- Two things that you're look,
I'm going to show you how to do.
Let's say that you're like,
this is the time that I have to go on vacation
and I don't know where to go,
but I just want to go somewhere cheap.
Give me anywhere.
Search, and what this is going to do is
it's literally going to show you a map of all the places
that could go and how much it's going to cost.
Hey guys, my name is Sheila,
and I make these videos every Wednesday.
I started this channel out,
four years ago, in 2015, traveling full-time
and now I'm home in my home state of Minnesota,
creating my space here.
But now that I've traveled full-time for four years,
I want to give you the tips
and the things that I've learned.
So last video I talked about how to stay safe
while solo traveling.
This video, I'm going to give you my five tips
for how to get cheap flights,
because that's what people ask all the time.
So let's just dive right into it.
Tip number one is the most important thing.
I think you're supposed to leave that to tip number five
so people stay watching,
so just stay to the end, but tip number one,
your dates have to be flexible.
So if you're like, I want to go here on these dates,
you're probably going to pay the most.
But if you can plan in advance a little bit
and you have a little bit of leeway,
that is the most optimal way to get cheap flights.
So if you're planning a vacation,
try to look at your flights before you pick your dates.
That's it, be flexible.
When I travel, I'm not on like a very strict schedule,
so I could show up a week early, show up a week late,
kind of decide if I want to go
on Wednesday or a Sunday or whatever.
And that's how I find the cheapest flights.
Tip number two is called Scott's Cheap Flights.
So Scott's Cheap Flights, there's a membership
that you can get in to get all the cheap flights,
otherwise you can just sign up for a free,
sign up for the e-mail list, basically,
and it just looks at all
of the airlines' prices all the time.
And when something drops below what it normally is,
it sends you an e-mail and it's like,
hey, you want to fly to Puerto Rico this month or this summer?
Here's the cheapest flights.
It's amazing, so when we were planning
on going to New Zealand, we're like, oh yeah,
we want to go sometime in these dates.
Scott's Cheap Flights came up and was like,
New Zealand prices super low!
This is amazing, so we went and bought them.
Kind of leads me to my third tip
because we didn't buy them outright.
We used miles.
So tip number three is get a credit card
where you can get miles.
So we saw on Scott's Cheap Flights
that these flights to New Zealand
from Minnesota were the cheapest during these dates.
So then we hopped on our miles program,
and they reflected that as well.
So to use miles, you need to get a credit card,
and credit cards, I could go into a lot of detail
about how to get your good credit.
One thing that I have to say about getting good credit
before you have a credit card, before anything,
if you're in high school and you've got a debit card,
always click credit.
From what I know, and I'm not an expert,
that helps to build your credit
before you even have it, okay?
Anyway, so you're going to want to get a credit card.
I have, let me go get mine.
So the card that I have is called
a Capital One Venture card, and this thing is like,
I don't know how to show you what it,
I don't know how to show you but it's seriously heavy duty.
So this credit card does not bend.
It's super duper sturdy.
It's like crazy thick, and people are always like whoa,
this is a really heavy card.
Anyway, I put all of my money on that card
and then I just it off at the end of the month,
so I'm constantly earning miles,
so when I want to take that big vacation,
I have miles that almost usually entirely pay for my trip.
So that's one way to get free flights.
I would say if you put all of your expenses on that card,
you could probably get one flight a year,
depending on how much you spend
and depending on where you're going.
Tip number four, Google Flights.
Google Flights is where I buy all of my flights.
And yes, I understand that there are other websites,
there's a million ways to do this, this is just what I do.
I think that Google, it excludes some airlines,
so if you like an airline that's not on there, go check.
But what I love about Google Flights
and I'm going to get on the computer
to show you exactly what Google Flights does,
Google Flights is good for
when you're starting your planning process,
so if you don't have your dates,
or you don't have your location,
or you're kind of just up for going anywhere.
So what Google Flights is good at is telling you
what month is the cheapest,
what location is the cheapest for your dates.
Buying flights it scares me the most,
I do not like doing it,
so I like to just go on there and just trust that
for the most part I'm getting a good deal.
So tip number five are two websites
that I personally have never used
but people recommend to me all the time.
The first one is, what's it called?
The first one is called Skiplagged.
So one time in college, I was going
from San Diego to Minnesota,
but I had a layover in Chicago.
So I went San Diego, Chicago, to Minnesota.
My roommate was going to Chicago.
She had a flight that went San Diego, Minnesota, Chicago.
And I was like, can we just switch flights
and get off at the connecting flight.
