How Do I Afford to Keep Traveling? A Guide to Airfare Search Tools.

There is one question I'm asked most often about travel: How do I afford to do it so often?  So I'm going to break it down and describe how easy it is to apply it to your own life.

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.
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.

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.

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.

Fly for Free! Airline Vouchers: Earning, Processing, and Redeeming

Fly to Mexico City for $35?  To the East Coast from Chicago for nothing?  And accumulate frequent flyer miles at the same time?  It's possible.  And if you allow flexibility in your travel schedule, you, too, can fly for free - or discount - on airfare vouchers.  I'm writing about vouchers on American Airlines, so if you have experience with vouchers on other airlines, I'd love your feedback and will incorporate it here (with proper credit).  But first, a quick background, then some tips about how to utilize these vouchers.  And what are they?

A voucher is a "coupon" of sorts from an airline with a pre-printed value on it in your name only.  It allows you to redeem the voucher for the face value and applied toward a future fare.  If you receive a $300 voucher, then later redeem it against a $350 fare, then you only pay $50 for your ticket.  You pay the difference.  I have yet to experiment with cashing in a voucher that is more than the published fare.  If you have experienced this, let me know.  When I have encountered a fare that's lower than my voucher, I select add-ons to raise the fare, such as Choice Select (Group 1 boarding, 50% miles bonus, premium drink, same-day no-charge flight changes, etc).

If you unfortunately get involuntarily bumped from a flight, chances are you will receive a voucher.  But airlines desperately try to coax volunteers to give up their seats first before bumping anyone from a flight.  In some instances, I've heard the offer for vouchers go as high as $600.  So these days I tend to build time into my schedules so if a bump opportunity arises, I can take it and claim the voucher and get to my destination a little later.

Earlier this year I was en route to Rio de Janeiro with a connection at JFK.  The layover was 5 hours so I was planning on having dinner with my parents who live near the airport.  The flight from ORD to JFK was over-booked so they asked for volunteers to give up their seats.  I knew this meant a voucher was in order, but I passed on the chance since I had dinner plans in NY.  Then I was paged by the gate agent.  Since I was 1) traveling alone, 2) had no checked baggage, and 3) my final destination was Rio, not New York, they asked me to connect in MIA or DFW instead.  I understood their position, but I said that I was looking forward to dinner with my parents.  After the agent explained why I was chosen to re-route, I did feel sympathetic, and besides, they have tough jobs, I wasn't going to pick a battle and put up a stink.  The agent  rebooked me to DFW, and as a thank you, she still gave me a $300 voucher.  Being nice and patient and cooperative can work in your favor sometimes!  I didn't expect the voucher, although I did try for an upgrade.

One month later I was in Vegas for work.  On the way back to Chicago, I stopped at the gate desk to inquire if the flight was full, meaning I wanted to try for an upgrade into 1st class.  The agent said yes, it was full, and would I like to volunteer to give up my seat?  He hadn't even announced it to the passengers yet, but he said he needed more space.  There was another flight back to Chicago 3 hours later, so I agreed.  It turned out that he only needed 1 seat, so after they boarded the flight, he rebooked me, and gave me a $300 voucher and a meal ticket.  I bid my co-workers farewell and that I'd see them the next day at the office, as they were all on the earlier flight.

Now in my hands I had two $300 vouchers!  When I saw Mexico City airfare drop to $379 (usually around $600), I went to aa.com to hold my flight.  Then I called the booking phone number on my voucher to book my ticket.  I gave them the record locator number and they booked my ticket.  My next voucher I used to visit family over the July 4th weekend.

Note that the below process applies to PAPER vouchers.  I have not yet received an e-voucher so I can't speak to how those are redeemed or if the process is different.  Let me know if you have.

1. Go online to find your fare, and put your ticket on 24 hour HOLD
2. Book at least 3 weeks in advance to give the voucher time to process (see below)
3. Call airline to book the fare and redeem the voucher
4. If there's a fare difference, have a credit card handy.  Your card will not be charged the difference until your voucher is processed and your ticket status changes.
5. AA will give you an address to which you have to mail in the voucher.  Make a copy of your voucher before mailing it!  If it gets lost, call AA and have the copy handy.
6. Your ticket online will be listed as TICKET PENDING until the voucher is fully processed (or UNKNOWN if viewing from a mobile device).
7. AA can take up to 2 weeks to process the voucher.  They process them in order of departure date.  So people sending in vouchers with departures sooner than yours will get processed first.  My first voucher took 2 weeks to process, my second voucher took 3 weeks because my departure date was more than a month away.
8. Once your voucher is processed, AA will email you your confirmed e-ticket, and your ticket status will change from TICKET PENDING to TICKETED and your credit card will be charged for any fare difference.  One voucher I used, the fare dropped, and my card ended up being charged less than what I expected.
9. And yes, you still earn frequent flyer miles that apply to elite status!

