You’ll discover every possible tactic we could think of so you can learn how to find cheap flights every time.

Most are super quick, and some can even be automated so the cheap flights come to you.

Let’s get going…

Table of Contents

• How to Find Cheap Flights (And Have Them Come To You)
• Best Ways To Research Cheap Flights
• Tips To Find Existing Cheap Flights
• Engineering Your Itinerary To Save (i.e. Itinerary Hacks!)
• What’s Better Than Cheap Flights? Free Flights! (i.e. Travel Hacking!)
• Extra Things You Can Do To Make It Easier To Save Money On Flights

How to Find Cheap Flights (And Have Them Come To You)

1. Sign Up For Cheap Flight Newsletters

By far the easiest way to find cheap flights is to have them magically appear in your inbox. There are a number of cheap flight notification newsletters you can sign up for to make this happen. Some newsletters are free, some are premium. Shop around and choose the ones that suit you best. Here’s a list of some of our favorites:

TravelPirates – TravelPirates has a free daily newsletter to alert you of all the deals they’ve found before they sell out and disappear.

SecretFlying – The daily newsletter from SecretFlying is customizable so that if you only want to hear about flights departing from your area, you can. To register, fill out their signup form here.

AirfareWatchdog – The most sophisticated option, AirfareWatchdog keeps an eye out for specific journeys for you, and alerts you when they’re available for a good price. For example, if you’ve always wanted to go to Paris, and you live in the Boston area, you could set it to watch for flights from Boston to Paris. You can also set it to watch for deals departing from Boston, or even for hotel deals in Paris.

Scott’s Cheap Flights – Scott’s Cheap Flights is the only newsletter on this list that has a Premium paid option. What makes Scott’s newsletter different from the above options is that it’s all compiled by a human rather than an algorithm. When he finds a deal, he does the legwork to find the cheapest way to book it, and from what cities it’s available. In order to make sure he doesn’t flood your inbox with lame deals, he focuses solely on international flights, so if you’re hoping to find domestic deals, this isn’t the newsletter for you. Another benefit to Scott’s Cheap Flights is that in each email he walks you through the steps to exactly how to book the flight the cheapest way possible.

2. Join Specific Airline Newsletters

You can also sign up for emails directly from the airlines. Usually, if an airline is having a sale, their email list is going to be the first to hear about it. Some airlines also occasionally offer promo codes exclusively for email subscribers. The best of these tend to come from budget airlines rather than the major ones. Here’s a list of some good ones we’ve found:

• Alaska Air
• Allegiant Air
• Frontier Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• jetBlue
• Southwest
• Spirit Airlines (they also have the $9 Fare Club, a membership program which includes access to crazy deals and discounted luggage)

3. Get An Awesome Cheap Flight Notification App

Think email’s too slow? Worried you might miss the deal of a lifetime because you didn’t get an instant ping? There’s an app for that.

But seriously, Jetto is an app that basically takes the premise of the flight deal newsletters into the 21st century. Choose your departure region and possible destinations, and let the app ping you whenever it finds a deal to fit your travel dreams.

Best Ways To Research Cheap Flights

If you have a specific trip in mind, it may be better to seek out the deals yourself, rather than waiting for one to appear in your inbox.

In that case, the best place to start is with airfare search engines.

Step-by-step to research: How to find cheap flights with airfare search engines

1. Start with the best airfare search engines
2. Check as many of them as you can to make sure you’re getting the best deal available
3. Then check the airline’s website directly and locate the same flight to see if it’s cheaper.

4. Check Best Airfare Search Engines

Skyscanner – What it’s great at: Finding the cheapest fares possible. It makes finding the cheapest place to fly into or out of and the cheapest day to leave super easy.

Momondo – What it’s great at: It occasionally catches cheap fares that Skyscanner didn’t find, so it’s great for double checking yourself.

Google Flights – What it’s great at is finding the cheapest day for your flight.

5. Get Cheap Flight Search Apps

Hopper – This app is really great at predicting when airfare might be about to go up. You can also set it to watch certain journeys and alert you of deals.

You can book through the app, but it’s important to keep in mind that that’s how they make money, so it’s in their favor to encourage you to purchase sooner rather than later. Because of that, they might overemphasize when the price is going up in order to get you to purchase sooner than later. Regardless, it’s still an awesome tool to have in your cheap flight research arsenal.

A lot of the search engines have apps as well!

6. Stick To Budget Airlines When You Can

Every year another budget airline crops up, making finding a good deal on flights extremely accessible.

But the devil is in the details with budget airlines.

They’re able to keep their costs low by not necessarily including things like snacks, drinks, or carry-on bags. Some even charge really high fees for things like not printing out your ticket ahead of time (looking at you, Ryanair).

They often only depart from non-major airports that might be out of the way or inconvenient to get to.

Sometimes, they only run at crazy early-in-the-morning or late-at-night times (another way they keep costs low).

But if you’re willing to take off at 5:30 am from an airport an hour outside of town, you could be in for some really sweet deals.

Just make sure you read the fine print, and bring your own snacks and water bottle.

7. Use Wikipedia To Find Cheap Flights On The Best Budget Airlines

Most people don’t think to use Wikipedia for travel but it can be a fantastic resource.

For example, here is a comprehensive list of low-cost airlines by country.

