I recently had the pleasure of waking up at 4 AM to drop my husband off at 5 AM at the airport…on a SUNDAY. This is not a usual wake up time for me even during the work week! Coffee was necessary.
Needless to say I was a bit annoyed, but then I realized we saved hundreds of dollars by him choosing to be the first flight out, not procrastinating by booking several months in advance, being flexible with his flight days and taking a connecting flight. I then became a little more accepting of the unpleasant time of day.
Today, as I was reading my morning CNN.com travel section the first article I came across was one warning readers that it was time to book holiday travel flights! I’m still trying to get over the shock that we’ve now hit the second week of November and the holidays are quickly approaching and if you’re anything like me and what seems to be the rest of the country you need to pinch pennies in every way possible. Hence, my husband and his family back on the farm in Indiana celebrating Thanksgiving two weeks early so they could all afford flights back home (Just an FYI – I wish I was there, but alas we’re trying to save $$$). So it occurred to me that I should share my new found knowledge of how to save money when booking your holiday flights.
According to the article written by Marnie Hunter for CNN.com she had asked the Sr. Editor of Orbitz.com, Jeanenne Tornatore for 5 major tips to help you save bucks when booking your flight. Here are the tips that they compiled:
1. Stop Procrastinating
2. Expand Your Search
3. Be Flexible
4. Consider a Connecting Flight (With Caution)
5. Take the First Flight of the Day
Now, how you apply each of these tips will in essence affect how much success and savings you will render when booking. The article clearly states that the closer and closer we get to the actual holidays, the fares for flights will not decrease. You will only see a rise in fares since seats these days are at a minimum and there becomes an increasing demand as we get closer to holidays (meaning you last minute bookers will not get a discount for leftover seats, there won’t be any!)
The second tip incorporates how you search for your flight. Once you perform a search using your ideal route, try to open yourself up to surrounding regional airports, there are several smaller airlines that only fly into regional airports, which may be only 30 minutes outside of your ideal destination and you end up saving you major bucks.
The third tip to be flexible is referencing the timeframe in which you are looking to travel. Obviously flying on “high fly” days example– day before Thanksgiving, day before Christmas Eve is going to reflect a higher fare. If you’re able to travel plus or minus 3-4 days before a major holiday you will see a decrease in your fare.
The fourth tip is to consider a connecting flight to your destination, whenever you don’t take a direct flight you will see a decrease in fare, however you will want to only do this in my opinion when absolutely necessary. Sure you could save potentially 40 bucks each way, but does that really make a difference if you get snowed in at Detroit’s airport with no outbound flights because of the blizzard that ended up appearing out of nowhere? You’re going to end up stuck sharing a Popeye’s dinner with the other passengers who are just as annoyed and sad that they’re not going to make it home to see loved ones. I’m thinking 80 bucks can be sacrificed in this situation, again just my opinion.
The last tip would be to get on the first flight of the day. Now, in a perfect world the first flight of the day would not get you out of bed before 7 AM, however a perfect world it is not. Make the sacrifice get a little less sleep and save some money and shoot down the risks of being delayed by being the first plane out!
Remember that saving money is important during the holidays as most of us are on a budget. Make sure that you make your plans well in advance including getting your travel insurance. You should remember to ensure your trip because you never know what storm may pop up and delay your holiday plans!
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