JazTrippin

“You’re always traveling, how are you able to do that?” This is a question I hear quite often. I usually direct people to a few different options but now is finally my opportunity to dish on ALL the methods needed to easily become a jet-setter at a low-cost! Here are the things you need to know to score flight deals:

1. Be interested and invested: One of the first ways I learned to travel affordably was because of my genuine interest. Once somebody pointed me in the direction of flight deals, I became so interested and invested that I learned the ins and outs of flight deals really quickly! If you’re not really interested, it won’t work very well.
2. Be quick: It is super important to be quick! When a travel deal posts, you can’t spend days or even hours thinking about it, you can’t wait on your friend who said they so desperately want to travel with you, you can’t wait on anything. My motto has become: book first and ask questions later.  This is because many deals require immediacy and a sense of urgency as they can be gone in a matter of minutes! One thing I’ve learned is that the majority of airlines or booking sites allow you a 24-hour cancellation window. Because of that, it’s better to just book it immediately and then try to work it out after. And if you can’t work it out, then you can cancel and receive your money back before the 24 hours is up.
3. Be flexible: Another very important thing you have to do is be flexible! I can’t tell you how many people have asked me to find them a deal and I do but then they don’t want it because they need to go exactly on November 4-7, for example. Most deals, unfortunately, do not work that way. For the most part, I plan my vacations around the deal. Whatever dates work for the deal are the dates I try to rearrange my trip into. Sometimes people don’t have the days off or availability, however, don’t underestimate extended weekend trips. Some of the best trips I’ve been on have been squeezed into a long weekend in order to benefit from a travel deal. Another thing people aren’t flexible about is layovers. If you’re the person that absolutely has to have a straight through flight, you’re the person that may miss out on a lot of travel deals. Especially if the layover is only an hour, all you’re doing is hopping off of one plane and boarding the next. Is that too much of a hassle to give up hundreds of dollars in savings? I think not! Even if it’s an overnight layover, you can spend that time exploring that city, learning new things, staying overnight and still spending way less than you would have for a straight through flight.
4. Airfare Watchdog: It was the summer of 2013 when Air Fare Watchdog won me over. I had been planning to go on a trip to New Orleans with my friends when my mom told me that Air Fare Watchdog posted a deal round trip for a whopping $130! The prices I had been seeing were hundreds of dollars more. I immediately ran to the computer, texted all my friends the plans and booked the flight. Shortly after, the deal was gone but the thrill I received from having booked it remained. With Air Fare Watchdog, you can find out about fare deals through convenient alerts. If you go to their site, you can sign up to receive e-mails that alert you of all the cheap fares leaving a certain city for the day and all cheap fares from various cities to a specific destination. Have a certain destination you’re dying to go to? You can also sign up to receive emails that alert you whenever there’s a deal from your airport to that destination. Despite the e-mails, the thing that has been most useful to me is their twitter feed. Every time I’ve scored a deal they’ve announced, it has been because of Twitter. They only send the e-mails out at certain points during the day but their tweets are live and in the moment. This gives you the best chance of catching a deal before it’s gone.
5. The Flight Deal: As with Air Fare Watchdog, The Flight Deal has been pivotal in my ability to snag awesome flight deals! For example, that time I booked a round trip flight to Dubai for $200! When things like error fares and great deals break, The Flight Deal usually has a breakdown of what dates are available for the deal, what cities it applies to and how to book it.
6. Secret Flying: Error Fare Central! Secret Flying is the greatest site to use if you’re hoping to score an error fare like my $200 Dubai flight. Their site is inundated with error fares for all over the world. Because of them, I was able to book a first class trip to 5 different countries including Spain and Brazil for a total of  $500 round trip!
7. Twitter: Twitter is extremely crucial in my ability to find deals through Air Fare Watch Dog, Secret Flying and The Flight Deal. Because they constantly tweet their deals, I’ve been able to spot some crazy deals (like those I’ve mentioned) and quickly book before they were no longer available. The other very beneficial thing about Twitter is that you can set it up to send you a text when certain accounts tweet and you’d better believe I have those notifications set for when Air Fare Watchdog, The Flight Deal and Secret Flying tweet! That is by far the quickest way to find out about the deals so if you don’t have a Twitter, you should get one even if only for that reason.
8. Google Flights Google Flights is a helpful tool that allows you to input your desired travel destination and view prices of flights by date. It lets you know what days are more expensive or when travel is low for that destination. It also lets you know how much money you’d save if you opt for a slightly different travel date. When you’ve done all of that,the site conveniently provides you with a direct booking link where you can click and be sent to the payment screen of whatever airline you have selected. This is also a useful tool to help you learn what the typical rates are for certain routes/destinations. I often study Google Flights to track the prices for a desired destination so that I’m able to determine what would be inexpensive and what would be expensive for that route.
9. Alternate Routes This is part of flexibility but often times it pays to fly to a different city/country and go from there to your desired destination. For example, when I had my heart set on a birthday trip to Paris a few years ago and summer flights were going for $1400+, I thought I was going to have to give up that birthday dream. That was until Air Fare Watch Dog posted a round trip flight deal to Norway for $500 and I began to research how much it would cost to get from there to Paris. It was then that I masterminded a trip from New York to Norway, Norway to London, London to Paris, Paris to Norway and Norway back to New York for $700! That was half the price that I had been seeing for a flight that only went to Paris. So if your desired destination tends to be on the pricey side, start figuring out what countries or cities are close and you can travel there and transfer for a much cheaper flight!
10. Priceline: When Google Flights fails me, I use PriceLine. Many times, Secret Flights and The Flight Deal post deals that consist of multiple destinations and this does not tend to work well when searching with Google Flights. Each time this has happened, I’ve plugged the dates and destinations into PriceLine and ta da! Got the deal!
11. Travel rewards credit cards: Another very helpful thing that I’ve learned is that having travel rewards cards can also add toward your savings. I book all of my travel needs from flights to accommodations with my Bank of America Travel Rewards card and earn a cashback bonus on all of them. I then am able to use that cashback bonus as travel credits. There are tons of other travel rewards cards so find the best one for you!
12. Be mindful of travel trends: If you don’t know how much a flight usually goes for, you don’t really know when you’re getting a deal. Years ago I paid $400 round trip for a flight to Vegas and thought I was getting a deal. I didn’t know any better. Now, I realize flights go for half of that price all the time. Receiving daily e-mails and notifications from the deal sites like Air Fare Watchdog and studying Google Flights (as I previously mentioned) have allowed me to really become in tune with prices and trends. Because of this, I easily know if something is a deal or if it’s way too expensive.
13. Complaining: If something goes wrong with your flight, do not hesitate to call and complain. We recently flew to San Diego on a travel voucher that we received from calling and complaining about the terrible service we had endured only to experience more terrible service. We called and complained again and everyone on the trip each received a voucher for $150.

Does this all seem like too much to you? Understandable! We’ll gladly book your trip for you with a fee of $50 for domestic travel and $100 for international travel. Contact us with your travel inquiries here.

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