Other than actually being on vacation, one of the best parts of vacation is knowing you kind of hacked the system and saved a ton of money on your vacation. Saving money feels good anytime you do it, but if you could save thousands knowing that the airlines and hotels regularly charge much more, that’s sweet.
There are some travel websites out there where you can save a bundle. Here is a tip though. If you see a TV commercial for them, chances are you won’t be saving what you could. When I had a regular job, I rarely got to go on a vacation. Just for the fun of it sometimes I’d do some travel lookups. I dreamed of vacations I never got to take because of the limitations of my job.
When I had finally left my job, I hadn’t had a vacation in like three years, and I was utterly burned out. Now that I’m out, I’m like a travel fiend. The fun of being location independent is now if I find a good deal, I can jump on a plane and be out at any time.
The lookups turned into a reality instead of a dream. The lookups turned into a reality instead of a dream. So, after screwing around for years, these are some great places to find good deals on travel.
Cheap Travel Hacks #1 | Get on Momondo.
I love Momondo. This is now my go-to cheap airfare site. The best part of this site is they claim not to use cookies. The best part of this site is they claim not to use cookies. If you don’t already know the game, these ‘cheap airfare’ sites play I’m going to spill the beans here.
When you go to these sites to do a lookup for a cost on a fare, they place a cookie in your browser. If you refresh the site or leave and go back, they will know you are doing research and begin to raise the price. Give it a try with a fictitious trip you’re planning. Go to the site and enter all your search data. Pull up the search results and record some prices.
Now do the same at another site or try modifying your search to find a better deal at the current site. When you refresh the page, and your old deal is no longer available, or the price is higher, they are playing the game.
They are trying to build a sense of urgency and get you to sign up for the tickets quickly before they go up again. This happened to me a couple of times before I got hip to their game. Momondo claims they don’t use cookies and they are a free site, so they don’t charge any booking fees.
They seem to be a middleman search engine that will hand you off to the final booking site. Just be prepared to book when you hit the final site because that site may play the game once you land there. The other cool thing about Momondo is that they have a bar graph at the top of the page which will tell you which days of the week will be the cheapest travel days for your trip. If you are flexible on your flying days, you can choose the days which are the cheapest on the graph. It’s a pretty cool feature.
You can check out Momondo by clicking on any of the Momondo highlighted links on this page.
Cheap Travel Hacks #2 | Try Skyscanner.
Next on the list is Skyscanner. I call this a little-known site, but after doing more research for this article, it seems it is pretty popular. Skyscanner, like Momondo, is a travel search engine. They compare flight prices then pass you on to airlines or travel agencies to complete your booking.
Next on the list is Skyscanner. I call this a little-known site, but after doing more research for this article, it seems it is pretty popular. Skyscanner, like Momondo, is a travel search engine. They compare flight prices and then pass you on to airlines or travel agencies to complete your booking. What many people do is find the flights on Skyscanner and then book directly through the airline.
Also, remember to clear your cache or browse ‘Incognito’ on Chrome. Although they claim not to raise ticket prices, I looked through a ton of reviews, and many people claim that they do the cookie price jacking trick. I’m accustomed to searching with Chrome ‘Incognito’ so I have not experienced the problem with them. I usually go between them and Momondo when searching for flights.
Another useful feature they have is that you can set up alerts to watch for the best prices on travel plans you are interested in making. I also like their mailing list. They can have some pretty good articles and flight deals on there. Like so many sites, they also include hotels and car rentals into the mix of searches they offer.
Cheap Travel Hacks #3 | Subscribe to Secret Flying.
Secret Flying is my third pick for the least-known airfare websites. The neat thing about Secret Flying is they concentrate on mistake fares. Mistake fares are pretty cool. These are when an airline makes a mistake in their airfare ticketing system, and you can get incredible deals if you catch them at just the right time.
Some deals are created when people enter mistakes in fare estimation like currency conversion errors. Many times, reduced airfare is caused by errors in fuel surcharge estimation. The fuel surcharge is another factor airlines use to create the prices of their tickets. If they make a mistake in the fuel surcharge estimating system, customers can benefit.
I subscribe to Secret Flying’s Facebook feed. When I open Facebook, there is usually a post or two from Secret Flying indicating a travel deal somewhere. As I was writing this article, I happened to click on Facebook to see what I could see. They posted a fare from Dhaka, Bangladesh to a couple of American cities for a $195 round trip.
When I clicked through, I did see them warn people to book with caution because this was an error fare and the flight deal might not get honored by the airline. I generally don’t use them for airfare ‘look-ups,’ but they are good to see the deals they find.
Cheap Travel Hacks #4 | Jump on Airfare Watchdog.
I love Airfare Watchdog. I get email alerts from them about cheap deals from my particular city, Milwaukee, WI, to anywhere in the world when they become available. The morning of my writing this article I got an alert from them that I could fly from my local airport to Austin TX for $98.
When I clicked through, that was the cheapest flight, but they had other options with different airlines which were still pretty cheap. This is slowly becoming one of my favorite travel surfing websites. You can customize your alerts to any destination, complete trip, or just your departure city.
I also love their blog writers. They write great travel articles that are fun to read. I’ll get on there and waste way too much time.
Cheap Travel Hacks #5 | Twitter and Facebook are your friends.
My last tip is to get active on Facebook and Twitter when looking for deals. Many of the above sites and others will post regular deals as they become available. If you are a Facebook or Twitter user, liking or following several travel bloggers or travel websites will find you deals and even tips for different regions in which you will be traveling. I also subscribe to many YouTube travel Vloggers and have been slowly learning the art of travel hacking.
If you are at all interested in travel, these are resources you need to check out. Finding great travel deals can be almost as satisfying as doing the trip itself. It feels good to know you saved a ton of money on trips you for which would have gladly paid much more. So many people dream of travel, but they think these great trips will be too expensive. In reality, if you do your research, you can travel cheaply. Ready to travel? Click here for your next destination.
It’s become a form of entertainment or hobby to hack together inexpensive trips. I will supply more information on travel hacking on the cheap as I get more into it.
Till next time, be safe,
Kevin