The Ultimate Guide To Cheap Travel
Air Travel: The Best Dates, Finding Deals, Getting Bumped, Air Miles, Budget Airlines, Air Couriers, Alternative Airports, Reverse Bid Auctions...
If you'll be traveling by
air, you can get the best deals by staying at least
7 days, including a Saturday night stayover, and leaving
and returning on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. A
single day's difference can mean big savings. You can
find out the optimum dates for your time window by using
the search form at Travelocity.
Be sure to leave the "My dates are flexible" button
selected.
You can score cash or a free ticket
for future travel, if you keep your plans flexible.
Airlines overbook and that means that you could volunteer
to get "bumped":
Now you know the best
dates and times for your travel. Your departure and
arrival airports can make a big difference in price,
too. The savings are often worth an extra hour or two
of driving. Check this
list of airports for alternates you can try while
bargain hunting.
Now you're ready to check for the lowest fares. The companies listed below use a number of different ways to bring you the lowest fares. Some are consolidators, also known as bucket shops. They buy tickets in bulk at wholesale prices.
Others work with numerous partners, letting competition
do the work. Still others keep an eye on the airlines
every move, letting their visitors in on money-saving
scoops. Regardless of how they do it, these sites offer
some of the cheapest fares on the Web:
Here's a quick
way to find which European budget carrier you need.
If you have a fair amount of flexibility, try AirHitch
for travel to and from Europe, Hawaii & the Caribbean.
Are you interested in international
destinations? Are you close to an international gateway
airport, or can you get there cheaply? Then you might
consider becoming a freelance air courier. You can pull
off some hefty savings this way and may, with some luck,
get to fly free! It's all in the articles below:
If convenience is important, others can do most of
the work for you, but you'll have to pay some sort of
fee:
Key To The
Airways is a guide to consolidator and courier flights.
It's received courier praise as the most complete list
available. They also offer a lowest published courier
airfare guarantee.
The ACA
(Air Courier Association) offers similar benefits,
as well access to other bargain fares. They've been
recommended by a Frommer's article.
Courier Travel
gives non-members access to their courier fare search
engine. The best deals are standby flights, which
have a grey background, although these can be hard to
find. Joining Courier Travel will give you access to
all the details. They've been recommended by a New York
Times article.
For those willing to invest
the time, frequent flyer miles can be the ticket to
great airfares. You can earn all the miles you need
without even flying!:
If you're satisfied
that you've found the lowest fare available, reverse
bidding services are worth a look before you finalize
things. To use the sites below, you make an offer and
see if they accept it. Some flexibility on dates, flight
times and the number of connections could net you big
savings. You must agree in advance to complete the purchase
if they meet your price. Tickets are non-refundable:
