If you’re dealing with the winter blahs by planning your upcoming spring break getaway or summer vacation, you can save big bucks by tweaking a few of your typical vacation planning habits. Here are three simple changes that can help you offset the high costs of travel.
Beware of the bundling trick. If you automatically assume you have to buy 10 avocados to get that 10 for $10 deal at the grocery store, you’re the target market for the new airline trick of bundling. Instead of telling you that a bag of in flight snacks is $7, or that you’ll pay an extra $12 to pick your seat, airlines are taking a cue from what grocery stores have known all along: Price bundling works! While not all the options are bad, sorting through all the mental trickery involved in the offer is no small feat. Luckily, the Wall Street Journal recently did the heavy lifting for you with an analysis of which bundles may be a good buy, and which are a waste of your money. According to WSJ, American Airlines’ Choice Essential, which allows you to waive a change fee (normally $150) in case of flight plan changes, and check a bag for free, is a good offer; Delta’s Flex This Fare, on the other hand, is definitely not.
Don’t be brand loyal to a rental car company. If you’ve ever rented a car, you know how quickly add ons including car seats, GPS, additional insurance, fuel charges, and the ways they calculate your in and out times all drive the rate far beyond what you were initially quoted online. While booking directly with the vendor in advance online can sometimes score last minute deals, the constant barrage of coupons makes it a full time job to track the best rental car rate. Save yourself the hassle, and use a site like AutoSlash which tracks which provider is offering the best deal based on all the promotions in the market at your time of travel, provided you book your rental for free through the site.
Don’t be too eager. According to a study by Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), you’ll find the best rates by booking your ticket about six weeks before your travel date. According to Chuck Thackston, managing director of data and analytics at ARC, though popular thought that booking early saves money, the data indicates otherwise. “Although low fares are available over the 120-day cycles in 2011 that we analyzed, the vast majority of tickets costing below the average fare were purchased about six weeks before the flight date.
