Summer vacation season is upon us and airfare pricing is insane and unpredictable. Multiply that by a family of 4, 6, 12 or more and what can you do? Check out some money saving airfare hacks.
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Nowadays, airfare and accommodations are generally the largest expense of any family vacation. There are so many factors that have contributed to the skyrocketing prices of airline tickets lately, but that’s not the focus of this article. Here I will give you some of my favorite money saving airfare hacks.
Some Common Money Saving Airfare Hacks
A basic hack is to use price tracker, price predictor, and price watch on sites like Google Flights. By using these features, I just booked a one-way ticket from Washington DC to Los Angeles for about $130. However, had I booked the exact same flight one month earlier, the ticket was pricing close to $500.
I like to use Kayak to check airline schedules and pricing. Then I usually book directly with the specific airline. The advantage of doing this is that if there’s a delay, cancellation, or other issue you can go straight to the airline. If you book through an OTA (online travel agency, which is what any online third-party essentially is), there is often nobody to talk to–at least immediately. And, the airline often can’t help you since you didn’t book through them!
Another option, if you are flying carry-on only, is finding “hidden city” flights. These are flights where your destination city is really just a connection on your ticket. For example, let’s say you wanted to fly from San Francisco to Tokyo. The cheapest non-stop flight you can find is $1209 and with one stop it’s $618. But, if you book a ticket from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh with a connection in Tokyo, the entire ticket is only $396! Get off in Tokyo and don’t get on the connecting flight. You’ve just landed (no pun intended) yourself a non-stop flight for less than a third of the price!
Why Jews (Can’t) Travel Carry-On Only
You can only do this if you don’t check any luggage, since your luggage will end up in the destination city (Ho Chi Minh, in the example above). This is an international example, but this works domestically as well. Skiplagged is great site to help find these fares. Airlines have sued them, but they won. So this is really just taking advantage of a loophole. Nonetheless, I would recommend not doing it too frequently.
11 Time Saving Tips to Make the Most of Your Layover
Less Common Money Saving Airfare Hack
Airlines often price their tickets differently for different markets, meaning the same flight can often cost significantly less depending on where you are booking from and what currency you are booking in. For example, earlier this year I needed to fly from Los Angeles to Mexico City. When my computer “thought” I was in Mexico and I paid in pesos, the ticket came out to over $100 less than had I paid in dollars “from” the US. This was just me, but had it been my whole family, I would have saved close $800 with this money saving airfare hack.
5 Fundamental Tips for Flying with Kids
Here’s where a little computer know how comes in. You’ll want to clear your browsing history and your cookies. This is important because this is how the airlines/OTAs know you’ve already done the search. If I hadn’t cleared my history and cookies, then when I searched the LAX to MEX flight, I would have just been shown the same–or even higher–fares. Price increases create pressure to buy. You think: the price is going up, I should buy now before it goes up anymore.
You’ll want to connect to a VPN (virtual private network) in the country of your choice (in my case Mexico, but feel free to experiment). For my general computer use, I allow my VPN to pick it’s own random location by selecting “automatic”. But when I want to get better pricing, I select a “cheaper” country.
Next, you should open your browser in “incognito” mode. This way your history and cookies shouldn’t be stored. Now, you can search for your flight as you normally would. If you’re using an OTA, you’ll probably be directed to their “local” site. Be aware that the sites will now show up in the “local” language and currency. You can do a google search to check the currency conversion so you can better compare to the pricing you had already seen. You can also “translate” the site. This will translate the content not the currency.
Word of caution: If you are booking using a credit card with a foreign transaction fee, you may end up wiping out the entire difference when you are charged a foreign transaction fee.
Two cards I like that don’t charge a foreign transaction fee are the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Capital One Venture X. The Chase card has a significantly lower annual fee than the Capital One card. But if you use all the benefits of the Capital One card, you come out ahead. We use them both.
Flying has become somewhat of a necessity. However, there are many money saving airfare hacks available to the consumer. Let me know about the deals you find.
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