That's what Skiplagged does.
Skiplagged is like, okay, so we found this flight
that the layover is your destination,
and it's cheaper than most flights going
to that destination.
I hope I'm explaining this clearly.
That's what they do, so that's really great.
The only catch is if you do get off at the layover,
you have to carry-on your bags,
because if you check them,
they'll go to the end destination.
Momondo, and what they do is similar to
what I'm going to show you that Google Flights does.
It just shows you the green days for
when it's cheaper to fly.
So let's hop on to my computer.
It's not going to be glamorous,
it's just going to be recording my screen,
and I'll show you how I do it.
All right, so this isn't the fanciest setup,
but we've got me in the corner, hi,
and then we have my computer screen
that I'm sharing with you.
So first you're going to go to Google,
go to Google Flights.
Perfect.
Click on Google Flights.
So there's two things that you're going to look,
I'm going to show you how to do.
Let's say that you're like, this is the time
that I have to go on vacation and I don't know where to go,
but I just want to go somewhere cheap.
Give me anywhere.
You're going to say my vacation days are from,
cheapest flights, the cheapest times
to fly are Tuesday through Thursday,
so let's just say Wednesday to Tuesday, okay.
Then you're going to say search,
and what this is going to do is it's literally going to show you
a map of all the places that you could go,
and how much it's going to cost.
You could go to Denver for 84 bucks during that time.
You could go to Nashville for 168, this is round trip,
so you see round trip, how many people.
You could say, okay, where could I go for under 100 bucks?
So move that all the way down.
Boom.
Denver, Las Vegas, New Orleans.
They're going to show up on the side here,
and it's going to show you the places that you can go
for under $100.
You can move this, let's just go to any again,
you can move this down.
So you could say, all right, I want to go somewhere
in the Caribbean.
Zoom in.
And now it's going to tell you where you can go
in these areas and for how much.
So this is a great way to see where you can go
and how much things are going to cost.
If you don't really have a destination in mind,
but you've got flights that you,
or dates that you have to keep to.
Okay, now let's say you're like, I've always, always wanted
to go to France.
You're going to type that in,
don't worry about the dates right now.
Then, you're going to click on the dates here and be like,
you know what?
I got flexible dates.
I can go, I want to go for two weeks anytime,
anytime in the next six months.
Or if you're like I need to go in October.
My birthday's in November,
I want to go for two weeks in November, whatever.
Then you're going to click done.
Now it's going to tell you all the,
Paris!
Paris is 482, you've got Nice for 685,
and all the rest are real expensive.
So you should go to Paris.
You can adjust for round trip if you want to go one way.
So here's another thing that I love.
Let's say that you're like, I need to go
from Minneapolis to Phoenix to visit a friend,
then I'm going to fly over to San Diego,
drive up to San Francisco, fly to San Francisco.
You're going to go round trip, multi-city.
You're going to go Minneapolis to Phoenix.
You're leaving on, I'm just going to let it populate the dates,
but sure, the 1st.
You go Phoenix to, what did I say, San Diego.
Add flight, you're driving up to San Francisco.
Minneapolis on the 9th, sure, search.
Then it's going to start populating these flights for you.
So you're like, okay cool, this is the cheapest date, done.
And you're just going to click through it
until you find all the flights that you want.
Last thing that I'm going to show you are the dates.
So when you type in Minneapolis to Phoenix,
you can click on here and it's going to populate the prices
of the tickets.
So if today's the 16th, I obviously've been
on this a while ago, your cheapest date
to leave is the 31st, done.
Click it and then it says okay,
your cheapest returning flight is
if you come back on Wednesday,
but it's only $10 more to stay for Thursday,
so you might as well.
And it populates like that,
so it's pretty much the greatest thing ever,
because when you're not sure about what date you want
and you can have the flexibility
to move them around a little bit, it tells you.
If you want to go out a couple of months,
let's say your birthday's in November, boom.
I like that it shows you the cheapest in green,
which obviously the cheapest,
apparently is back here in September, so.
That's Google Flights, that's how it works,
that's why I love it.
All right, so now that you guys have got my five tips
for how to get cheap flights.
Flexible dates, Scott's Cheap Flights, using airline miles,
Google Flights, two websites called Skiplagged and Momondo.
Those are my best tips for getting cheap flights.
If you have any more recommendations, please put them
in the comments below.
I would love to have a resource
for anybody who's looking for that.
Thank you guys all so much for watching,
and I will see you next Wednesday.
Mwah!
(hip hop music outro)