You can also use Wikipedia to find information on specific airports and discover all the airlines that come in and out of that airport and what destinations they fly to.

Here are a few commonly used low-cost airlines:

• Ryanair (within Europe)
• Norwegian Air (great deals from the U.S. to Europe and back)
• Spirit (U.S. domestic deals)
• Allegiant Air (U.S. domestic deals)
• Southwest (U.S. regional deals)
• Scoot (formerly Tiger Airways)
• flyDubai
• AirAsia

8. Search For Flights In Incognito / Private Mode

When you research flights for your trip, going back and forth between different sites, double and triple-checking things before you drop your hard-earned cash, you might start seeing the prices going up from what they were the first time you looked.

No, you might not be going crazy.

Many people think that there are cookies on some airfare sites that notice when you’ve searched for a trip a few times, and they start bumping up the price for you.

This is disputed in the travel community, and it hasn’t been proven yet. But many people suggest always set your browser to the private or incognito mode when you search for flights.

This means that it won’t save cookies when you close the window, so the sites won’t recognize that you’ve been there before or done that search before (assuming they are in fact using cookies).

It can’t hurt, right?

So here’s how you set your browser to private/incognito:

How to set Chrome to Incognito:
Select “File”, and “New Incognito Window” from the dropdown (or press “Shift + Cmd + N” on a Mac, “Shift + Ctrl + N” on a PC).

How to set Safari to private:
Select “File”, and “New Private Window” from the dropdown (or press “Shift + Cmd + N” on a Mac, “Shift + Ctrl + N” on a PC).

Tips To Find Existing Cheap Flights

9. Jump On Mistake Fares When You See Them

By far the most satisfying feeling is when you book a massive international flight that’s normally a couple of thousand dollars, and you only paid a couple hundred.

“What is this magic?” you cry!

Sometimes, airlines make a mistake when they post a new flight, and they put the wrong price. For example, maybe they missed a zero or two. And that’s what we call a mistake fare.

The trick with mistake fares is that they don’t last very long. Sometimes they only last an hour or two…or less.

The airline suddenly sees a massive upswing in sales on a particular flight, they get suspicious and check, catch their mistake, and correct it.

We want to make sure we’re part of that massive upswing in sales.
How do we do this?

There are a few places who make it their business to catch these and let people know.

The newsletters we mentioned at the beginning of this guide are a good start. But to really take advantage of mistake fares, you need something more immediate.

The team over at The Flight Deal always seems to know about mistake fares first, so following them on Twitter and making sure you always get notified when they post is a great way to start making sure you always hear about mistake fares.

10. How To Find Cheap Flights By Taking Advantage of Airline Sales

Sometimes, just like any other business that sells stuff, airlines have sales.

These can be for certain destinations, special packages, discount codes, or any other gimmick they come up with to give us a great deal.

Sometimes you’ll find these in cheap flight email newsletters, but the best way to be the first to hear about them is to subscribe to the airline’s email list directly.

These can be unpredictable, but good times to keep an eye out for airline sales include January (New Year’s travel goals?), the beginning of summer, and Black Friday (and Cyber Monday).

11. Monitor The Flyer Talk Message Boards

Flyer Talk is a forum for travel hacking and flight deal enthusiasts, and it can be a great way to hear about mistake fares, sales, or generally great deals on flights.

12. Try Other Currencies

Sometimes if you try looking at a flight in a different currency, it might be at a different price level. It’s not totally clear why this happens, but it can be a handy (relatively easy) way to save a bit of cash.

To try this, you’ll need to do the search in incognito/private mode, with all location settings off. Otherwise, it won’t work.

(Basically, you’re trying to trick the site into thinking you’re actually in the country whose currency you’re looking at. If your browser’s location settings say somewhere in the U.S., though, it’ll know better and you won’t see a better deal.)

Check out our instructions above to put your browser in incognito/private mode.

It’s also super important to only try this on a card that doesn’t have foreign transaction fees, or you’ll end up paying more money (or at least washing out) rather than saving any.

13. Use a VPN To ‘Trick’ Airline Websites

VPN’s (Virtual Private Network) are a tool that you can use to protect your computer on public networks.

For example, say you’re surfing the internet at a cafe in Rome on their WIFI network. Using a VPN protects your sensitive data.

So how can you use a VPN to find cheaper flights?

Every VPN allows you to select what country to route your VPN through. Here’s what it looks like when I connect with my Tunnelbear account.

Say you were in the USA and looking for a flight in Italy. You could hook up your VPN through Italy, then go to the airline website and ‘trick’ the website into thinking you were in Italy searching for that same flight. This can sometimes result in cheaper flights. Other countries might also net cheaper prices as well.

Note: some websites are savvier than others and won’t fall for your VPN ruse.

Of course, there is no way to know how often you’ll find cheaper flights or even if it will work for your specific situation. Still, it’s good to have another cheap flights tool in your arsenal!

Engineering Your Itinerary To Save (i.e. Itinerary Hacks!)

Now we’re getting into the really advanced stuff. Itinerary hacking.

Itinerary hacking is all about engineering your tickets to get the most savings and the most travel bang for your buck.

Some of the strategies we’re about to talk about are pretty simple, and some are more advanced, but they all involve making modifications to the physical journey you take (don’t worry, you’ll still end up at your destination).

