1) I have no car, no kids, and no pets. All these things cost money that can be used for travel. But worry not, even if you have one or all of the above, there are still ways to find deals.
2) Year 2 of attempting to revive the dead Money Tree in my living room window has proved futile. Therefore, I must resort to a few other tactics to still pursue my dreams yet still be able to pay the bills.
These tactics fall under one of the following 3 categories, which may apply to you at any moment:
A) You know where you want to go, and when, so you need to know when the fare is cheapest.My trips have fallen under one of these categories, which I've described in detail below. The longer you use each of the methods and tools described below, you'll get used to seeing patterns in airfare, seasons, and what is considered a deal for a particular route or not.
B) You know where you want to go and don't care when, as long as it's on sale. (Or know when you want to go, but don't care where)
C) You have no idea where you want to go, or when, so just go when you see anything interesting is on sale.
A) Where and When
If you know where you want to go and when you need to go, this is where the Hopper app (iOS, Android) comes in handy. Search for your destination, then by month/dates (green for cheapest flights, red for the most expensive), and search flights. The app will give you hints about the best days to fly surrounding your dates, and any cheaper nearby airports. Once you have refined your search, you can Watch the flight. Then you'll get alerts telling you about fare sales on those dates, and a predictor to either buy now or wait. I have to be in New York twice next year for certain weekends, so I'm going to set my Hopper to watch non-stop flights into JFK (because no way in hell am I flying into LGA) and buy when I see a good fare alert.Google Flights is an even better tool on which to set alerts or check for fare availability. Last week a friend told me about a $300 roundtrip nonstop fare to Iceland. I wasn't ready to purchase, but I did a search in Google Flights with all my criteria (dates, non-stop, airline if preferred), and set a flight alert/tracker. A week later I received an email from the flight tracker that the fare fell to $200. I bought a ticket within an hour. I'm not flying until April, but I don't care since I only paid $200 to get to Iceland! I can't even get a fare that cheap on a domestic legacy airline to visit my family on the East Coast. Google Flights will be mentioned in each section of this article, since I also use it as a tool to confirm available sale fares that appear in other methods.
B) Where, I Don't Care When
Let's say you've always wanted to go to Hawaii or Paris. You don't really care when, or at least have some guidelines of when (a few months' window). You just want to go when it's cheapest. You also really don't care too much about the weather circumstances (monsoon season in India, hurricane season in the Caribbean, or winter in London). You just want to GET THERE.This is where Airfarewatchdog.com comes in handy. I use this as my travel wish list. First, get an idea of what a good fare to your destination looks like. Enter your home airport and destination, and search. The site will tell you what the current fare sale is along with the terms. Such as, Chicago to London for $555 on Icelandair, fare available January through April 2018, with certain departure days. You can set up all sorts of fare alerts which the site will email you when they see a great fare. If the fare conditions align with when you can get away, BINGO! Book your ticket! This method has bought me trips to Argentina ($540), Peru ($400), and Turkey ($532). I use this tool for airports where I have family, so when a good fare pops up, I jump. A few years ago I called my sister and said, "Free this weekend? I got a fare alert to leave this Thursday." Or in 3 months.
I also love this tool because it is a good gauge for what typical and sale airfares look like to your destination. Watch notices on this site long enough (plus the weekly email updates) and you'll start to develop a gut feeling for when you see a good fare. My friend and I are planning a safari next summer, so I've set up alerts to a few airports in Kenya and South Africa to begin to get a feel for average and sale fares so we can budget properly. Perhaps a Tuesday departure is cheaper than a Saturday, so we'll build that into our itinerary. We also used Google Flights to search entire date ranges and months to see when fares would be best to Kenya and South Africa. Google allows you to see almost an entire year's price projections if you search by date range (there are three date search options, so dig around).
