Air Travel Tips to Save You Money!

Air Travel Tips to Save You Time and Money!

Looking for air travel tips and cheap fare secrets?

Flying can be an expensive nightmare. But it doesn't have to be...nor do you have to pay full price. You just need the right tips and secrets to make your journey as smooth as possible.

I've flown to dozens of countries over the years, and logged my fair share of miles-- with and without kids in tow.

How can I forget...

The time I spent 18 hours on the floor of Anchorage Airport

The first time I flew with a newborn...and forgot the formula at home

Getting to ride in the cockpit of a DC-10 during a landing in Cairns, Australia

Fly into Washington's Dulles Airport and you can visit the nearby National Air & Space Museum!

...just to name a few experiences.

I've learned a thing or two over the years. So I've prepared a variety of air travel tips you may find handy. Before I get to those air travel tips, let's start with the most important question of all:

"How can I get a cheap fare?"

How to Get a Cheap Fare

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Let's face it: the best air travel tips have to do with how to help you slay the air fare dragon. I know a lot of people have good luck with Priceline. As a mom with young kids, I've never been able to use it because I can't afford to find myself with a flight with three stops, or one that gets in at 5 am. It's just not worth it for me.

I used to use SideStep exclusively to search for cheap fares. But the last few years, I've branched out to Hotwire, Orbitz, Cheaptickets, and Kayak. Sometimes they can get you amazing deals.

But use sites like Hotwire, Orbitz, SideStep, Cheaptickets, and Kayak with caution. While they can get you great deals, that's not always the case. For example, I recently searched for fares to Los Angeles. I spent hours searching Hotwire, Orbitz, and Kayak, and was not terribly impressed by what I found.

At one point, I found a decent website on Kayak that was for a Northwest flight. But when I went to select the flight, I hit a hitch. Kayak had to transfer me to Northwest's site, and when I got there, the fare was significantly higher (like, $120!) than what was listed on Kayak. True, Kayak has a disclaimer saying that they've been having difficulty with their Northwest link, but geez! After spending an hour deciding on that flight and thinking I was almost done, I was really ticked off.

Frustrated, I decided to check directly with the airlines. Northwest was a waste of time (their fares to the west coast from Virginia are the worst), but I hit the jackpot with Delta. Not only did I find a great fare on Delta's site, but it was significantly cheaper than the best fares listed on the so-called "discounters" (Kayak, Orbitz, etc.). And this isn't the first time I've had this experience.

The moral of the story? If you have the time, use the discounters to do an initial fare check, then double check the fare with your favorite airline. You may find an even better deal!

If your travel dates are flexible, consider subscribing to this new site I just found, which comes highly rated by Frommers and other travel sites:

http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/

Just give Airfarewatchdog your email address and they'll notify you when a good fare is available. Or, you can search fares on their site through their link on Bookingbuddy.com. I like Bookingbuddy because it checks fares on all airlines, including Southwest. It allows you to check fares through these fare search engines simultaneously:

Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, Cheaptickets, Hotwire, Travelocity, Sidestep, Cheapoair, and Onetravel

How I Saved $500 on Three Tickets

Last summer I saved nearly $500 on three tickets flying from Virginia to California. It took a little doing, but it was worth it...and now I'm passing the air travel tips I learned on to you.

1) I flew Wednesday to Wednesday (departing or returning on a Thursday-Sunday was much more expensive). That saved me about $360.
2) I bought my ticket on a Tuesday. I'd read numerous air travel tips that fares tend to be cheaper if you buy them Tuesdays or Wednesdays. I'd been pricing them daily since last Thursday, so I knew what the fares were running. Sure enough, when I booked on a Tuesday and that saved me another $100.
3) I bought an Entertainment Book and used their promo code for travel discounts of $10 per ticket on American Airlines. That saved me another $30.

Voila! Nearly $500 saved. Not bad for a little legwork and patience.

I'm so excited about this, I want to remind you that while Entertainment Books are always a good deal, if you buy at just the right time, you can get them for even less. Go to our Entertainment Book page to find out my secret for getting the books at rock-bottom prices.

Avoid "Cookies" and Save Hundreds!

Loved this article on SavvyShopper.com giving air travel tips on how to save beaucoup bucks on flights. They quote a Consumer Reports article: "Believe it or not, just using a different browser can get you a dramatically lower travel deal."

According to the article, Consumer Reports "searched for the same itinerary at the same time on the Expedia travel site using two different browsers -- Safari and Firefox. Turns out the flight was 718 dollars lower using the Firefox browser."

How come? Turns out that airline sites and other travel sites (like Travelocity or Orbitz) track your online searches and put cookies on your computer. So if you use the same browser to check a flight multiple times, they'll know, and when you come back to make your decision, you may find that that low fare you wanted to nab has mysteriously disappeared. (It's happened to me more than once!)

What to do? Consumer Reports suggests that you delete those tracking cookies by going to your browser, clicking on "Tools" and then "Options" or "Internet Options," then on "privacy", and then deleting cookies.

My Favorite Travel Credit Cards

One more way to maximize your hard-earned vacation fund? Choose the right credit and debit card-- especially for foreign travel. My favorites: The Chase Sapphire credit card and the Charles Schwab debit card. Here's how they stack up:

- Chase Sapphire: You earn 2 points on travel and dining, but more important, they're offering 40,000 free points when you spend $3K in the first three months-- that's worth $500 in travel rewards.

I got mine last year and got an even better deal of 60,000 points, so within a few months I'd earned $850 in free travel rewards. Beat that, Citibank! Plus, Chase Sapphire charges no foreign transaction fees. Click here for details.

- Charles Schwab Debit Card: Why pay ridiculously high fees every time you use an ATM overseas? The Schwab debit card charges NO ATM fees, and they'll even refund you any fees that other banks charge when you withdraw funds. Click here for details.

Want more ways to save money on travel? Check out my Discount Travel Deals page.