14. Save Money By Using Alternative Airports

Sometimes taking the bus to/from a nearby airport rather than arriving in/departing from the one that’s closest may save you hundreds (though it might take more time, so consider the opportunity cost).

15. Get A Free Mini Trip With Stopovers / Open Jaws

Basically, a stopover is when you spend a few days in your layover destination instead of just grabbing an overpriced lunch in the airport terminal during a layover.

Or as Airwander puts it: Layover = less than 24hrs. Stopover = More than 24hrs.

The awesome part: there’s no extra cost for those few days!

Airwander helps make engineering stopovers super easy.

16. Use Multi-City Flights or Air Passes For Extended Trips

Booking your trip with Round The World tickets can be cost-effective, but really only if you have a fixed itinerary with lots of international stops in mind.

Otherwise, if you’re trying to be budget conscious and a bit more spontaneous, it might not be a good option for you.

But, if you are one of those types that like to plan everything in advance, it could save you a ton of money! You can either book them directly through the airline alliance or through a travel agent.

There are several restrictions around Round The World tickets, so it might be easiest to work with a travel agent who specializes in RTWs and can work around the restrictions and your wants and needs to get you the best deal.

Another thing to consider are airline passes. If you were planning on spending some time in Asia it might be worth looking into the AirAsia Asean Pass.

Brazil has the Azul Airpass which, at the time of writing, offers unlimited flights around the country for up to 10 days.

Airpass deals are always in flux and new programs pop up on occasion so be on the lookout for something that might be a fit with your travel goals.

17. Book Flight Legs Separately

Sometimes the best way to get from A to B is by booking your flight legs separately yourself.

For example, if you wanted to fly from Texas to Paris, but you found a cheaper flight from Texas to Madrid, you could then book a budget airline from Madrid to Paris to save yourself some cash.

Many of the search engines we’ve mentioned in this guide have “multi-city” search capabilities that make this easy.

18. How To Find Cheap Flights Using Hidden City Ticketing

This is an interesting one.

Basically, with hidden city ticketing, you book a flight from your starting location to another place that connects in your final destination, and you just don’t take the second leg of the journey.

For example, you’re in San Diego, and you want to go to Nashville. Let’s say the flights you’re finding from San Diego to Nashville are $400.

But then you find a ticket from San Diego to Detroit that connects in Nashville and only costs $300. With Hidden City Ticketing, you just get off the plane in Nashville and don’t take the second leg of the journey all the way to Detroit.

In this hypothetical journey, you just saved major bucks!

This is tricky sometimes with checked bags, and some airlines don’t actually let you off the plane, so use this method at your own risk.

By far the easiest way to find and book hidden city tickets is with Skiplagged.

19. Sometimes Round-Trip Is Cheaper Than One-Way

Sometimes, for some reason, a return flight is cheaper than a one-way ticket (don’t ask us, we didn’t write the rules!)

In this case, you can just book the round trip ticket instead of the one-way, and then just don’t take the return flight!

This doesn’t happen all the time, but it can definitely be worth checking.

20. What’s Better Than Cheap Flights? Free Flights! (i.e. Travel Hacking!)

The only thing that beats a cheap flight is a free flight, and the best way to do that is with travel hacking!

Travel hacking is when you use credit cards’ frequent flyer and miles programs to earn points and get your flights with those instead of your hard earned cash.

To get started with travel hacking, check out our beginner’s guide here!

Extra Things You Can Do To Make It Easier To Save Money On Flights

21. Plan To Travel During Off-Season

By booking in the shoulder season (or just the non-major tourist season), you can save tons of money on your trip. Not only on flights but often times accommodation and experiences are significantly reduced in price in the off season. Plus, bonus, fewer crowds.

22. Look Early (but not too early)

When you’re planning a trip ahead of time, it’s a good idea to book your ticket early, not last second.

At the same time, you don’t want to book it too early, or you could end up paying more than you needed to.

Generally speaking, the sweet spot for booking your flights is about 6-8 weeks ahead of time.

23. Be Open To Extra Long Layovers

Sometimes, especially with international journeys, you’ll see a list of super-expensive flights at the standard rate, and then one or two at the top of the list that is only a couple hundred.

The catch?

A ten-hour layover.

Now don’t get me wrong, hanging out in an airport for multiple hours is never ideal. It’s not long enough to go out into the city your layover is in, and it’s too long to pass with just a leisurely meal or a movie on your laptop.

But if you’re open to putting up with a super long layover, you could save hundreds of dollars.

24. Avoid Airline Fees By Packing Light

This may seem obvious, but some people forget that they don’t necessarily have to check a bag when they travel.

By implementing strategies to pack light, you could save money on checked bag fees by only traveling with a carry-on. And if you’re hopping from destination to destination, those fees will add up!

There are other fees that you can avoid if you pay attention to the fine print for your airline. This is especially true with budget airlines, so make sure you pay close attention.

25. Be Flexible With Dates

Sometimes you have to be in a certain location at a certain time, it’s true. But for the trips where that’s not the case? Some dates are going to be cheaper to fly on than others!

Make sure you do your research to see which dates are cheapest for the journey you have in mind.

This is fairly easy to do with Skyscanner and Google Flights’ calendar features.

26. Be Flexible On Your Destination(s)

If you just want to travel and don’t have any particular destination in mind, do the airfare equivalent of spinning the globe and putting your finger down!

