Flight Deals 101: Flying for Cheap

Would you believe me if I told you that you can save money by not booking a flight straight to your destination? You should, because it’s true. If you’re in the market for flight deals, going from point A to point B may be easiest, but it isn’t always the cheapest option. This is especially true if you live in a major city that isn’t an international travel hub. Think of cities like Nashville or Cleveland.

It’s easy (and affordable) to fly from these cities to larger cities like Atlanta or NYC. Once you’re in a major international hub, you’ll usually find that flights are much more affordable. If you’re willing to do some extra planning you can often find great deals and save hundreds of dollars on your flight.

Shameless Plug: If you’re not too keen on the planning, you can also contact me. I’m happy to help you find affordable travel for a nominal fee. *Now back to our regularly scheduled post*

The Rules of the Game

There are some rules that you should always keep in mind when booking flights with this method.

• Consider your destination. Often certain cities will have cheaper fares to specific destinations due to proximity*. Think flying into LA to travel to destinations in the Asia Pacific region.
• Use a site like Google Flights when using this method. This pulls in data from several airlines when searching and saves you time.
• Be flexible. Sometimes the cheapest route isn’t the logical route. That said, you don’t have to take it to the extreme in your quest for deals. Sometimes spending an extra $50 to avoid an 11 hour overnight layover is totally worth it.
• Keep your luggage in mind. Plenty of cheap flights don’t include a checked bag. If you aren’t about that carry-on life this could result in sticker shock at the airport. No one likes it when deals go south. I’m also of the opinion that it’s better to stick to a carry-on when using this travel hack. Why? Well, because it keeps your from having to go through baggage claim and saves time. It also helps you to avoid losing your luggage.
• Pad your schedule. You should always account for the possibility of delays. It’s also important to remember that you need time to get off your plane and get to your gate. In some cases you may also need to go through security again. Too much time is better than not enough.
• Buy travel insurance. All the deals in the world won’t matter if you can’t make a flight, or lose your luggage. You can’t control everything, so travel insurance can help if some part of your trip doesn’t go as planned.

* This excludes sales and error fares.

How to Play

At the risk of stating the obvious, you should check flights from your home airport first. If you can’t find a good deal, you’ll want to consider the closest large airport next. Since I’m based in Nashville, that’s usually going to be Atlanta for me. This doesn’t mean I only look at ATL, but it is where I usually start. Once you find a lower fare, it’s time to search for your flight from your home airport to the departing airport. At this point, you’ll want to find the cheapest flight possible, but keep the tips above in mind. In case you’re wondering, I didn’t pull the tips out of my hind parts. I got them from experience (you’re so lucky I’m obsessive about deals lol).

My first experience with this was booking my 2017/2018 trip to Barcelona. At the time a ticket from Nashville (for my dates) would’ve cost me around $1,500. I could have made it work, but I enjoy sleeping at night without feeling guilty about my travel plans. If you follow me at all, you know that I definitely went to Barcelona. I went, but I didn’t spend $1,500 to do it. Instead I realized that I could travel to NYC and meet my travel partner, then fly on to Barcelona. This was a better plan for so many reasons. The best being that there’d be no hunting for each other once we landed.

Since Barcelona was my first trip using this, I figured I’d repeat it for my example below. I should note that this is a better deal than I got for my actual trip.

This is only one example of how valuable knowing how to travel hack can be. I also think it’s the best way to start if you’re new to travel or new to travel hacking. Another benefit of being open to using this hack is that it lets you take advantage of more flight deals.  If you’re in a city like Nashville, you don’t find a ton of deals available for your home airport. Being willing to go to the deals you do find is well worth it.

Alternative Play

While I discuss flying to your departure city, you aren’t limited to that option. Don’t overlook driving, taking a bus, or taking a train if they’re reasonable, and more affordable than flying. These options may be more hassle, but sometimes the savings are worth it. This option is great if you’d like to spend a little time in that city before you head out. It can also open up another way to apply this hack.

Multi-City Tickets

Want to visit more than one place during your trip? Multi-city tickets can be your friend here. Think of it as the advanced version of what we discussed above. Multi-city tickets are best if you want to spend time in 2 or more locations . The first time I did this it wasn’t exactly intentional, but it worked for me then. I found a Megabus ticket to Chicago for $3.50. Then I booked flights from Chicago to Boston, and from Boston to Nashville.

There’s definitely an art to it, and you may need to play with your cities and dates to score the best deal. Based on my own planning, this method seems to work best if you’re traveling within a specific region. It may also work well if you want to plan an extended stay.

There are definitely more ways to travel hack than these two, but I figure we all start somewhere. I chose to start with the least time consuming option because I’m cool that way. I also figure this was a great way to start a series of posts on travel hacking. I’ll explore other travel hacks in future posts.