than $500 a person. We booked two round trip tickets from our home airport in Arkansas to London for around $1100 after fees and taxes! That’s an incredible price!
The Hopper app also lets you see calendars with price predictions which is useful if your travel dates are flexible. If you are just traveling for vacation, consider being flexible with your dates. For example, it is much cheaper to fly on Tuesdays so it might be better to leave or come home on a Tuesday rather than a weekend. It is cheaper to travel at different times of the month as well and different times of the year. Hopper does a pretty good job at giving you a visual of when it will be cheaper to fly to your preferred destination.
Another fun tip that you find out when you start using price trackers is that you find some of the lowest flight prices in the middle of the night. I often wake up to tons of alerts that flights I’m watching have dropped in price while I was sleeping. Good news if you are a night owl!
Be Flexible With Your Airports
I’ve also found that choosing to fly from different airports, even if it means a couple hours of driving, makes a huge difference as well. For example, we have two airports within an hour or so of our home. Those airports are convenient but small and thus expensive sometimes. If I want to travel to London, which is a city I visit frequently, it would generally cost me about a minimum of $1000 a person with a 10 hour layover. That’s almost 20 total hours of travel time. However, if I chose to drive roughly four hours to Dallas and then fly to London, I could save up to $500 a person depending on when I booked the tickets and save me 6+ hours of travel time since there is nonstop flight from Dallas to London. Yes, it will cost me gas and money to leave my car at the Dallas airport but that usually totals less than $100 which still puts me ahead by $400+. The money saved increases depending on the number of people traveling and carpooling to the airport. I always make sure to “shop” all the airports that are within a reasonable driving distance. I probably wouldn’t drive more than four hours or so.
Switch Airlines During Your Layover
It is also possible to get creative and switch airlines at the airport. This option is a little bit riskier due to flight delays. When I traveled to Europe last summer, I booked a flight from Arkansas to Chicago round trip for $200. I planned carefully and booked a separate round trip flight from Chicago to London for $500. My total round trip cost was $700 a person which is a wonderful price especially for summer travel.
To make this work, I had to be very careful that I had a 3+ hour layover between flights at the Chicago airport. That long of a layover allowed me to get across the airport since the airlines I used didn’t have terminals near each other. Planning for a long layover also gives you a cushion in the event your first flight is delayed. If your tickets are booked separately, the airlines are not obligated to rebook you onto a new flight if your first flight is delayed and you miss your second flight which could end up costing you a lot more money to get on a new flight.
This method of travel also works well for people who only travel with carry-ons and are okay with checking in for your flights on a mobile device so you don’t have to leave the secure area of the airport during your layover. Because your flights won’t be booked on one booking, checking a bag will only get it to the next airport. In order to check a bag traveling this way, you would need to make sure that you allow enough time to claim your bag at the baggage claim, leave the secure area of the airport, get to your new terminal, check your bag, and then go through security again. Make sure you leave time for this process if you plan to check a bag.
Other General Tips for Finding Cheap Flights
When you are searching for flights, use the Google Chrome browser in the incognito mode. Airline websites track your cookies and the more you search for flights, the more the price increases. Incognito helps prevent this.
There are lots of services out there that monitor flights prices and alert you via email daily of cheap flights or “error fares.” Most of these subscription services require a monthly or yearly fee. I have never tried these services but have considered them. I think they would work well for people that are pretty flexible with the dates that they are free to travel and are flexible with where they would like to travel but if you have set travel dates or destinations in mind these services may not be worth the fees. If I decide to try one of these services in the future, I’ll be sure to report back and let you know what I think.
Don’t be afraid to try new airlines. If your goal is to get from point A to point B as cheaply as possible there are several budget airline options available. Just be prepared that those budget airlines come with very little amenities and comforts. They are able to keep their prices low by charging for checked baggage, not serving snacks, and not providing any form of entertainment. The interiors of these planes are also not very comfortable but they do serve their purpose. I usually avoid these airlines but we have used them before when we couldn’t find an affordable flight to the destination that we needed. In the long run, I think I would be happy to use budget airlines when traveling solo but I prefer more mainstream airlines when traveling with my family or friends.
Use websites that compare airlines such as Kayak.com or Google Flights to book your flights. This will ensure that you get the best price possible, even if it means flying with an airline you don’t typically use.
These are some of the most important things I do when book airline tickets in order to make my money go as far as possible. Check back soon and see how I save money on hotels and attractions.