Use Skyscanner’s “Everywhere” feature to search for flights within your budget. You can even be flexible on the dates, choosing a specific date, a whole month, or just select “Cheapest month”.

On Kayak Explore, you can see a whole map with flights from your location to anywhere in the world. You can set a budget cap when you want to take the trip as months, seasons, or holidays, and you can even specify the duration of the trip you want to take.

27. Harness The Power Of The ITA Matrix

What is the ITA Matrix? Simply put, it’s the insanely powerful software used to run some giant flight search websites like Google Flights and Kayak.

The ITA Matrix is often my very first stop when searching for cheap flights.

Tweaking flight searches in the matrix is an art. The software is not going to win any awards for being super intuitive.

That being said it might be worth the time investment to learn a bit about how to use it so you can unlock one of the most underrated and underused cheap flight tools out there.

Conclusion

So there you have it. A whole whopping 27 different ways for you to find cheap flights and save on your travels.

You don’t have to use every single tactic to see major results, either. Sometimes all you need is just one.

So go ahead. Try a few of these strategies, and make your travel dreams possible.

And don’t forget if you want to get FREE flights (because free is always better than cheap) check out our Travel Hacking Guide.

The post How to Find Cheap Flights: 27 Easy Ways to Save Money Today appeared first on Zero to Travel.

Want to learn how to travel while working full-time? Enter Jen Ruiz, a lawyer who took 20 trips in 12 months in 2018, all while working a full-time job.  Listen to this podcast to learn what you really need to do to get around the world and see the things you want to see. Be sure to check out her new book, The Affordable Flight Guide: How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets and See the World on a Budget.  And learn how you can”fly for less and travel more” at Jen on a Jet Plane.

You’ll Learn:

• How to travel while working full time
• How to find the right work-travel balance for you
• Benefits of solo travel
• What can take you away from everything that you’ve ever known
• Favorite method for getting cheap flights
• How the non-traditional booking can save you money
• How magical opportunities open up
• Tips to adjust to extreme travel
• The best ways to stretch your time
• What can give you faith to put yourself out there
• And so much more!

Resources:

• Transition To Travel: Before and After With Sofia and Teague
• Transition To Travel- Zero To Travel
• Pimsleur Learning– free 7 day trial (for those based in the USA)
• The Affordable Flight Guide: How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets and See the World on a Budget
• Jen on a Jet Plane
• Scott’s Cheap Flights
• Condé Nast Traveler
• Jetto
• Google Flights
• JetBlue
• Ryanair
• easyAir
• Skiplagged
• VIPKID

Please head over to the archives for more Zero To Travel Podcasts! Featured image courtesy of @jenonajetplane

The post How To Travel When You Work Full Time appeared first on Zero to Travel.

Here’s the thing about travel rewards credit cards. There are so many – how do you find the best one for your situation?

One thing I’ve noticed over the last couple of years is that credit card companies follow basically the same formula. A customer signs up, they spend $2k, $3k, $5k and in return get a hefty chunk of rewards points.

Typically, you’ll receive enough for a cheap roundtrip ticket to go somewhere not too close, but not too far away.

With that model, why not just choose the one that looks the coolest or the one that offers the extra 10,000 points over the rest of the pack?

When looking at the best travel rewards credit cards, it’s important to really identify what you need out of a credit card.

The first step to determining this is figuring out these factors:

• Can I spend enough to reach the bonus minimum without completely screwing myself financially?

If it’s going to take a year to pay off the $5,000 you racked up on that new card in order to get an initial 100,000 bonus miles, that card may not be the best option for you.

We’re not going to get too deep into money management here (there’s a great blog called Mr. Money Mustache for that), but in order to really capitalize on travel rewards credit cards, it’s important to not get in over your head.

• Do I have good enough credit to get approved?

Most cards dedicate a chunk of their fine print to covering odds of approval. If your credit and debt-to-income ratio is good, you should be good to go. Bad credit and high debt on other credit cards? Your options are limited, particularly when it comes to optimizing rewards.

• Am I planning to keep this card long term?

Let’s look at two sample scenarios many digital nomads may find themselves in:

Scenario 1: The Nomad-In-Residence

Mark has been living in Chiang Mai for six months. He plans to head back to the US for the holidays but first wants to spend a couple of months in Bali to check out the nomad scene there.

Mark applies for one of the many travel rewards credit cards that provide a big points bonus at a set rate – let’s say 50,000 bonus miles after he spends $3,000 in the first three months.

Mark gets approved, and immediately buys a one-way ticket to Denpasar, two months of lodging, coworking membership, scooter rental, and an Indonesian SIM card for his phone.

He also buys some new travel gear, enough that he hits the minimum dollar amount ($3,000).

He gets his rewards miles and uses them to pay for his flight back home to the states, saving a cool $500. This is enough to offset the cost of his travel gear, scooter rental, and SIM card.

Mark’s lodging and coworking membership were bills that he pays each month anyway no matter where he’s at, therefore he’s not really spending more money than normal (aside from the flight to Denpasar, running about $200)– it’s just all front-loaded at one time.

Because of this, Mark is able to pay off the $3,000 in only a couple of months. He incurs a very minimal amount of interest and cancels the card long before that pesky $250 annual fee hits his balance.

