It’s now winter break, and many of us are headed home for the holidays. Soon, if not already, you will probably be booking plans for your return to campus. And that’s where this article comes in.
The recent boom in web technology and user interfaces has given regular people access to a ton of information about flights. With all those resources out there, it can be a bit overwhelming at times to book a trip. How do you know if you’re really getting the best rate?
Fortunately, there are a few tips that I can recommend for saving money on your next bit of air travel:
Use the Bing price predictor tool to figure out if the fare is going to change. I’m not a big fan of Bing, but this is one place where Microsoft really delivered a great product. When you search for flights with Bing, the search engine will return not only the current rates, but also an estimate for how rates are going to change in the near future: an estimate of the magnitude (often $50 or more) and a probability with which Bing is certain.
Unfortunately, the price predictor isn’t available for every flight. You have to be searching for round-trip tickets to access it, and some smaller regional airports aren’t included in the predictions. But all in all, it’s a great way to make sure that you aren’t buying right before a big price drop—or that if prices are escalating quickly, you can get ahead of the curve and book your tickets before they do.
Use Hipmunk to cut through the madness of choosing a flight. I’ve always enjoyed using Expedia, and I still do most of my booking through them, but Hipmunk is tough to beat when I initially look for a flight. The site helps make choosing between itineraries easy by indexing different “pain factors” about flights—how early in the morning; how many layovers; total cost; total travel time—into one score and then sorting them from least to most painful.
This display makes comparisons between flights simple: for example, is it worth an extra $20 on your ticket to avoid getting up at 4 a.m.? By seeing the itineraries stacked on top of each other with the difference highlighted, you’re able to make a more-informed decision. Of course, if you’d prefer a more traditional view of flights—sorted by departure time or cost, say—Hipmunk can do that too. Sometimes you can find the same flights for cheaper through sites like Expedia or the airlines’ website, but Hipmunk is great for actually locating the flight you want. I highly recommend it for that purpose.
Use Ebates to get free cash-back on your travel plans. When you sign-up for a free account at Ebates and visit their site before booking your travel, you can earn free cash-back on the flight you would have booked anyway—completely free of cost. This cash isn’t much—it’s only a couple of dollars—but it’s essentially found money, so why not take it? Plus, Ebates offers a bunch of great savings on other products and shops you likely would have bought from anyway. Consider signing-up for Ebates today, and save an extra few dollars on your next travel plan.
Use Student Universe to take advantage of student-only rates. I’ll be honest that I’ve never personally booked through Student Universe or other student-fare air travel companies, but I’ve heard great things about the discounts they can get you on flights, particularly internationally. I just played around with a comparison of the site and Bing, and I found a few itineraries for which using Student Universe saved about $60—a pretty tidy sum of money. Given how expensive air travel has become lately, I would definitely jump at a chance to get those savings.
Winter break is a time to relax, have some fun, and decompress from the semester before, but eventually it will come to an end. When it does, make sure that you aren’t spending more money than necessary on your travel back to school. There are great options out there to get you where you want and when you want, all while saving a bundle of cash.
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