How to travel for cheap

Bucketman

Hello forums, I've finally reached that part of my adult life where my girlfriend and I want to travel a bit. Nothing crazy, nothing out of country, but we would like visit say Seattle and Portland in the next few years, see if we like em, just get out of town for a few days. Problem is, it seems Airfare is super ungodly expensive for some reason now. I remember looking into flights a few years ago that only cost $120 round trip and now its looking like we would need to spend $250 for a crappy airline at 10pm at night. Is there a trick to this? Should we just keep our ears to the ground for an airline to do a big sale kind of thing? We live near Chicago so we'd fly out of there, but man, Things got pricey all the sudden.

finral

Timing tends to make a big difference. Spring/summer and holidays are the most expensive for airfare. Also keep in mind that weekend events can raise airfare prices due to demand. For instance, folklife coming up in seattle has raised prices for the times surrounding it by a crazy amount. Also, certain airlines just tend to be cheaper for some cities. Alaska is a good one for Seattle. Of course, it also heavily depends on where in the country you are coming from.

Cauld

Flights cost a lot more now than they used to. I don't really know why, though I expect it has something to do with airlines not being profitable for decades and consolidating.

Anyway, as far as actual advice you got to just keep your eyes open for deals. I've started to like http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ for flight searches, but everyone has their own opinions as far as what they like.

ThunderSaid

If (and only if) you can handle the financial responsibility that it requires, you could look into using a credit card that gives you airline miles when you make purchases. My wife and I run all of our purchases through a credit card that gives us airline miles. Everything from groceries to tuition goes on the card and the card gets paid off regularly. Then, when we'd like to take a trip, the airfare is basically taken care of with the miles we've accrued. Last year we flew from D.C. to Hawaii and back entirely on miles, and we've made several shorter trips as well.

There are two things to think hard about if this sounds interesting to you:

1. Most importantly, you should always pay off the credit card immediately. I check the balance every week or two and pay it off in full. If you aren't careful about your finances, it's easy to let things slide and then one day notice that you've accrued a lot of credit card debt. Remember: this only works if you simply pass your spending through the card, not if you use it to buy things you can't afford.
2. Choose the card wisely. Use a card that provides miles for an airline that you actually want to use. Make sure they fly where you want to go, and that you don't hate them (significantly more than every other airline, anyway). Also pay close attention to any annual fees that the card charges. A small annual fee may be worth it, but at a certain point, it becomes cheaper to just buy tickets.

zepherin

finral wrote: »

Timing tends to make a big difference. Spring/summer and holidays are the most expensive for airfare. Also keep in mind that weekend events can raise airfare prices due to demand. For instance, folklife coming up in seattle has raised prices for the times surrounding it by a crazy amount. Also, certain airlines just tend to be cheaper for some cities. Alaska is a good one for Seattle. Of course, it also heavily depends on where in the country you are coming from.

Also flights on Mondays and Fridays are more expensive because business folk tend to travel on those days. Look at Tuesday and Thursday for cheap days to travel. Bus is the cheapest. If Boltbus is near you. Hop on. It's pretty comfy. If not Greyhound or Megabus is ok. If your looking for dirt cheap. Chinatown bus.

Djeet

Airlines tend to update fares on Tuesday. Best rates are usually 4 weeks out or more. High travel days give you shitty rates.

You can try flying on standby, but airlines seem to be much better able to manage bookings so as to keep flights full. So I don't think this works very well anymore, especially if you have multiple travelers and have to pre-book hotel accommodations.

If you want to make this a habit, find a carrier that has the routes you want (not spirit, fuck spirit), and get into their miles program and get a card that gives you miles redeemable with them.

Consider trains. Not any cheaper, and way longer, but you aren't strapped into a seat, packed in like sardines, or having to get in line to get your balls felt up.