C) Anywhere Anytime
You've been bitten by the travel bug. You want to GTFO and really don't care much where the destination is. Or, you'll know it when you see it. The world is your oyster and you have a sense of adventure and an open mind. Sometimes I don't know where I'm traveling next because I'll just wait for a great fare to anywhere interesting. Many destinations that have been somewhere on my list - or not even top of mind - I've ended up buying immediately. Such as India for $640 or Hong Kong for $540. When you see a great sale, sometimes you can't say no. Hell, when my friend Anna found out about the great fare I got to Mumbai, she threw her credit card at me across the dinner table and we booked her a ticket on the spot. Her husband stayed home with the kids and we had an absolute blast running around Mumbai and spoiling ourselves at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Sure, it was monsoon season, but who cares, we were in India!The Flight Deal daily email newsletter is a gift from the travel gods. It's also responsible for draining my wallet. See above. It's responsible for why I went to Jordan over Thanksgiving for only $499 nonstop, roundtrip, and earned miles toward elite status. I couldn't in good conscience not purchase that ticket since Jordan had been on my radar for decades and I've been keeping an eye on the average fare for a few years through Airfare Watchdog. The Flight Deal is a daily email and lays the groundwork for distinguishing good fares from great fares. This summer I saw a $668 fare to Bali. *faint* Waiting for that one to resurface... The email newsletter will detail sale fares from a variety of airports, destinations, airlines, and seasons. It's a mashup of any place in the world, so you almost have to look at the email every day so you don't miss something. And sometimes you have to move very quickly to get the sale fare because it could be gone in a few hours. Usually you have to buy the same day but the flight may not be for a few months.
What do you do if you want the fare but aren't sure you can commit, or want to sleep on it? This is where I love American Airlines. They're the only airline to allow you to hold a fare for free for 24 hours. If you don't book by midnight of the next day, your hold is cancelled. No cost to you. Carrie and I have used this method on quite a few occasions to lock in great fares. For instance, you see a good fare and put it on hold (this only works on American, btw). You sleep on it. The next day you check the fare again by re-running the search. The fare has jumped $200! Ah, but you put the ticket on hold yesterday at the lower fare. So you buy the ticket at the better rate! On a couple occasions I've saved $400-$600 from a fare jump by holding the day before! I've also seen this happen on group trips. You put a fare on hold and tell your friends about it. They don't pull the trigger and want to sleep on it. The next day you re-check the fare and it jumped $100. Suddenly everyone is afraid that it'll go higher and they book the fare at $400. Luckily you put it on hold yesterday at the lower fare and saved yourself $100 more than everyone else. Delta and United will allow you to purchase fares and cancel them within 24 hours by refunding the fare. But I like American because they don't charge to hold up-front. Yet. Crossing fingers that they keep it this way.
Brick-a-Brack
I don't buy every deal I see. I can't afford to. And sometimes it's not worth it to me at that moment. As of this blog entry, I have Gold elite status on American and if I have to spend money, I prefer to spend it on revenue flights that earn mileage that I can cash in later. I learned from flying to Thailand a few years back on a great fare on Cathay Pacific that I wouldn't earn miles because the fare code didn't qualify. I'm currently saving miles to cash in for the safari flights, so I'm trying to earn as much as possible plus attempting to retain elite status (comes in handy when requesting upgrades).If you're loyal to one airline and alliance and want to earn miles on a sale fare, it's a good idea to check the fare code before purchasing. Again, use Google Flights to look up the fare, proceed to almost purchasing, and locate the fare code (usually a CAPITAL LETTER). Then go to your member airline account and find out what fare codes qualify for earning on the partner airline.
Say your office is closed (like mine) for the last week of the year and you want to get out of Dodge, but you don't know where to go, except you're looking for a good deal or something attractive. Google Flights is also useful in this respect. In the main screen ON A COMPUTER (the following feature isn't available on mobile), enter your departure airport and dates (and airline alliance, or # of stops). Then click on the map to move around and see standard prices for destinations around the world. When you have no idea where you want to go, this really feeds the imagination.
Now with all of these tools, when you purchase a ticket the same day you discover the fare sale, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to depart right away. The trip could still be 4 or 10 months away. It's not like you have to book today and get on a plane next week. Sure, maybe that'll happen, but you usually have time before you travel.
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