American Airlines Voucher Redemption Address:

American Airlines

6570 Caroline Street

Suite B, Dept 109

Milton, FL  32570

Below your return address in upper-left corner:

YOUR NAME

FLIGHT #

DEPARTURE DATE

Sharing Frequent Flyer Miles with your Friends & Family

I recently read a Q&A article in the latest Travel + Leisure (February 2011) about how a couple could transfer miles between their accounts and not incur fees.  T+L suggested there was no way to avoid fees, but to look for the best bargains and cost-per-mile in FF program.  I beg to differ.


For instance, British Airways' Executive Club program offers a Household Account option.  This will allow you to add multiple people to a single household account where everyone can pool their miles.  Then any one person from that household can use those miles, even if the trip is worth more miles than they've individually incurred.  And with no additional "transfer/sharing" fee.  In some cases, you can even add a friend to the household account so you can redeem miles for both of you, even if that friend never accrued miles on their own.  Wunderbar!

What I also take issue with in T+L's response is their immediate suggestions to look at domestic FF programs.  You need not be a resident of a country to enroll in their FF program, as long as you shop around for the best redemption deals and subsequent fees.  Again, with BA's Executive Club program, they are part of the oneworld alliance.  This means if you earn miles on any oneworld partner, you can later send in your used boarding pass from American and get credit on BA's account.  A perfect example: I've been earning miles on BA for 5 years.  I also have a separate AAdvantage account - both airlines are in the same alliance.  I wanted to cash in all my BA miles for a friend and I to fly from Lima, Peru, to Easter Island, Chile.  BA wanted 25,000 miles per ticket to redeem on partner LAN; American wanted 80,000 miles for the exact same route.  So I cashed in 50,000 miles for 2 ticket by booking through BA and they placed us on LAN's flight to Easter Island.

Which means, it doesn't matter if I live in the US, I can still shop around for the best FF program that will allow me to cash in on the best cost-per-mile program even if it's on a foreign airline.  In this case, I didn't need to cash in my American miles to fly on LAN, I could simply use my BA miles for the best offer.  50,000 miles is a lot better than spending 160,000 miles for the exact same route.  You can start shopping by visiting the alliance home pages that will link you to the individual mileage programs.  Check out oneworld, Star Alliance, and Skyteam for the best deals internationally - you may even be able to cash in miles from an international partner to redeem a domestic ticket.*

* Note about domestic redemption: Unless you never leave the US and never plan to, you should store your FF miles for status and international ticket redemption.  Cashing in 25,000 miles for a Chicago to LA route would be a higher cost-per-mile redemption; whereas the Lima to Easter Island cost the same amount of miles, but I would have paid far higher for a full-price ticket.  Keep your miles for when you absolutely need them, because airfare prices to fly within the Lower 48 will cost you more per mile than an actual full fare ticket.

Earn Frequent Flyer Miles While Shopping Online this Season

As we head into the holiday shopping season, don't forget about your frequent flyer program!  Before you go online for Cyber Monday (and the rest of December's holiday sales), first visit your frequent flyer program's website to see a listing of all their partner programs.  If you're going to go online for gift shopping, why not treat yourself in the process by earning as much as 12 miles per dollar spent, and sometimes even more.  Many FF programs partner with popular sites such as Nordstrom.com, Target.com, and other major retailers.  Before shopping, visit your FF site's partner sites, log in, then click on the retailer link.  This will ensure that your transaction is tied to your flyer program.

So while you're typing in your credit card number on the behalf of gifts for family and friends, at least get a little something out of it yourself by earning FF miles for every dollar you charge.  Below are links to some frequent flyer partner websites to get started.  For even more free mileage points, double up by using your credit card associated with your FF program, if you have one.  Maximize your miles and happy holiday shopping!

• American Airlines AAdvantage Partners
• United Mileage Plus Partners 
• Delta SkyMiles Partners
• USAirways Dividend Miles Partners

Aug 20, 2012 Addendum: I'm convinced that my current bathroom scale is drunk.  It can only explain the 2# weight fluctuations within minutes some days.  So I need a new one.  I went to AA's shopping site, connected to Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and ordered a new scale.  BB&B won't accept coupons online, so I found out that I can order the scale, then when it comes in, bring my credit card used, receipt, and coupon to the store and get a credit back to my card.  Perfect.  Money saved and miles earned!

