I have had a lot of people asking me how I afford to travel. And while I don’t have one big secret, I do have a couple of money-saving tips to share with you. I am going to break it down into the largest expenses; Buying a flight, Accommodations, and Getting around.
How to save money buying a flight.
The first thing I always suggest is to get a credit card with awesome benefits. After doing quite a bit of shopping around, I ended up signing up for the Chase Sapphire preferred card.This card has a 50,000 mile sign on bonus and 2x points for every $1 you spend - totally pays for itself!
But if you’re not able to qualify, or you’re wanting to stay away from another credit card, no worries. There are a ton of other ways to save money on buying a flight. The first is simply paying attention to WHEN you are buying your tickets.
- - Plane ticket prices are lowest on Tuesdays at 3:00 pm, 6 weeks before your flight.
- - Search multiple destinations to find the cheapest place to get to ( and fly local to your desired destination!)
- - Avoid peak seasons (summer, school holidays etc.)
- - Always use incognito mode on your browser when booking your flight, (Websites can recognize flights you’ve searched before and hike the prices up, and base prices off your geographical location)
- - Tuesdays and Wednesdays are typically the cheapest days to fly
Which Website should you Book your Flight Through?
This matters so much! Choosing the right website to find your flight can potentially save you thousands of dollars. Here are a few sites that have saved me a lot of money.
- Wowair.com - flies in and out of various European countries ( $99 flight to Iceland? Yes please! )
- Skyscanner.com - One of my personal favorites, skyscanner sends you alerts when flights are cheapest
- Hopper.com - shows you a calendar with cheapest flight prices
- Cheapoair.com - Another great resource for finding the cheapest flight, Cheapoair is also known to frequently offer promotions to people on their email list.
- Google flights - selects the cheapest flights from the largest selection of airlines
In the next post, I'll be sharing some tips on how to save money once you've reached your destination ( getting around and accommodations ) If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to message me or comment below!
