I've wondered about that a lot. I hear about people my age who get to travel quite often by plane. A lot of them are single or have a SO, and they're often still in college, or just out of college.

So... I'm wondering how you guys do it. I know about all the travel discount sites (kayak, travelocity, expedia, orbitz, hotwire), but I've always been skeptical of them. I find that oftentimes I get a better deal looking for plane tickets on the actual airline's website (in my case, NWA is always the airline of choice). Even so, they're still expensive.

Amtrak doesn't service my area, so that option is out. If I wanna get out of here, it's either by plane or Greyhound. I'd loooooooooooooove to take a trip by myself by plane, but yikes! I haven't done that yet. :(

How can I do that? Advice? I know the littlest things can come a long way when looking at airfare costs, like traveling on off-peak days.

Let's not get me started on hotels... I want to stay at a cheap-priced hotel, but would like it to be at least a little classy. Like maybe a Holiday Inn or Days Inn... you know, that kind of thing. It seems like every time I travel with my dad, we end up in a *REALLY* cheap hotel (and I do mean cheap). I like cheap, but geez! (when I traveled to Los Angeles with him, we stayed at the Guesthouse Hotel in Long Beach, CA. More like Ghettohouse Hotel! Yeech! Tara can vouch for me...)

Anyway, I'm rambling. I just want to know how you guys afford it, especially these who travel by plane on a frequent basis.

I book all of my airtravel online, either through travelocity.com or cheaptickets.com. Just do some online research and I'm sure you can find a reasonable flight. In terms of inexpensive places to stay, have you thought about hostels? I use hostelbookers.com and you can find some very inexpensive (and nice) places to stay, all around the world. The cheapest rooms are the shared dormitory-style rooms, but you can also reserve a private room with bath for very little money as well. I've discovered that you can travel on a budget, you just have to do a great deal of research! :)

Mi.

I don't fly that often - I can't afford vacations most of the time!! :lol: I've only flown in 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2007. I took a cross country train trip in 2001. In 2001 and 2007 I stayed with friends, so I didn't have to pay for a hotel and I also saved quite a lot on meals. :D

My mother-in-law is always flying back and forth to Dominican Republic where she is from. She is on a fixed income and I really don't know how she does it but somehow she still has money to live.

We use to fly Delta a lot in the past but their prices were getting to be a little to much. Now we always fly with Southwest Airlines their prices are good and we've never ever had a bad experience with them. No seat assignments either which I love! We also found it much cheaper to book a flight/hotel etc. with the actual place and not with travelocity, expedia etc. Best thing to do is just compare.. know the dates and times and just go check several different airlines.

It depends on where you are going and when you are going. I know when my fiance flies its always about $400, so that's not too bad if you only fly a few times a year. If i want to fly with him, its over $800, and when i looked at plane tickets around christmas it was over $1000 :eek: And that was only for a weekend stay..not worth it lol

My mother-in-law is always flying back and forth to Dominican Republic where she is from. She is on a fixed income and I really don't know how she does it but somehow she still has money to live.
YES! I'm wondering how people like your mom pull that off. There are places I'd like to visit but obviously I can't afford them all at once. :lol:


To the rest of you guys - thank you for the input! :)

We stayed at a Sleep Inn once in KC that was about $44 dollars a night. It was nice. But totally check out tripadvisor.com if you don't already do.

As for flights...yeah, never bought my own ticket and I fly once a millennium it seems. But I have done research for my boyfriend, and it pays to check out fares a couple times a week. And if you're flexible, that's better too. I always go through the airline's website...I want to know exactly what I'm getting. I will NOT get up at 3am just to save a few bucks.

yeah, basically plan ahead, of course buying a ticket a week in advance of the trip is going to be super expensive most of the time. (about a month in advance will do) Don't fly around holidays if you dont want to pay a fortune also. Fly at a slower time, and a slower time of the week (tuesday, wednseday, thursday) because for obvious reasons fridays and weekends are more busy. We have bought all our tickets with expedia.com, so if other sites aren't doing the whole budget thing for you, check out expedia because its usually got the best deals. In fact, i just checked tickets from my city to california (LAX) for mid-february and the tickets were $298 before taxes, which is REALLY good :D

LCC are the way to go. Fortunately I live near an airport that's really well connected with one (Southwest) so I never pay more than $80 one way. You just have to check very often cause some days they lower prices, then next day they raise them, then lower them again. North Dakota might be hard because it's so out of the way and I don't think any airports gets served by LCCs.

As for places to stay, hostels are the way to go. You meet a lot of people who are usually traveling as well (so at least you have people to talk to, go out with, etc.) and they're dirt cheap. And to avoid dumps, check out hostelworld.com. They have ratings of hostels from people who have stayed that and that helped me out tremendously when I planned by big trip around Europe this summer.

It's a pain in the ass and I hate constantly researching, but that's really the only way to go for great deals. I traveled around 5 countries this summer and managed to spend about $2000 total, with most of it ($1200) going just for plane tickets to get there and come back. But I don't travel every year. I work full time most of the year and just save a little bit of cash every month then go on a big trip every 2 - 3 years. Also being a student and working full time helps, because I got a nice refund from the government last year (pretty much all that I payed in taxes).