Ok, we all know that airline tickets are a big portion of any vacation/travel budget, right?! Well let me tell you some of the ways that Kevin and I save on airline tickets.  In the last 2 years we have travelled to San Diego (twice), New Zealand, through the Hawaiian Islands and booked our ticket to Hong Kong then onto India all for free! Well let me correct – we do have to pay the nominal taxes and fees (ranging from $5-$65) but still that is a savings of $1000’s! How do we do it? Let me tell you.

Credit Card Deals

We look for the best credit card deals that are linked to airlines.  We always look that they waive the yearly fee for the first year and if they don’t that the miles you get are worth the $89 (don’t pay more) that you will pay.  The following have been our favorites :

Alaska Airlines credit card – if you are flying to Hawaii this one is great.  They give you 25K miles to sign up and a companion pass (you pay one full priced ticket and the 2nd one is $100).  With 2 trips to Hawaii you will have a free trip! This one does have an annual fee of $89 though.

Hawaiian Airlines – this one is good if you a) live in Hawaii or b) are going to do a lot of inter-island flights (which are insanely expensive)!!  They have deals for 50,000 miles if you spend a certain amount (I think it was $1k) in 3 months and they do have a annual fee of $89 but this is well worth it to save on flying within Hawaii.  The 50K will also get you a round trip ticket to the mainland.

My all-time favorite (which I have signed up for no less than 5 times giving me the equivalent of about 250,000 miles!) is the American Airlines Citibank card.  There is no annual fee for the first year and the deal is spend $1K in the first 3 months for 30,000 miles or $3K in the first 3 months for 50,000 miles.   This credit card has gotten us to Africa, India, Mexico and Alaska … 🙂

If you don’t know how to spend that much in 3 months a good plan is to buy gift cards (for example to CostCo or Amazon) sites that you know that you will eventually  spend that much – in gas, groceries, etc or you can sell the gift cards to friends and family at face value just so you can get the miles.  Now, note that you aren’t supposed to sign up over and over but there doesn’t seem to be a tight control on this… good for us travellers!  Just remember to cancel your card before the year is up so you don’t have to pay the annual fee!!!

Another great way for points would be to open a bank account, credit card with someone that offers points that can be used on any airline when you spend money.  My husband had one with Chase where he got points that were valid on all airlines.

Do note that opening credit cards will ding your credit score so if you are concerned about this please be aware! Also make sure that you are able to pay off your credit cards – you don’t want to be amassing debt while you are trying to save for travel!

Be Flexible with your Travel Plans.

Always try and book your flights for a Tuesday or Wednesday as these are usually the cheapest travel days.  I have also ready that booking the flight on Tuesday night is when the airlines will list their cheapest rates.  Be sure to shop around too for rates – whenever possible don’t fly over the big holidays (duh!) and if you have flexibility with your travel times then look at one month of fares and pick the cheapest date and make that your start date!

Great Websites to Find Cheap Plane Tickets

My Brother-in-Law introduced us to these awesome sites.

Hopper – it predicts prices and helps you plan your trip when the prices are the cheapest.  It can also alert you when there is a price drop which is great if you are shopping around.

Skiplagged – I haven’t tried this one yet but apparently offers really cheap flights and offers up to 80% off face value.

Air Asia offers really cheap flights for inter-Asia travel which is amazing!

Tripit is an awesome site to log all of your travel plans.  If you are like me I reserve travel stuff (hotels, trains, etc) all over the place so this brings it all to one site so I don’t miss out on any cancellations or changes to my itineraries.

Bring a HotSpot with you

Lastly, internet can be really expensive when you are on the road.  Check out SkyRoam – you pay $100 for the device but afterwards you can pay per day (about $8) to have your own HotSpot wherever you go.  If nothing else this is great if you need the internet urgently or are travelling for shorter periods and aren’t going to buy a local SIM card.

So now you know – that is how we save on airline tickets! There are loads of deals out there so do your research, don’t go into debt and make sure that you are getting the best deal!

Good luck and please share any tips that you have with us!

Happy Trails.