Travel Secrets to Save You Money

As a person who loves to travel, I’ve realized that it’s important to incorporate some penny pinching measures in order to make my funds go further.  Here are my top six travel secrets to save you money on your next trip!

  • Take advantage of online resources and comparison shop!  Check several sites to try and get different price estimates for your preferred trip.  There is even a cool website farecast.com that predicts whether an airline fare you are considering is likely to rise or fall in the near future.
  • Despite what some travel articles may tell you, you can still wait until the last minute for a deal.  Load factors on many airlines averages about 80%, which means that on average, 20% of the planes are empty.  Guess what happens to those empty seats in the days leading up to the flight?  That’s right, they go on sale!
  • Car rental insurance is usually unnecessary.  How many times have you rented a car and cautioned by the rental clerk to purchase an optional collision damage waiver.  Don’t be fooled.  Check your personal car insurance policy as it will usually cover you.  If it doesn’t rent with a credit card as most will cover you for car rentals.  Be sure to read the fine print and chances are good that you won’t have to succumb to the strong armed tactics of the rental clerk next time around.
  • Remember to take advantage of group discounts.  Many airlines, hotel chains and car rental agencies offer reduced rates to special groups like senior citizens, AAA members and more.
  • Beware that where you buy your hotel room matters.  Hotels often have two classification systems for their rooms: published and unpublished categories.  The unpublished categories are secret, internal ways of tagging a room, ranging from the least desirable (ex. the one between the elevator and the ice machine) and the most desirable.  Some hotel chains will give you a poorer classified room if you found it inexpensively at a discount travel site.  For the best room in the house, book your room through the hotel chain’s website because ‘unofficially’ they save their best rooms for direct booking customers.
  • Consider using a travel agent, particularly if you are too busy to do much research on your own or if you have specialized needs when you travel.  I have had instances where travel agents gave really good information and found us a great trip when I was traveling with a disabled relative.

All of these secrets can save you pennies along the way.  And my last piece of advice is to research the area you’re planning to travel to.  There are many valuable websites offering travel advice such as internettraveltips.com.  These website and many others can give you great pieces of advice such as ‘earlier airline flights are less likely to be delayed.

Finally, remember that the world is not a uniformly friendly place for travelers.  Choose wisely!

Posted by on 12/20 at 09:50 AM

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