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Article Series: Airline Travel
Airlines, Planes & Airport Security
How
To Fly To Your Dream Destination Cheaply
You’ve daydreamed for years about sipping
cocktails on the beach at St.-Tropez on the French Riviera,
trekking through the magnificence of the Himalayas, or riding
atop an elephant on safari through Kenya. Your daydreams
were often shattered with the thoughts of airline fares costing
thousands of dollars. Now, with careful planning and diligent
research, your dream destination can become a reality.
In today’s high-tech world, the
Internet has allowed each of us to become our own professional
travel agents. It encourages
you to dream big when it comes to booking air travel by offering
such a vast number of resources. Some of these resources
are dream makers; others only tease you into believing in
something that’s too good to be true. Before starting on
your mission to fly cheaply to your dream destination, do
yourself a favor and have a good sense of just where you’d
like to go.
Once you’ve chosen your dream destination, get organized.
Be ready to keep a careful record of the websites you’ve
visited along with their fares, flight schedules, travel
rules and special deals. Although jumping on the first good
deal you see can be tempting, checking with a variety of
vendors and comparing their offerings oftentimes pays off.
Begin your search by shopping for airports. Oftentimes,
budget carriers fly into or out of smaller airports. You
may be able to find discounted flights by flying into a smaller
city near your dream destination or a flying out of Midway
rather than O’Hare. Check airports within a 100-mile radius
of your home and your destination.
Consider investigating travel clubs, which are membership-based
organizations that book your travel for you. Most clubs are
able to reduce airline fares, in addition to rates at hotels,
motels, and resorts, cruises, and vacation packages, by up
to 50%. In addition, many travel clubs offer a 5-10% discount
for booking travel with them. Club memberships range from
$35 to $150 and up. Many clubs will offer an “all-inclusive”
vacation package to your dream destination, which could cut
down substantially on your costs and planning time.
Keep
a close eye on the airline websites with last minute
special deals. These special deals are often the result of
empty seats on flights to popular destinations. If you’re
able to travel on the off-season or with not much advance
notice, you can find substantial savings. Most of the major
carriers’ websites have links to weekly special deals. You
can even sign up for email notices of special fares from
your home airport.
Another effective technique to flying to your dream destination
on the cheap is to bid for your fare. Although bidding websites
such as Priceline and Hotwire can be risky, the pay-off can
be substantial. You are not able to choose airlines or flights
on these websites, and fares purchased are non-refundable.
This is a good method for savings if your itinerary is flexible.
A number of the Internet flight comparison websites, such
as Expedia and Travelocity, allow you to search for fares
using flexible dates. You can find cheaper seats while also
choosing the airline and travel days that work for you.
Consider flying to your dream destination in the off-season.
You may be able to travel to a destination such as Iceland
in March for a fraction of the cost of the trip in the summer.
Many times, hotel and car rental costs will be cheaper during
these off times, and you’ll have many of the top tourist
attractions to yourself.
Remember that fares change often—sometimes daily and that
timing can be everything. If you’ve done your research and
you see a fare that you know is a good deal, take advantage
of it. Check back often to see if fares have changed, and
listen to news reports of fare sales, which are often brought
on by the discount airlines.
Once you’re finally on that dream flight, sit back, relax,
and live your daydream.
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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