LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Traveling can be fun and exciting but it can get expensive! While it’s fast and easy to fly, it’s not always the most affordable option. We caught up with some travel experts to help you save money on flights.
Felecia Hancock runs a travel blog called Local Time Travel. She is an expert at helping people find affordable travel deals.
“The cheapest domestic flight I’ve found is a flight to Denver that was $35 round trip from Little Rock,” she said. “The cheapest international flight I found was a round trip flight from Little Rock to Munich for $360 dollars.”
Here are some tips she has to save cash on flights:
1. Pick the right months and days to fly (and book early!)
- Hancock said that if you can book far in advance, it could be to your advantage as flights are listed 11 months out. She also recommends you fly during what are called "shoulder" seasons. These are dates outside of the holiday or summer seasons when airlines are trying to sell tickets for cheaper prices due to less demand. Shoulder seasons are February, March, April, September, October, and November. Also, if you can fly on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, prices are often cheaper too.
2. Use tools and be flexible
- Hanckock sends alerts on great flight deals in a free newsletter through her blog. She also recommends using tools like Google Flights. It can compare prices for airlines and give you alerts on deals based on your travel preferences. Google Flights will even tell you what prices are considered the best deals for particular flights based on price history. Google Flights will give you a full map of the whole world and it will give you the cheapest flights for any dates. If you can be open with your dates and your destinations, you can save a lot of money.
3. Consider cards and loyalty programs
- There are some great reward cards out there and credit card travel rewards but they can be complicated and nuanced.
- Thepointsguy.com is a great resource for detailed guides on what credit cards have the best travel deals and guides for airline loyalty programs that could get you some serious free travel miles. Nick Ewen, Senior Editor for The Points Guy, said that you should select one or two of your most preferred airlines and sign up for their loyalty programs and alerts. Every week or every couple of weeks, you may get deal alerts from your local airport. From there, you can start earning miles when you take trips. He said they have seen award flights as low as 2,500 miles in the last several months.