Scenario 2: The Nomad-On-The-Move

Rachel is the type of person who can’t stay in one place for too long. Lately, she’s been country hopping every couple of months. She consistently pays the bills for herself and her dropshipping store on travel rewards credit cards and earns pretty hefty miles as a result.

She uses those miles not only to purchase airline tickets to each destination but to upgrade to business class whenever possible.

The cards which allow her to optimize her rewards are cards offering 2 and 3 points per dollar spent, instead of the traditional 1 or 1.5. Like Mark, she tries to pay her balance each month and rarely accumulates noticeable interest.

Rachel plans to keep her three travel rewards credit cards for an extended period of time. Because she’s racking up so many miles, she doesn’t mind paying the annual fee.

She’s still coming out thousands of dollars ahead each year.

There are innumerable variations on these stories as well as other situations. But part of applying for the best travel rewards credit cards is understanding what you want to get out of them, and how you plan to use them. Learn more in our Beginner’s Guide To Travel Hacking.

Now, without further ado, here are the best travel rewards credit cards for 2023.

Top 7 best travel rewards credit cards

Chase Sapphire Reserve

This card is consistently on the shortlist of the best travel rewards credit cards. Users earn 3X points on travel and dining purchases along with a $300 annual travel credit reimbursement – just for having the card.
The sign-up bonus can vary but the standard offer is 50,000 miles when you spend $4,000 in the first three months.
Additionally, Chase offers credit when users apply for TSA Precheck or Global Entry. They also ensure a smooth transfer to hotel and airline rewards programs, car rental benefits, and no foreign transaction fees.
There is a $550 annual fee – but remember this card includes a $300 annual travel credit meaning when you spend $300 (or more) on travel-related products and services you’ll be credited $300 back essentially knocking your annual fee down to $250/year. The rest of the annual fee can be offset by utilizing some of the other amazing perks.
Click Here to Learn More!

U.S. Bank Altitude Connect VISA Signature Card

Earn 50,000 bonus points when you spend $2,000 in the first 120 days. That’s a $500 value redeemable toward merchandise, gift cards, cash back, travel, and more. And your points never expire. $0 intro annual fee for the first year, $95/year thereafter.
Click here to learn more!

Business Platinum Card from American Express

The rewards are structured a bit differently here, but as far as business travel rewards credit cards go this is one of the best. 85,000 bonus miles after $15,000, $595 annual fee.
Click Here to Learn More!.

Ink Business Preferred Card from Chase

Simply put, Chase has the travel rewards credit card game down to a science. This business credit card offers 100,000 bonus points after the cardholder spends $15,000 in the first three months. That’s enough for an international round-trip ticket to a number of desirable destinations.
Unless you’re spending over $150,000 per year on the card, you’ll also enjoy 3X points per dollar spent on travel, shipping, and online advertising, as well as the internet, cable, and phone services.

Travel reimbursements for cancellations and changes are available, as are free cards for team members. The best part? The annual fee is only $95. Click Here to Learn More!

Best hotel rewards credit card

Marriot Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card

Most major hotel and resort chains have a rewards credit card. What makes this one better than others is that Marriot offers 6x Bonvoy points for every $1 spent at over 7,000 participating Marriot Bonvoy Hotels and if approved, you can earn 75,000 bonus points when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Plus you get an additional Free Night Award (valued up to 35,000 points) & automatic Silver Elite status every year after the account anniversary and 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
Click Here to Learn More!

Best airline rewards credit card

United Explorer Card

This is among the best travel rewards credit cards because United offers a strong purse of perks.

Cardholders are allowed a free checked bag on each trip, which can be a big deal these days with any US-based airline. Priority boarding is also included, so you’re guaranteed prime overhead storage bin space.

One point per dollar spent, 2 points in some cases. Currently, you can earn 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.

Holders also receive two United Club passes each year, which will help you directly offset that $95 annual fee that is charged after the first year (especially if you like to enjoy a drink before a flight or take advantage of free food).

Let’s just hope United can up their customer service to be in line with their rewards program.
Click Here to Learn More!

Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority

This is the card to get if you are looking to travel to one of the many Southwest destinations (Domestic in the US or to the Caribbean).

You can currently get the highly sought-after companion pass plus 30,000 miles after meeting the $5,000 minimum spend in the first 3 months. Plus you get 4 upgraded boardings per year when they are available!

Holders also get a $75 Southwest travel credit each year plus 7,500 bonus points after your cardmember anniversary which helps offset the $149 annual fee. Click Here To Learn More!

Making your selection

When choosing from the best travel rewards credit cards, remember that the right one is right for YOUR situation – not necessarily that of someone else you know. Consider your upcoming travel plans, budget, and long-term plan for the card.

Once that’s decided, the perks are right around the corner!

*Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included in the post. Zero To Travel has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Zero To Travel and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

*Disclosure: Zero To Travel has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Zero To Travel and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. We appreciate your support.

The post Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards 2023 appeared first on Zero to Travel.

Do you get confused by the ever-shifting carry on baggage rules?

Do you love flying? Do you hate flying? You are going to have to do it when you travel, so it doesn’t really matter…..

Do you know how to get the lowest airfare for your next trip?

Tune in today to get the definitive guide to know exactly what you can carry on these days.  Plus, you’ll get 5 tips to help you get the lowest airfare for your next trip.

Carry on baggage rules can be very specific, so who better to learn from than the co-founder of Tortuga Backpacks Fred Perrotta. Welcome back to the show Fred!

