Have you noticed how many insane travel deals they are lately? Virgin America is successfully putting pressure on other airlines to reduce fares, which means you and I benefit!
If you are traveling for the holidays and haven’t booked your tickets, or are traveling in the next six months, here are my best money-saving travel tips.
- be flexible with travel dates if at all possible
- flying on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday is generally the cheapest
- sign up for the email list of various airlines you like to travel on because they often send electronic fare sale alerts, giving you the first crack at sales (especially for Virgin America and Southwest)
- comparison shop on Kayak.com
- but check the airline’s homepage for a reduced fare, too
- consider Priceline.com if you are flexible about travel times and airlines
- Southwest flights can only be booked through them
- sign up for TravelZoo.com, a site that finds incredible travel bargains and emails them to you (they are especially good for packaged vacations and event tickets)
- sign upfor AirFareWatchDog.com, which tracks specific routes for you
- pack light to avoid baggage fees (see below)
- use this coupon for free in-flight Internet access
Here is a summary of airline baggage fees so you can factor them into the cost of your trip.
American – $20 first bag, $30 second bag
Continental – $20 first bag, $30 second bag
Delta – $20 first bag, $30 second bag but get a $5 discount by paying ahead of time online
United – $20 first bag, $30 second bag but get a $5 discount by paying ahead of time online
Southwest – no baggage fees
For a full list of airline baggage fees, see this page on About.com.
Related:
Save on hotels by booking a time share or vacation rental.
Going abroad? Top 10 tips to keep it cheap internationally.
Staying home? Earn money by hosting travelers.
If you like cruises, read my resources for cruise deals.
December 15th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Great post! For those of you that haven’t traveled on Virgin America, do so as your first priority. The airline is so much nicer than most domestic coach seating and makes hectic travel much more enjoyable.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
The only drawback with Virgin is that if they cancel, they can’t put you on another airline.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
fyi – you can sometimes get a discount on baggage fees by registering your luggage online. I got my bag discounted on American to $12 last year for doing it online.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
You’ve got some great resources and information posted here. It’s nice that you even include information about current baggage fees. Extra fees can often make what seems like a good deal much less desirable.
Indeed, there are a lot of travel deals on offer at the moment. Some of it is undoubtedly due to the still sluggish economy. Travel companies are offering a bit of extra incentive for people to take a trip. Also, I think the higher number of deals has to do with the time of year. I always seem to find better travel deals during the winter, especially after the holidays.