Top 10 Tips to Snag Cheap Airfare

1. DON’T ASSUME THAT TRAVELOCITY, ORBITZ, EXPEDIA, AND SIDESTEP ALL HAVE THE SAME FARES 
They don’t. Especially on international fares, one of these online travel agencies could have a fare several hundred less or higher than another. Check all the online agencies, and use multi-site search engine like Kayak or Booking Buddy. Also, most online travel agencies such as Expedia exclude many of the smaller discount airlines such as Virgin America (which was recently added to Travelocity) and Orbitz only recently added JetBlue.

2. SEARCH AIRLINE SITES INDIVIDUALLY
Increasingly, airlines have “private” sales, reserving their very best fares for their own sites. With the exception of Southwest, which sells fares on its own site exclusively, most of the airlines that do this are smaller domestic airlines or large international carriers, but we’ve even seen Delta do it, and we’re not talking here just about last minute weekend fares.

3. TRY A FLEXIBLE FARE SEARCH 
If you’re at all flexible, you can sometimes save hundreds by adjusting your travel dates, often by just a day or two. Travelocity has one of the best flexible date search options in the industry because it searches 330 days ahead. To use this feature, simply click on the “Flexible dates” button just below the “to” and “from” boxes on the flight search engine (check these step by step instructions if you’re unsure how this works).

4. COMBINE WEEKEND FARES 
Last minute weekend fares are often great deals, but most people don’t realize that they can construct itineraries by combining two of these fares. Let’s say you want to fly from Boston to San Antonio next weekend. If there’s a Boston to Atlanta fare for $128 round-trip, and an Atlanta to San Antonio fare for $108 round-trip, then you can fly to your destination and save creatively.

5. SIGN UP FOR DING FARES, AA DEALFINDER, AND OTHER AIRLINES’ PROMOTIONAL EMAILS
Southwest offers daily “Ding” deals that pop up on your computer (announced by an audible “ding”, thus the name) that can save a few bucks off their already low fares. American has begun offering discounts of 10-25% when you sign up for its DealFinder feature and enter a promo code on its site. It’s also a good idea to register with airlines’ newsletters because they often send out special deals and promo codes.

6. BUY HOTEL + AIR PACKAGES
It’s often cheaper to buy an air/hotel package rather than airfare alone. When we say “cheaper” we mean that the total package with hotel is often less than the airfare without the hotel component. Lastminute.com is the online leader in this field. Usually, they work best if there are two of you traveling since the hotels are based on double occupancy and they’re especially useful for last minute travel.

7. SOME OF THE BEST FARES APPEAR ON SATURDAYS 
Although they’re much less common than in past years, probably because the airlines have installed new software to catch them, some of the best “blooper” fares and other low fares show up on Saturday mornings. We can only speculate as to why.

8. CHECK FARES OFTEN 
Because airfares fluctuate like the stock market, you need to check them every day, sometimes two or three times a day, if you’re serious about saving money. Airlines can update domestic fares three times a day during the week, and once on Saturday and Sunday (international fares change less frequently). And another little tip: be sure to clear the “cookies” on your internet browser Why do this? Some fare search engines may return the results you viewed earlier rather than the new, lower results.

9. COMBINE TWO SEPARATE FARES RATHER THAN BUYING ONE FARE 
It’s often cheaper to buy two fares rather than one. Let’s say you’re flying from New York to Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Check on one of the big sites like Expedia or Orbitz for a single fare (for example, JFK to Governor’s Harbor, Bahamas) and then do two separate searches (JFK to Nassau and Nassau to Governor’s Harbor). Since JetBlue flies JFK/Nassau you’ll want to check JetBlue.com separately). Chances are the two-fare strategy will save you a lot of cash. This fare trick also works for flights to Europe.

10. BUY TICKETS ON AN AIRLINE THAT WILL REFUND THE DIFFERENCE IF A FARE GOES DOWN 
Let’s say you’ve done your best to find the lowest fare, and then the day after purchase your non-refundable fare goes down $100. Sure, if you ask for it you can get a refund for the difference if the only thing that changed was the price, but some airlines will charge you a service fee as high as $150 for domestic fares or from $250-$350 on international ones, wiping out any savings.