Need an awesome new pack for your next trip, or thinking of a great gift for your travel friend?

Listen Now To Learn:

• How to save money by not checking a bag
• How to increase your chances of finding the lowest fare
• The best ways to travel carry on only
• How to maximize the carry on option
• What exactly is the mysterious personal item
• A good rule of thumb for carry-on baggage rules
• Which airlines are more strict when it comes to carry-on
• What type of carry-on offers more flexibility (and less chance of checking it!)
• How to follow the 3-1-1 rule
• How to use teamwork to distribute weight
• And much more!

Resources:

• Tortuga Backpacks
• BootsnAll
• Consumer Reports- How To Get The Lowest Airfares
• Ryanair
• IATA
• Packsmith- Packing Tips from Tortuga Backpacks- Blog

Want more Zero To Travel Podcasts? Head over to the archives now!

Photo courtesy of Tortuga Backpacks

*This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

The post How To Get The Lowest Airfare + The Definitive Guide To Airline Carry On Baggage Rules appeared first on Zero to Travel.

Ever thought about taking a round the world journey?

Sean Keener stops by to talk round the world travel and gives his take on why gap years/career breaks should be on everybody’s resume!

Sean specializes in helping you plan round the world journeys through BootsnAll. BootsnAll helps unite independent travelers and helps people wander the planet! It’s the best place to plan and purchase complex travel- round the world trips- and multi-stop international trips.

The BootsnAll team has helped over 4 million people get their boots on the ground, so you’ll definitely want to listen to today’s show!

You’ll Learn:

• The importance of figuring out your WHY
• How much money it takes to travel the world comfortably for a year
• The best resources to circumnavigate the planet
• The triangle of success (in both life and business)
• One critical part of success for BootsnAll
• The best way to learn about yourself and the context of a complex world
• The difference between World geography vs airline geography
• The ‘gateway drug’ for travel
• The best way to learn (in travel, business, and life)
• Why a Gap year/Career break can happen at any age
• How digital sabbaticals can help with focus
• And much more!

Resources:

• Top 32 USA Cities For Travelers- Zero To Travel Podcast
• The Paradise Pack
• BootsnAll
• BootsnAll’s Traveler Code of Conduct
• AirTreks
• Indie
• EO- Entrepreneurs’ Organization
• TINYpulse
• Wayfinding Academy
• Star Alliance
• Oneworld
• SkyTeam
• Round The World Tickets Free Report
• Learning Through Travel: Gap Year, Career Breaks, and Beyond with Jennifer Miller from BootsnAll.com- Zero To Travel Podcast

Looking for more Zero To Travel Podcasts? Check out the archives for all past episodes!

Photo care of the BootsnAll blog.

The post Round The World Travel + GAP Year For All! With Sean Keener from BootsnAll.com appeared first on Zero to Travel.

Does fear help you travel more?

In today’s Zero To Travel Podcast, you’ll hear how to get cheap flights in Asia and how to get the best ski and snowboard travel deals. It’s a hot and cold edition!

You’ll get the HOT from Louisa with wentadventuring.com– a place where she and her husband share advice and stories for nomads. They’ve lived around the world since 2007 in 8 different countries- exploring, writing, and photographing.

And you’ll get the COLD from my buddy Tim Wenger- winter sports aficionado, Location Indie member, and has spent most of his entire adult life trying to get on the mountain or as close to it as possible.

Special thanks to italki.com for supporting today’s show. Learn a language from a native speaker and get a Free lesson (buy one, get one free) for Zero To Travel listeners.

Listen now to Learn:

• How to get out of your own ‘escape room’
• How to get cheap flights in Asia
• Who the Asean pass is for (and not for)
• Helpful resources to check different flight routes
• How to get the most out of the Asean pass
• How to limit out of pocket expenses at ski resorts
• The best way to travel with your ski/snowboard gear
• Where to get discounted ski/snowboard gear (and the best time of year)
• #1 rule when buying lift tickets
• Best places to stay for your ski trip
• Benefits of living in a ski town for an entire season (do it!)

Resources:

• italki
• Ram Dass Podcast
• Went Adventuring
• Air Asia
• Asean Pass
• Tommy Ooi Travel Guide
• Couchsurfing
• Hostelling International
• Mountain Collective
• Hotels.com
• Tim Wenger

And be sure to check out the archives for more Zero To Travel Podcasts!

*This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

The post Hot and Cold Edition: Cheap Flights In Asia + Budget Ski and Snowboard Travel appeared first on Zero to Travel.

In this travel podcast episode, Jason & Travis talk about travel hacking credit cards using the secret ‘App-O-Rama’ strategy.

This one trick can help you earn free flights anywhere in the world.

If you want to learn how to earn a free flight anywhere in the world you MUST listen to this podcast now!

You’ll learn:

• What an App-O-Rama is
• How travel hacking credit cards affect your credit score
• Which travel hacking credit cards to get
• When to apply for new cards
• How to figure out the best travel hacking credit card strategy for your situation
• Why it’s important to diversify
• How Jason saved over $2000 on 2 flights in the last 18 months
• How you can take your friend or spouse on free flights all over the USA
• And a TON more!

