Although we ultimately decided that flying to my sister's house was too expensive for my recent vacation, there are times when you have no choice but to fly. So, how can you save money on your flight? I've compiled a list of tips:
- Use a travel site like Hotwire.com to search for the best airfares. Hotwire is great, because it automatically will show you any savings for adjusting the dates of your trip or by flying through an alternative airport.
- Check the smaller, discount airlines sites directly like Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and JetBlue, because their fares are often not included in the conglomerated travel sites.
- Fly Tues - Thurs and stay Sat. overnight - these days are typically less busy for the airlines, so the fares are lower.
- Be flexible on dates - If you don't care exactly when your vacation begins or ends, check the dates surrounding your travel date for better fares.
- Be flexible about your airport - Hotwire will check to see if you can get a better fare by travelling to a nearby airport. Of course, make sure someone is willing to pick you up, or that you are not losing any savings from additional transportation costs from the airport.
- Before you book through a site like Hotwire, make sure you shop through a cash-back site first to get money back. But, make sure that you're not paying more in the booking fee (typically $7) than you're getting in cash-back. Ebates and Mr. Rebates each offer 2% cash-back for Hotwire, and UPromise each offer 1% cash-back.
- If the booking fee is more than your cash-back reward, book directly through the airline's website to avoid paying any booking fees once you've determined which airline offers the best fare. Avoid making a telephone reservation, because some airlines charge as much as $25 extra for calling vs. booking over the internet.
- Book early - many promotional offers require an advance purchase of at least 7 days.
- Avoid extra charges - Pack snacks to avoid paying for in-flight snacks. Limit what your bring to avoid extra bag or overweight bag charges.
- Sign up for airline Frequent Flyer programs - Although I fly very infrequently, I have enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket (now...how can we get a babysitter for a week to go on a nice vacation?)
- Give up your seat on an overbooked flight - if you are flexible about your travel plans and are willing to give up your seat on an overbooked flight, you can often get travel vouchers worth $100's of dollars. When you arrive at the airport, inform the agent that you are willing to give up your seat(s), so you are at the top of the list. We gave up our seats one Christmas, and earned 2 $350 travel vouchers that we used towards our trip to England. Plus, we were put up in a hotel and flew first class the next day.
How do you save money when you fly? For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.
Photo by clix
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