I realised my bag was packed to the max and was well over 1 inch larger than the limit. I panicked and had to think fast. I booked this flight because it was super cheap, but I didn't expect they'd be so crazy with the rules. "How the hell am I going to get out of this??" I thought.
And then I saw another guy who wasn't in line yet, open his luggage, take out some clothes and put several extra layers on his body. "Wow!" I thought, now that's some smart thinking. And this is how my article on the Top 5 Unique Tricks for Flying Cheap for the Hardcore Budget Traveler was born ;)
How hardcore of a budget traveler are you? If you are kind of interested in saving some money then this post is not for you - but if you would do almost ANYTHING to save some cash, so that you can travel as long as possible - then you've come to the right place. By the way if you get to the end of the article and still have some questions, send me an email and I'll be happy to help you out.
1) Open your mind and stop doing what everyone else is doing. You will need an open mind to try out the following tips.
Flickr: MarcelGermain
2) Clothes We all know how cheap it is to fly with airlines like Ryan air etc, but they charge insane amounts for checking in some luggage. If you really want to save some money on this, think about wearing as many layers of clothing as possible to the airport. Once you are on the plane, you can take them off - and if you are smart - you can bring a flexible material made bag that is only as big as what you put in it - small enough to pass the budget airline's strict carry on luggage policy and then flexible enough to grow when you need to put your clothes in it after getting on the plane. Another option is to wear a jacket with many pockets where you can store your items.
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| Island of Crete, Greece. |
3) Search ... and then search some more...or not I'm someone who flies internationally about every 2 months (I am in Europe so it's not so hard), so spending some time looking for cheaper prices is something I do very often. Even so, time after time I keep comparing kayak, cheapflights, momondo and others, and again and again I keep coming back to skyscanner for short distance international flights. Do any comparison right now against Skyscanner
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| Stockholm, Sweden. |
Flickr: Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi
4) Be open minded about when and where...Do you really need to fly to that place exactly and right when you plan to? There is a great feature on skyscanner which shows you the cheapest places to go from wherever you are. For example if you are in Athens, you type in From Athens To Everywhere and it lists all the destinations with the cheapest one first.
Also, do you really need to depart from a particular airport? For example flying to Milan from Athens will cost you
about €250, but catching a train for €19 to Thessaloniki (Greece's second biggest city), will let you fly to Milan for just €50. By the way, are you enjoying this article? Join us on Facebook for all the latest updates and new posts.
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5) Use Flightfox for long distance If you are flying long distance use this truly unique service to get the cheapest flight(s). It works as follows - you use the search engines/travel agents to find the cheapest flights possible for your destination on the dates you want. You then go to flightfox and tell them this price - then members of the site will use their skill to find you a better price - and if they do, you pay them a small fee as a thank you. From watching it for a while, they usually save people 30-50%. I don't know how they do it but it's amazing.
Also, I wanted to mention that occasionally I send out a
unique newsletter with my secret and unique money saving tips, great deals on flights, and special locations unknown to the average tourist (at bargain prices).
You really can travel on a super small budget to exotic locations if
you have all the information the travel companies don't want you to know
about!
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Flickr goianobe