- These are 10 cheap flight hacks
to save you money in 2022.
Hack number one, know the sweet spot
when it comes to booking your flight in advance
to lock in that lowest airfare.
If you're traveling during the winter
you'll want to book your flight 110 days
in advance to secure the lowest rate,
especially if the month encompasses Christmas or New Year's.
For spring travel, 76 days in advance,
is the best time to book according to cheapair.com.
And be cognizant of any month that includes
spring break travel dates, specifically Florida,
as a destination you'll want to book
as far in advance as possible.
For the summer it's 42 days in advance,
which gives you a little bit more flexibility.
And for the fall 77 days in advance,
is the most ideal time to save.
With many of us having annual
Thanksgiving travel destinations in mind.
And if you are returning to see family
just simply set calendar reminders.
So you don't need to go back
and watch this video multiple times.
For international travel, 8-10 months in advance
is the sweet spot.
And a little tip that I found worked well
when booking in advance, use the Google flight tool,
to check multiple departure points for the same destination.
Let's use New York as an example of a city
where there are multiple airports and London, England,
where my sister currently resides,
another city with multiple airports.
Google flights will search all of those airports,
removing a lot of that legwork for you having
to figure out which airport would be cheapest to fly to.
Before I get to this next point,
I need to mention the following important disclaimers.
This trick only works if you plan on
just bringing a carry on.
You cannot check bags under the plane with this trick.
This can only work for one way flights,
as the airlines will cancel
any remaining flights in your itinerary.
And please do this next hack at your own risk.
I am not personally recommending anyone do this trick,
as airlines don't like it.
And may even potentially ban you from the airline,
but since it is a potential money saving tip,
I wanted to at least let you know that it exists.
Hack number two, use the stopover trick.
Did you know, it's sometimes cheaper to book a flight
that connects at your final destination
and just get off the airplane rather than
booking a flight directly.
I'm gonna show you a couple of dramatic examples
to save you a lot of money.
I know this sounds crazy, but bear with me for a moment.
For example, let's say you live in Austin, Texas
and you want to visit family in Chicago.
A direct flight from Austin to Chicago
with American airlines on Tuesday June 21st
at 5:37 PM is $216.
It's a direct flight, Austin to Chicago.
What most people don't know is that if you search
alternative destinations for a flight that stops in Chicago
and just get off the airplane, you can save a lot of money.
Let's use the same dates the same times and the same airline
for a flight departing from Austin, Texas
to Kansas city that has a layover in Chicago.
You'll notice this flight departing from Austin at 5:37
with American Airlines that has a stopover in Chicago
at 8:30, landing at the exact same time
as the flight that I just showed you direct.
That would then otherwise continue onto Kansas City
is a perfect time for you to get off the airplane,
take your bags and lock in a lower price flight for $143.
To avoid aimlessly searching for hours
to find these types of combinations.
There's a free website that will reveal
all sorts of stopover connections
to possibly save you even more cash.
And I'm going to show you this
last minute flight booking as an example.
Departing from Los Angeles and landing in Honolulu,
Skiplag quickly reveals a flight option
for $278 for June 15th.
That departs from Los Angeles and is intended to
go all the way to Maui, but it has a stop over in Honolulu.
Which is where I wanted to go in the first place.
So I could book that right now for $278.
As an alternative, if I didn't know about this website
and I was planning to travel or complete the same
last minute booking for Wednesday, June 15th,
from LAX to Honolulu.
The only option with which I'm presented right now
is the United Flight for $2,600.
That's $2,600 compared to $278.
Hack number three, make sure you are not following
archaic data and know the new best days to book your travel.
A great free app to help you further zero in
on the cheapest days of the week to book,
with a color coded calendar is an app called Hopper.
It will help pinpoint the optimal timeframe
and which day of the week you should book specifically.
A lot of people think the first flight of the day
is going to be the most expensive.
It's not. The first flight of the day.
One that generally leaves at 6:00, 6:30 or 7:00
is the most likely to have an on time departure
since it's the first flight of the day.
And the most expensive flights of the day
are the ones between 8:00 and 10:00 AM,
and 5:00 and 7:00 PM pertaining primarily
to business travel back and forth.
Hack number four, use an incognito browser or a VPN.
So you can be presented with the best deals
and promotions, that still rings true for many airlines.
Let's use United as an example, where I'm logged in.
It has already identified me as someone that travels
from time to time with them.
The options it presents me as some of their top deals
include a New York to Santiago flight,
which is decently priced.
But then some options from San Francisco to Singapore
which is not that competitive compared to some of what
I might see from other travel websites.
Using an incognito browser or a VPN,
which I'll explain in a moment,
does take me to a different side of the United deals page.
Where I am presented with lower priced airfare.
If you are using a VPN,
sometimes making it appear as though you are from Europe,
will sometimes result in you being presented
with additional offers and promotions
where sometimes airlines are trying to entice
international travels to complete a booking
on their website.
One other important tip is if you are using a search engine
to reveal the lowest price airfare you generally
wanna scroll to the bottom just to see
if Southwest is included as a destination.
Southwest airlines often tries to hide its flight data
from third party sites so they can get the benefit
of you booking directly.
So the Southwest website is unfortunately,
an additional resource that you might want to check.
As they don't always come up in standard search results.
Hack number five, mix in match your airlines.
It might sometimes be cheaper to take one leg of your
journey with United and your return flight with Delta.
And if you're relying solely upon an airline's website,
you won't always see those facts and figures.
Kiwi.com is another resource I love, I should mention.
None of these companies are sponsoring this video.
These are just tools that I live and breathe by
when it comes to finding bargains.
