Hacks on Getting Deals on Flights & Hotels

If you’ve been reading our blog posts, you know one thing: we love a good bargain!  Since we love to travel, we try to save as much as possible on flights and hotels so we can splurge on food, drinks, and activities during the actual trip. Check out some of our tricks below!

Flights

Skyscanner

We have been using the Skyscanner  app for a few years now and it’s amazing.  It shows you the best dates to go away based on where you choose. It can show you how much you will be saving by traveling a day before or after or if the following week would be cheaper rather than the week you’re thinking of.  If you are thinking of going away somewhere but aren’t sure where, there is an option to view “everywhere” and it will show you the cheapest months/dates to visit any city in the world. If you know the month you want to go away but are flexible on the dates, it can also show you when the best time to go away and filters by the cheapest city. The app also brings you to the website connected to the flights so you can book directly from there.

*It even notes whether the flight will be basic economy, economy, etc. so you know whether or not you’ll have to pay an additional charge for your carry on bags.

Hopper

The Hopper  app is a key player when we book flights. It watches the flights you are thinking of booking and will tell you when to book. Sometimes our dates are not as flexible when we are planning a girls’ trip based on everyone’s schedules so Hopper is great because it predicts when flights will go up or down and if you should wait to book or book immediately.  It saved us on one trip where the flight we were looking at went down $90 and Hopper told us to book ASAP and thank God we did! The next day the same flight went back up but this time over $100! Similar to Skyscanner, Hopper also connects you to the booking website so you can directly book.

Airline Emails

Some people swear by certain airlines and will only fly specific ones, but we are open to flying different airlines if the price is right and if the airline is rated well. More often than not, we end up flying United, simply because it ends up being the most inexpensive option but we are always looking out for flash sales from other airlines – in case those are better deals. We recently signed up for Southwest emails and they have great deals on major cities for a short period of time. We grabbed flights for our upcoming Nashville trip on one of Southwest’s deals for almost half of what the flights were going for on other sites.

Scott’s Cheap Flights

This site is great if you’re able to book ASAP. They email you a list of cheap flights along with the dates however the deal doesn’t last long. Some of them are glitches in the system and only available for 24 hours, so you’ll need to move quickly. Most of them show great deals for international flights so it’s great to subscribe to these emails if you’re planning a big trip!

Hotels

Booking.com, Orbitz, Expedia, etc.

We check all of the standard hotel apps including Orbitz, Expedia, and Hotels.com but have found that Booking.com sometimes has cheaper rates compared to other sites. Courtney is a gold member with Expedia, so many times they’ll upgrade her when she checks into a hotel. When she stayed in Punta Cana, they upgraded her to an oceanfront view with a hot tub on the balcony.

You can also sign up for emails for all of these websites and it will email you a few times a month with a members only promo code. A little hint is to also Google the hotel you are looking for and it will let you know what site offers the best rate. We also often book through Marriott and Hilton as they have deals for app only users. In addition, we love staying at Kimpton hotels. Every week, they send out last minute deals to members and the deals are usually less than $200/night. Their standard rates are usually not that low. Sometimes we will book another hotel and make sure we are able to cancel with a full refund option so many days in advance. Once we get a last minute deal email, we will cancel our original hotel and book a Kimpton hotel the week of since it will be cheaper or the same amount for a nicer hotel.  

When you are booking a flight or hotel, it’s always important to check if the site you are using is on Ebates!  For those of you who don’t know about Ebates, if you go through through them onto the site you would like to shop on, they give you a percentage of cash back on your purchase!  They also give you coupon options just in case there is any extra money you could be saving.  The percentage of cash back you could get ranges every day but it’s an easy way to save money.  Orbitz is currently 14% cash back – amazing!

What are your favorite ways to save money on your trips? Comment and let us know! We’re always open to new ways.

Happy travels 🙂

xo A&C