WHEN TO BUY PLANE TICKETS: You know that you need to buy plane tickets ahead of time, but how far ahead? Can planning ahead work against you?
Yes it can! As reported by CNN, a study by CheapAir.com found:
On average, the best time to buy a ticket for non-holiday domestic travel is 49 days before departure, based on CheapAir.com’s study of 560 million 2012 fare records; for international flights, 81 days is the sweet spot.
Beware of ticketing too far in advance: Seats bought about 200 days ahead are almost as costly as last-minute fares.
So the early bird may get the worm, but he’ll pay more for it. And the best time of the week to buy is Tuesday afternoons, as fare sales usually start on Mondays and are matched by the next day.
FREE ONE-WAY FLIGHTS: Mr. Pickles has a series of excellent posts up on how to work the frequent flyer system to tack a free one-way flight onto a reward redemption. Here’s how you do it on American Airlines, here’s how you do it on Delta, and here’s how you do it on United. The methods involve taking advantage of rules about stopovers and open jaws. Each airline does things a bit differently, so if you’re planning on a free flight with any of those three airlines, we’d recommend you check out the appropriate link.
A $24,000 HONEYMOON FOR ONLY $1,500: Scott at Hack My Trip has an informative piece up about how he put together his upcoming honeymoon using miles and points (and a little bit of cash). Check out this itinerary:
- Seattle to Seoul — Asiana business class
- Seoul to Singapore — Singapore Airlines business class
- Singapore to Denpasar (Bali) — Singapore Airlines economy class
- Denpasar to Bangkok — Thai Airways business class
- Bangkok to Phuket — Thai Airways business class
- Phuket to Hong Kong — Thai Airways business class
- Hong Kong to Seoul — Asiana business class
- Seoul to Seattle — Asiana business class
….plus 13 nights at luxury hotels. He gives a fair amount of detail about where the points and miles are coming from, where and how he used them and so forth, so if you’ve ever aspired to put together the trip of a lifetime, see how he did it.
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