Let's say I'm traveling between Seattle and Miami
on Sunday, October 9th returning October 16th.
Kiwi.com is a website that will present
different airline options to me.
Where I can book one leg of the journey with Alaska Airlines
and the return being from American Airlines
locking in a much lower fair,
if I were to try the same journey completely
with Alaskan or solely with American Airlines.
You can also search through
and easily book multiple airlines
through Priceline or Expedia.
And for both of these websites,
if you are considering a hotel or a car rental
with your booking, the amount of money you could save
packaging it all together is astronomical.
As an example, my wife is accompanying me on a business trip
where we leave Philadelphia on July 17th.
We land in Houston on July 18th.
We need both a rental car
and I'm interested to see the hotel rates.
Just as an example showing hotels
with a minimum of a four star rating.
My wife and I could fly at $340 per person
including our entire return flight journey,
our hotel and the rental car,
and contrary to popular belief,
segments of this journey are fully refundable.
If you are booking through Expedia, including
both the hotel and the car rental.
Hack number six, know how to unlock the same rates
as a travel agent.
Now, of course, for any type of international travel
or a complicated journey, I always rely upon both the rates
and the expertise of a good travel agent.
But did you know kayak.com is one of the only websites
that gives you access to travel agency rates,
unlocking additional promotional prices,
the average traveler will not see.
Another fantastic resource is ScottsCheapFlights.com,
which strives at helping you find the best deals
specifically from your local airport.
Just put in your local airport
and you'll get notifications as well as deals,
tailored specifically to where you live,
that you might not see elsewhere.
I'll have an eye-opening alert
tied to gift cards in a moment.
But first for hack number seven,
don't forget about the price alert functionality
tied to many websites instead of spending all
of your free time waiting for prices to drop.
Whether it's Google flights or a website like Skyscanner,
which will alert you via email when flight prices
for your designated journey include a price drop.
Or even airfarewatchdog, where you could sign up via email
or even have the website showcase the best
return flight deals from your specific airport
every week nonstop at some incredibly low fares.
Hack number eight, don't forget about the warehouse clubs
when it comes to airline discounted gift cards
as well as some insider travel options
which I'll reveal in a moment.
Costco, as an example, is a warehouse club
where you will frequently find gift cards
for many of your favorite airlines, reduced.
In the case of what's available today,
it's a Southwest Airlines gift card for $500,
that you can score for $449.99.
You're saving $50.
Many of these gift cards don't expire
and you can use up to five at a time per member.
Just this gift card, taken advantage of by you
or several people in your family.
Five times is $250 in savings with this gift card
delivered to you same day via email.
If that's not enough, the vacation packaged offers
are all fulfilled through actual travel agencies.
If you are booking via Costco travel for a theme park,
a cruise, all sorts of complicated hotel packages,
you can find it all.
In addition to some of the least expensive,
most competitive rental car rates that I've seen anywhere.
Hack number nine, sign up for that airline credit card
on the airplane.
How many times have you been sitting there where
your flight attendants eagerly passed through a brochure
encouraging you to sign up on the spot.
Many of those credit card applications,
with which you may be presented are incentivized
with all sorts of bonuses.
You'll have access to an exclusive bonus offered
for that specific flight.
And those bonus points could be put to use
in a beautiful way.
It's also worth noting that you can buy your status
for many of your airlines giving you club access
and tons of additional perks.
Find the airline you're likely to travel with most
and consider a credit card.
For United the Chase United Visa as an example.
Signing up gives you enough miles for a round trip
upon booking within the United States.
Two United club passes annually.
A $100 TSA pre-check fee credit,
free checked bags and priority boarding.
If you're not interested in an airline credit card,
check out the portal of your current credit card company.
There are many no fee credit cards
like the Chase Freedom or the Amex Everyday Credit Card,
that allow you to accumulate points.
But what many people don't know is that you can then
transfer those points to your favorite airline.
In a moment, I'm gonna show you how to avoid
inadvertently booking the worst seat on the entire airplane.
But first for my next hack, use Google flights
to plan your next vacation.
And this is an untapped tab that a lot of people
don't know to use on Google flights.
Let's say you're flying out of DC and you're considering
some travel between now and July 4th.
Just as an example, click the explore tab.
And from DC, I'm immediately presented
with some impossibly low direct airfare options
for as low as $74 to Orlando.
Google also brings some great hotel deals
into account if you so choose.
But you can really pinpoint if you are going weekday,
weekend, how long you want to be there for.
And what you're often presented with are deals
you might not see on any other search tool,
assuming you're flexible.
And now it's time for my bonus hack,
a way to maximize your space
and ensure that your airline seat
is not the worst part of your journey.
If you've never used SeatGuru,
which is another free website, which I'll link to below.
It exposes some valuable information tied to your seat
and its physical location on the airplane.
While booking through your airline gives you
a seat map that indicates the basics.
This website reveals the differences between leg room,
bulkheads, the best and worst seats to book.
And this free resource is heaven sent for long haul travel.
Let's use a flight departing from Detroit to London
as an example with Delta.
For this specific flight SeatGuru reveals information
that no airline is going to give you.
For example, if you are booking an economy seat
and in this case, all of the seats in this section
are either free to book or they have the same price.
Seat 30 G is identified as a standard economy class seat
that other flyers tend to bump into.
So this is a seat you want to avoid booking.
Other parts of the seat map
also reveal all sorts of other issues.
You might not want to encounter on a flight,
including limited recline.
Which is the case of these seats color coded in red.
So there you have it.
Thank you so much for watching.
I love you. Bye bye.