#TravelHacks : Airfare Deals
READY, SET, GO: TRAVEL HACKS
Airfare
Ok, something you need to know about me is that I am addicted to deal hunting. Yes, it’s an actual thing and unless you suffer from the same infliction, you may not quite understand how rewarding the compulsiveness of scoring the best damn deal on something feels like. So it has to be no surprise that I strive to get the best deals related to travel as well. A question that I get asked a lot by friends and strangers alike, is “How the hell did you manage to snag such a good price for your trip?!”
Let me let you in on the big secret – FLEXIBILITY.
A little (well, a lot) of flexibility and what we do can work for you too, saving hundreds of Dollars on travel expenses. Yeah, of course I want to head back to have a white Christmas back in picturesque Canada, but unfortunately, when the $3000 ticket to back home drops to $1300 just a couple months later, my heart sinks a little bit.
Example 1: I grabbed a last minute ticket in 2015 to Indonesia. For a couple days in December, the return airfare from the Gold Coast to Denpasar dropped to around $390 return, and I snagged it. I ended up spending both Christmas and New Years in Indo, and a little more on top of that. It was a few more days than I had originally planned on taking off, by about a week actually; but hey the price was right. The cost of living in Indo is much cheaper than in Australia so it was quite an easy choice really. And I got a custom 3 piece suit made for work for $110 so it was a win-win overall. (In all seriousness though, despite the shabbily planned travel, I had such an amazing time being #OnTour in Indonesia. My travels were even featured on the Jakarta Snapchat story! It is a beautiful place with much cultural and natural diversity.)
Taken from the window of our Jetstar plane
Example 2: Both Monica and I wanted to do something for our anniversary, but didn’t want to break the bank (saving money for the future blah blah blah adult stuff you know) so we kept our eyes open for deals for about a couple months. One day the perfect one landed in our lap and we were off to Vietnam for a quick 5 days for $219 return. Yes, you read that right.
How did this work out for us, you ask? Well, quite obviously, we didn’t plan it. Most of our trips have been (fairly) spontaneous. Not in that we just pack our bags and go to a random destination. But we keep our options open. Mon and I, we agree on one thing – that we want to travel the whole world. In what order, we couldn’t care less. You see, this gives us a lot of leeway with planning our travels. We don’t plan too far in advance or most times don’t even have a destination in mind, we just discuss that we will take some time to travel in say, December. How long? Well, we keep a rough estimate but don’t have any set dates and keep our options open. We fly out either of Coolangatta or make the train up to Brisbane, depending on the price. We don’t fuss too much about travelling in comfort and are totally fine going no frills on the “budgetest” of economy airlines.
And then, we just keep our eyes peeled for deals. We are subscribed to (more than) a few newsletters and websites. And no, not just travel blogs, we are subscribed to travel DEAL blogs. During my morning workout at the gym, I go through countless emails and stay on top of the latest trends in airfares. Our personal pick has been flightfinderAU, as we often find some epic deals with this mob. This website actually includes a lot more budget airline deals, (which is perfect for us who are looking for the best deal on a budget), as compared to some other big name sites. With all the flexibility that we have, and only a few parameters to check off, if I see a “lava hot” deal for flights in December, I snag it (and then forward the email to Monica, still love catching her off guard to this day).
Budget airlines often have sales for Asia from major Australian cities
I understand that this article may not be for everyone, and that taking a flight home for Christmas or a wedding on a particular day is inevitable in some cases. But just in case you are like us and always strive to get the best bang for your buck when it comes to airfares, this may help you.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions on how to get the best airfare deal.
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