Resources

How to use the Target Red Card to meet minimum spends

Travel Hacking Credit Cards Mentioned (Updated Versions)

Chase Sapphire Preferred & Chase Ink Business Preferred

Chase Rapid Rewards Southwest Priority

Citi American Airlines Credit Cards

Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card

Want to learn more about travel hacking?

Read this article.

Listen to another Travel Hacking interview with Travis here.

Visit the Zero To Travel Podcast Archive

The post How To Fly For Free Anywhere: Travel Hacking Credit Cards Using The App-O-Rama appeared first on Zero to Travel.

In this episode of the Zero To Travel Podcast, I talk with Stephanie Zito to find out how to travel in luxury for free.

Stephanie shares her best tips on collecting miles to upgrade your travel experience, whether you want to travel in business class, upgrade your airline status, or get yourself into luxury airport lounges.

In this podcast episode you’ll learn:

• The biggest misconception about collecting miles and points
• How to get points for buying the things you were already going to buy
• The first step to get yourself moving towards your dream destination
• How to find out about one-off points promotions
• The tools you can use to track your miles
• How to use your points to get seats on the flights you want
• How to upgrade your airline status
• How to get access to luxury airport lounges

Mentioned In This Show

• Wandering For Food
• Location Indie
• Get It by Matt and Kim
• Upgrade Unlocked (including 101 Ways to Upgrade Your Bucket List and 8 Ways to Get Airline Lounge Access)
• FlyerTalk
• MilePoint
• BoardingArea
• Travel Hacking Cartel
• AwardWallet
• Evernote
• Kayak
• oneworld
• Star Alliance
• SkyTeam
• StatusMatcher
• American Express Platinum

Thanks for checking out the show. Want more travel podcasts?

Check out the Zero To Travel Podcast Archives

The post How To Travel In Luxury For Free appeared first on Zero to Travel.

In this travel podcast, friend of the show and travel hacking stud Travis Sherry gives you his take on why budget airlines rock.

We also chat about the challenges of planning ahead for travel and give some top tips that have worked for us throughout our years of wandering.

Plus, if you’re into the location independent and digital nomad lifestyle then you’ll be excited to hear about our new community Location Indie. Here’s your personal invitation to join.

Listen to this travel podcast now, you’ll also learn:

• How to get the best prices on budget airlines
• How Wikipedia can be a traveler’s best friend
• Why budget airlines should be your first search
• The plastic bag carry on trick
• How creative itineraries can save you mad cash
• A secret resource for finding cheap ‘hidden city’ flights
• Why knowing the budget airlines rules is so important
• Why travel can be stressful
• How to avoid travel burnout
  And much more!

Thanks for checking out the show. Want more travel podcasts?

Check out the Zero To Travel Podcast Archives

The post How To Plan Ahead For Travel + Why Budget Airlines Rock appeared first on Zero to Travel.

Before getting into this, let me be straight with you.

No flight is totally free, you always have to pay some taxes and fees. However, these costs can be very small.

Recently I booked a roundtrip ticket from Newark, New Jersey to Oslo, Norway then flying back to Denver, Colorado 3 months later all for $41.20. Pretty cheap considering how much plane tickets to Europe can go for.

Boom!

Where you would go if it cost under $50? Imagine what you could do with all of that extra cash on your trip. In Norway, you could visit places like this:

Beautiful scenery puts me into Elvis mode

Or this…

Yet another ugly view of a Norwegian fjord

Ready to go to your dream destination?

I like to keep things simple, there is way too much information out there to sift through.

This article provides suggested actions that will put you well on your way to earning a free plane ticket to your personal paradise.

How to get a free plane ticket.

The first step is quite simple…

Look into your wallet or purse and answer this question:

“Do I have a frequent flyer miles or airline miles credit card?”

If the answer is yes when was the last time you applied for a new travel rewards credit card?

Been awhile? Last year, the answer for me was yes. It had been too long.

There are so many great cards out there so I decided to get into the game again. You can earn HUGE bonuses when you sign up which can snag you a free plane ticket quickly.

Never had a rewards card?

Don’t wait any longer because if your current credit card doesn’t do anything for you it’s most definitely time for a change!

Earning credit card bonuses is simply the fastest and best way to earn frequent flyer miles and free plane tickets quickly.

Warning: If you have credit card debt or can’t meet the minimum spend (which you’ll learn about it in a second) this isn’t for you. I’m not a tax or financial pro, just a dude who has scored a lot of cheap plane tickets through travel hacking over 15+ years and I want to share with you how it worked for me. Please consider your own personal situation.

A Word On Taking Action

This is the kind of work that is so easy to put off. Who likes sitting down and applying for credit cards? It sucks.

But if you are in a position to do this, isn’t a free plane ticket worth 30 minutes or less of your time? Bookmark this if you need to come back but if you’ve got some time, take the action today. Otherwise, it will never get done.

Up for this? Before I lay out the step by step plan of attack, I’ll share the basic process on how I got my $41.20 ticket to Oslo, Norway using Chase points.

• Got Both Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Chase Ink Bold for my business
• Earned points and bonuses. Planned a trip to Norway.
• Went to United.com to look up award tickets.
• Found the flight I wanted and notated how many miles I needed to book a free flight
• Converted Chase points into United Miles through Chase.com. (This happens instantly although that’s not the case for all points transfers, it depends on the airline, card, rules, etc.)
• After miles were added to my United account booked an award ticket.
• Paid taxes and fees $41.20
• Went to Norway!

