People always ask me: Rocky, Where do you find your travel deals? Answer: They find me!
Actually honestly I find good deals because I am 100% flexible with my travel plans! I rarely have to stick to exact dates or even locations! I find deals by searching high and low and seeing whats trending. If an Airline launches a new route, I try to fly it when they are offering promotional fares, also competitors will often meet sell prices! Furthermore, I am loyal to Delta and their Partners due to my Elite status with Delta Air Lines. However, if I’m making a short hop less than 1000 miles, I’ll cheat and fly someone else if they are substantially cheaper.
Examples: I want to go to Vegas in March. I first check Kayak.com. Jet blue is offering r/t airfare from Long beach (5 mins from my house) to Vegas for $89.60. Delta is offering r/t from LAX (25 mins from my house) for $119. Southwest: Same price as JetBlue but from LAX.
In this case I am going to cheat: Why? I’m saving $30 and it’s closer to my house. Drawback is I won’t get first class on JetBlue. However for a 45 minute flight and only 1000 FF award miles, it is worth cheating to me. Although not everyone may agree.
Another example when I cheated last year on Delta was when I was flying home to Seattle. Instead of flying non-stop on their Partner Alaska I flew Virgin. Why? Virgin r/t was $120 Alaska was $250! More than twice the price! Also I wanted to try out Virgins First class and PremIUM Economy. So for $39 on my way to Seattle I upgraded to Premium and for $75 on the way down I upgraded to first! Both very pleasant experiences and I still spent about the same amount of money!
However this still doesn’t tell you how I find good deals. Honestly I get emails from AirfareWatchdog, Travel Zoo, I read the forums and the blogs, etc. but again I RARELY book anything that way. This fall I went on a 6 day cruise of the Mediterranean that I booked for $250 (tax included!) a person! Sure it was inside cabin, but 6 days at a price of $41 a day it was cheaper then a hostel + food costs to travel Europe! So needless to say I booked it! And then to save even more money, instead of flying round-trip to and from Venice, I did an open jaw ticket and bought the return leg home from the cheapest airport I could find within Italy! This saving me another $300 and enticed me to see more of the countryside!
The point is, be flexible! I originally wanted to go to Spain in November for my holiday, but instead the cruise to Italy was discovered! So I was off to Italy! This is the way I’ve always traveled and will continue to travel! It saves me thousands each year! Sure there are places I want to see (Petra, Spain, Brazil, Komodo), however my list is VERY long and each time I start planning a vacation I price them all out, starting with airfare. Then I compare prices and choose the cheapest!
