Buying airline flights always seems to be like trying to nail jello to the wall…You think you’ve figured it out, then it all gets messy. Price goes up, down, it suddenly is sold out, then it’s not… So, you buy the ticket afraid it shoots up the next day. The next day — the price sinks lower than ever…
You can’t win.
None of us may ever win, but you can arm yourselves with the best strategies to make sure you get the best airline price at the lowest possible price.
STRATEGIES:
Always use MULTIPLE sites when shopping:
Airlines and travel sites deny it, but they know when you search for a specific flight, you are thinking of going and tend to raise the price as you search more. If you don’t purchase right away, they know there’s a good chance you will buy later. The reason is because of “cookies.” When you browse a site, a “cookie” is placed on your computer that runs in the background. The website now knows when you return to the site. Have you ever searched for something on Amazon.com then start seeing ads for your search on other sites? That’s cookies. In order to combat this price gauge, you must use many sites when searching in order to compare rates:
Check sites that ARE NOT Listed under search engine travel sites, indeed, couple of airlines that don’t allow their prices to get fed into search engines:
At times, the cheapest flights might be listed on the carrier site: Don’t be lazy. Go check out the carriers you do see on the search engines to make sure there aren’t any special discounts hidden on their site.
Sign up for “Flight ticket changes”
If you can jump on a price before demand heats up, you can score big. Use a service like Airfarewatchdog to do this.
Use a Credit Card that rewards with points
Every year, members who use cards that tally points for daily purchases get about 1 “free” roundtrip tickets for two each year. That’s around $400-$500 in savings just for using a certain card. We recommend com
BEST TIMING: 7 Weeks in Advance:
Countless studies, tests and comments have run around this question, but the consensus answer is that 7 weeks in advance is the best time to book a flight. For holidays, it is earlier (especially Christmas and Thanksgiving). We’ve heard 47 days is the pinnacle of days… It really can all change at any second so don’t fret if you miss that day.
Sometimes buying One-way equates to cheaper: Normally, if it is a round-trip, you search for a round-trip. Well, sometimes, prices are just more expensive in that regard. Just recently, one member booked a one-way on one airline and a one-way on another airline back and saved over $100 for two tickets. It just takes a bit more searching.
Miscellaneous Tips:
- Fly out on a Monday or Tuesday and comeback on a weekday as well, you’ll save almost 50% at times. Sundays are the MOST expensive days to fly.
- For holidays, buy tickets early. The closer you get to major holidays ( Thanksgiving and Christmas) the prices climb FAST. Buy holiday flights as early as you can. Fun Fact: The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day to fly out of the year.
- Track prices in a spreadsheet if you are far off. See if the prices are sneaking up or staying steady.
- Make sure you take into account: Baggage fees, parking fees, gas to get there etc. There’s no point in saving $25 on a ticket for an airport that’s 30 minutes farther away, parkings more expensive, and they charge a fee for a bag. The day of the flights, you’ll wish you picked the closer airport.
- Don’t rule out alternate airports. One member flew into Dallas-Fort Worth International and flew out of Dallas Love Field. Look at those smaller airports.
- If you really want to get sneaky, delete all your cookies after each flight. If you use Google Chrome, use “Incognito Mode” to search for tickets.
BONUS TIP:
For flying international, your “point of sale” where you purchase the ticket can drastically change depending on “where” you buy the ticket. Sometimes, if you are in NYC, you might want to change “where” you buy the ticket by saying you are in Europe. It’s an advanced strategy but can work.
If you signed up but haven’t taken the first steps to HomeExchanging, what’s stopping you?
It’s easy to put things like this on the back-burner due to “time” and “being unsure it is for you.” You will never look back and think you didn’t have the time — you have the time now, it’s just to make time for you and your family.
HomeExchanging also is proven to be just as safe (if not safer) than a hotel or an Airbnb. It’s a whole new experience you’ll always remember.
Julie and Mark share their experience with HomeExchange:
In our early 50’s we started planning our trip of a lifetime, a month long trip to Europe when we retired. Then we discovered HomeExchange and did a month long trip without waiting that 15 years. Thanks to HomeExchange we retired 10 years early and have now completed over 70 wonderful exchanges around the world, staying at wonderful places and making great friends at every stop. And without spending much more than staying at home!