One of the biggest expenses when you go on vacation is the flight, a cost which many don’t seem to realize doesn’t have to be as high as they think. I quit my job two years ago to become a digital nomad, inspired very much by my good friend Bharat Bhise who had been living this lifestyle for a number of years before I joined him. It was Bharat in fact who showed me just how many ways there were to save money on flights, and I wanted to pass that information along to you, so that you can make some big savings on your next trip.
Credit Cards
Are you making your credit card work for you? Not enough people do and this is a great opportunity to save some serious money on your flights. Many credit card reward schemes include air miles which are points that accumulate as you spend, which you can then use to get discounts on your flights. As soon as I found out about this I began to use my credit card for everything that I buy, gaining huge numbers of points in the process, and you can too! The best bit is that you are spending this money anyway, so why not make it work for you?
Connecting Flights
Some people turn their nose up at the prospect of taking more than one flight to their destination but if you want to save money it is most certainly something which you should be looking at. I’ll give you a quick example of just how beneficial this can be. Last year I flew from Mexico City to London via New York, I had a 2 hour layover in JFK and the total journey time was 14 hours, at a cost of $465. Conversely the direct flight cost $879 and the total journey time was 11 hours. So, for a small amount of effort and an extra 3 hours of my life, I was able to save over $400 on that flight. Always check out connections when booking flights.
Using Aggregators
There are a number of websites online which are called aggregators, and they search the web to find you the cheapest flights. The best of the bunch are Momondo and Skyscanner and if you use these sites you’ll be able to find the cheapest tickets anywhere on the web. These sites even search 3rd party companies as well as airlines to get you the lowest fares.
Get in Early
One tip which isn’t much of a secret is to book your flights as soon as they are released, don’t think that you can get a last minute deal because they are almost never cheaper. The earlier that you buy your tickets the lower the cost of them will be, this isn’t like hotels where you can get cheap deals just before the date. Set up alerts for flights you’ve been looking at and then grab them as soon as they come out.
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