Like any subject, diving deeply into Travel Hacking increases the complexity of the subject matter.

My goal is not to overcomplicate this and just give you the essentials, stripping this down to the basics so you can avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Before we get into it, just pick a destination you’ve been longing to go and use that as motivation. It makes this a helluva lot more fun knowing this will get you there…eventually.

And we’re off!

Step #1 – Check and Monitor Your Credit Score

Check your credit score (it’s free) to make sure you’ve got solid credit. Also, you’ll want to monitor your credit score when you apply for cards. I use

Credit Karma

Sign up and get your credit score. It’s the responsible thing to do (sorry for sounding like a Dad!).

Will applying for new cards affect your credit score negatively?

From my research, the answer is yes, but not as bad as you think and it’s pretty short term. As long as you continue to carry zero debt and pay on time it should bounce back quickly and maybe even increase. The credit card gods haven’t thrown me under the double-decker bus yet.

Last year I got three new Travel Rewards Cards and here is my current credit score:

The US Federal Trade Commission has this article on credit scores to learn more about how they are calculated.

Step #2 – Find the Best Travel Rewards Card For You

Overall, here is what I look for in a travel rewards card

• Are the rewards points flexible meaning can you transfer them to various airlines?

I don’t like to be tied to one airline.

• Are there foreign transaction fees?

I like to be able to use my card when traveling outside of the USA without extra fees.

• What is the minimum spend?

In order to get the bonus for some cards, you must be able to meet the minimum spend. For example, you must spend $1000 within the first 3 months of activating the card.

If you can’t meet the minimum spend then absolutely DO NOT apply for any credit card or you won’t get the points. When the minimum spend is challenging look for cards that award you the points bonus on your first purchase or cards the have a low minimum spend.

There are some tricks to meeting the minimum spend without actually spending extra money. Here are 10 Ways You Can Meet the Minimum Spend.

• What is the annual fee for the card?

Many cards have an annual fee but it’s usually waived the first year so you could redeem your points and cancel the card before the year is up to avoid the fee. Even with the fee, some cards are worth holding onto. I swear by my Chase Cards. You’ll learn why in a second.

Step #3 – Apply for a Travel Rewards Credit Card

Own a business or a sole proprietorship, which means that you are your own business? Anybody in the USA can easily have a sole proprietorship, learn how to start one.

If you can get both the business and personal version you double up on your points. Make sure you can handle the minimum spend on both.

My favorite travel rewards cards for a variety of scenarios are located at the end of this article.

Step #4 – Meet the Minimum Spend and Get Your Bonus Points

There are many ways to meet the minimum spend without spending any more than you usually do. Here are 10 ways to meet the minimum spend for travel rewards credit cards.

Step #5 – Find the Flight You Want and How Many Miles You’ll Need To Book It.

*I should mention that you can also simply call your credit card rewards program and have them book a ticket with points for you. Often you’ll get a better deal if you transfer the points to an airline instead of using the points through your credit cards travel agency. That being said, I’ve booked a flight to Norway this way in the past and still only paid around $200.

Step #6- Call the airline. Ask them…

• How long it takes to transfer the miles to the airline you want to fly
• If you can hold the flight until the transfer of your miles
• What the taxes and fees are on a ‘free ticket’. British Airways charges a ridiculous amount, for example, so you’ll want to avoid using them.

Step #7 – Transfer Miles and Book Your Ticket!

That’s the basic process. Redeeming points is a bit of an art and a whole other subject. Start earning points today and learn how best to redeem them along the way.

No, you may be curious about which cards I use?

Here’s what’s currently in my money belt…

Cards I actively Use

Chase Sapphire Preferred – The Best Personal Card and the one I used to book the recent Norway flight.

• Upside – Flexible Points. Large Bonus of 60,000 points. $0 intro annual fee for the 1st year.
• Downside – Minimum Spend ($4000 in 3 months), Annual fee $95

Chase Ink Business Preferred – The Best Business Card

• Upside – Flexible Points. Large Bonus of 80,000 points. No annual fee the 1st year.
• Downside – Larger Minimum Spend ($5000 in 3 months), Annual fee $95 after the first year

Getting both of these cards at the same time would mean 140,000 Chase rewards points, easily enough for a free plane ticket to many places all over the world.

The card I Currently Have But Will Cancel Before the Annual Fee

American Express Gold Business

• Upside – Flexible Points. A bonus of up to $500 back in the form of statement credits.
• Downside –  Annual fee $295

Cards I’m getting Next

The reason why I am looking into getting this card is that it has some amazing bonuses & is a part of the SPG, Marriot, & Ritz-Carlton group.

Marriot Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card

The next cards on my hit list due to their insanely vast airline transfer partner network

• Upside – Can Earn 100,000 bonus points!. 1 free night every year after your anniversary (up to 35k points value) & you get 6x the points per $1 spent at over 7,000 participating Marriot Bonvoy hotels.
• Downside – $5000 minimum spend in 3 months. Annual Fee after the first year is $95. Both not too bad!

That’s about it. Again, we are shooting for surface-level information here. Just enough to be dangerous and get you a free ticket without millions of options.

Feel free to contact me with any questions, I’d be happy to help you maximize your points when you plan your trip!

Got anything to add? Feel free to comment below.

The post How To Get a Free Plane Ticket appeared first on Zero to Travel.