Money Saving Travel Tips

Coming soon!

Frequent Flyer rundown

Miles awarding credit cards. Count them up, JOIN JOIN JOIN. American Airlines, Unitied, Southwest Delta, get your free tickets, follow the rules and CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL and then in a year you can do it all over again! Keep one that doesn’t charge foreign exchange fees or annual fees. Chase Freedom and Capital One are both fee free and give you decent reward points you can use for cash back or travel. Also, booking rental cars through your credit cards reward site often gets you the best rates!

How to get the most hotel for the least! If you are brave and are able to foresee hotel availability its often easiest to just walk into a hotel with no reservation and say “Hi, I was thinking of staying here tonight, do you have any availability and can you show me the room you can give me the best rate on?” If the hotel is empty and doesn’t foresee filling up in the evening then you’re set, especially if you are dealing with a manager. If the rate is too high (you should do your research and see what the best deal online is) simply say “I was hoping for $100 can you see if you can get me in for close to that?” If not then say “here is my # call me if you talk to your manager and want a really good review on tripadvisor” and then turn and walk to the next hotel. You have to be prepared and have several hotels within walking distance that you don’t mind staying at. You don’t want to waste limited time searching for a room so this isn’t for everyone, but if played right the $ saved will mean even more travel in the future!

Curbing the food budget on the go

Eating out is one of the biggest expenses of travel and can also be the most enjoyable part of the trip. Save your $ for destination worthy restaurants. Rule #1 is call ahead and charm the hotel into providing soy milk in the free morning breakfast (if they have one). Getting a food you can eat as part of the hotel fare you are already paying for is a big bonus. Grab bread and boxes of vegan cereal for snacks later on!

Hotel points programs

Usually hotel programs are very unrewarding and amount to horrid chain hotels that keep you stuck with touristy crowds isolated from the experience you planned on having. Hotels.com has a reward program and you can often book the best deals there, however, hotels.com blocks off groups of rooms that are usually the most undesirable in the hotel (think elevator noise / weird corner room that is too small to turn around in). Starwood hotels are generally the best bet among the international chains. The points don’t add up to much other than room upgrades, but at least its something!

Rental Car companies also have points programs!