Travel Goals

1. Climb to Everest Base Camp.
2. Climb Mt Kilimanjaro.
3. Learn to Scuba Dive.
4. Visit every continent.
5. See the Galapagos Islands.
6. Sail down the Amazon River.
7. Climb Ayer's Rock.
8. Ride the Trans-Siberian.
9. Go into space.
10. Go wild at La Tomintina.
11. See the sunrise from Mt. Fuji.
12. Gaze at Borobudor.
13. Visit the Pyramids
14. Safari in East Africa.
15. Go to the World Cup!
16. See Machu Picchu.
17. Join the Century Club.
18. Visit Antarctica.
19. Do development work.
20. See Petra Jordan.
21. Backpack the Eastern Block.
22. See the Northern Lights.
23. Vegas Baby! Vegas!
24. Greek Island hop.
25. Cycle Tuscany.
26. Visit India.
27. Lounge in the Seychelles.
28. See Morocco.
29. Oktoberfest!
30. Caravan across the Sahara.
31. Visit Tibet.
32. Fly first class.
33. Go to Israel.
34. Carnival!!!!
35. Mardi Gras!
36. Cannes Film Festival.
37. Sundance Film Festival.
38. Eat a sushi meal at NOBU
39. Pacific Island hop.
40. Spend a night in the Ice Hotel.
41. See Glacier National Park.

Learn a Foreign Language

Are you planning to travel around Europe? Why not learn Italian or French before you go to maximize your experience.

Book Your Travel Here!!

The problem for anyone is not finding a place to go but how to get there cheap. Sometimes half the cost of a trip is in the travel. Finding a cheap flight is as important as finding the right location, the right tour, the right backpack, or the right hotel. Yet with travel on the rise and oil prices, airlines are raising ticket prices to cover rising costs. That makes knowing how to find a cheap price even more important. Here are a few tips that can help you find a cheap flight:

Be flexible with your travel dates
If you’re rigid with your dates you won’t be able to capture any of the pricing variations airlines use. Tickets prices always fluctuate depending on day and time of the week. Its always cheaper to fly mid week than on a weekend. Its cheaper to fly out after major holidays than before. That week after Christmas? No one ever flies and prices drop. For some odd reason, flight prices drop a bit on Tuesday nights. When searching for flights, be flexible- you will catch better deals. Allow yourself some wiggle room going there and coming back- the difference of a day can be the difference of a few hundred dollars.

Fly to secondary airports with low-cost carriers.
Most major cities have a smaller, secondary airport. This is the airport most low-cost carriers (LCC) fly into because its cheaper and it helps keep cost down, which helps keep prices down. Check out what airlines fly into these airport. For example, you can take Jetblue to Long beach, an airport equally close to LA, instead of LAX and save some money on a flight. Flying the LCCs is a good alternative whenever possible. You get less “perks” but you can save a bundle in ticket costs. This is especially true in Europe where competition is stiff.

Try alternative paths.
Not only does it help to be flexible with dates but try being flexible with the route you take. Sometimes its cheaper to fly to London, take a LCC to Amsterdam than flying direct to Amsterdam. There are so many low cost airlines around that if you can take advantage of a great deal to a different city then catch a LCC to your destination. This is especially true in Europe where you get flights for 1 Euro plus tax! Buy working various airlines and special offers, you can help save yourself money. It is a little more work but it can give you more to spend at your destination.

Know what you want to pay for a flight.
People always try to get the lowest price online, wait too long, and then pay too much. We all know airline prices always bounce up and down yet in our quest to hold out just a little longer, most of the time miss the lowest price. Therefore it’s important to know what you want to pay not what you hope to pay. What’s the lowest price for YOU? Is 150 roundtrip from NY to Miami what you want? Don’t want to pay more than 900 to go from LA to Tokyo? Then don’t. Don’t wait for the perfect price- wait for your price. Then you will never have buyers remorse. Prices always fluctuate but to catch the best price, try booking 6-8 weeks prior to your departure. Also, try sites like Farecast that can help you catch a price dip.

Remember not all search sites are equal.
Whenever I start my internet flight searches, I tend to go right to Expedia. It is really out of habit more than anything else but I don’t just search Expedia. I’ll see what prices one site offers and then check out all the other travel sites, like Priceline, Travelocity and Orbitz. Not all sites are created equal and you will find varying prices on each one of those sites. It’s also useful after you find a flight to check out the carriers own website. Sometimes the flight is cheaper (or the same) on the carriers website and you avoid the fees the search engines charge. (Check out the links page for search sites.)

Search the airline carrier’s international websites.
On that same thought- don’t forget to search the international websites of all major airlines. You might think that prices will be same across the board but remember all sites and prices are not the same. I have found New Zealand tickets from Tokyo to LA hundreds of dollars cheaper when searching the NZ version of the website instead of the US. I found tickets to and from Europe cheaper by searching the Canadian version of the British Airways website. Many times these tickets are also priced in foreign denominations which can also make the prices slightly cheaper depending on your currency. Don’t think you can’t book the flight if your not in that country either because you can! (Note: The recent fall of the US dollar has made this hard to work for Americans but easier for people on the Euro, Pound, or Yen!)

Take advantage of student discounts.
If you are a student, there are discounts available for you. Check out STA travel and their search engine. You can find flexible student tickets on their website and agency stores. I used them for a 400 dollar ticket from Athens to Bangkok. You can’t get much cheaper than that!

Travel Off Peak
Traveling off peak times reduces cost all around, especially on airlines. It’s double to go to Europe in the summer or Australia in the winter.

Sign up for newsletters.
Sign up for airline news letters and fare updates. It will keep you in the loop for when prices drop so you can snatch up the cheap deals right away and not miss out.

It may be getting harder to find great airline deals but they are still out there. You just need to find them!

6 Responses to “Finding A Cheap Airplane Ticket”

1. Sherrie on June 1st, 2008 8:05 pm

   And beware RyanAir! Sometimes they seem cheap, until you find out that the bus out of the airport and back in again cost the same amount when added into your ticket then a regular prices ticket into a normal airport. I love Germanwings, they fly into the main airports in Europe (except for Istanbul, found that one out the hard way *shudder*) and the prices are low without surprises.

   In Asia flying last minute and not carrying where you were going really helped as well. So you know you have 2 weeks off, a few days before you go in and say what can you offer me cheap. If your not choosy you can end up with some awesome deals!

2. Sherrie on June 1st, 2008 8:06 pm

   than then, whatever!

   Boo to me being an English teacher.

   

   Fingers of fury and impatience strike again!

3. John on June 2nd, 2008 12:51 am

   I get the point. LOL. Nice post Matt.

4. Quickroute on June 2nd, 2008 2:36 am

   One other tip - websites are not intelligent (they’re programmed by people) and if you have a non direct trip e.g. London to Argentina a website won’t always find the cheapest fare because it usually sticks to the same airline. You will often find a better fare buying 2 separate tickets from separate airlines. - You need to invest time but it’s worth it!

5. Nomadic Matt on June 4th, 2008 12:32 pm

   quickroute: excellent point!

6. andrea2008 on June 12th, 2008 2:05 am

   I did an extensive search on the web to find the cheapest flights for my holiday away with my family. I was able to get a great deal when we got a cheap flights with Jetstar. I found the service to be great, and i will definitely travel with them again.

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