Travel Tools

Why You Can’t Ever Find a Travel Deal: Finding a Cheap Flight

By Savvy Travel Girl April 29, 2019

Disclosure: This post contains a link, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a credit if you click through and register with Airfordale. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and I receive no compensation other than that disclosed.

"I can't ever find a travel deal!" I hear this all the time. People frequently ask me how I am able to travel so much. The short answer is I know where to look for a flight bargain. The way I like to book my travel is to purchase flights first and then build my trip around the ticket that I have purchased. Where do I find these flight deals? I subscribe to several travel newsletters. The three I read religiously and on a daily basis are secret flying, thrifty traveler, and the flight deal. Once you locate a flight deal you have to act quickly because airfares aren't guaranteed until booked. Access to these newsletters allowed me to purchase roundtrip fare from Atlanta to Tokyo for $554.

Let's say you find a flight but don't have all the cash to purchase the ticket and don't want to put it on a credit card you can use a service like airfordable to put the ticket on layaway. I have used this service many times and I have never had any problems.

I like to search for the advertised airfare using Momondo or Skyscanner make sure that you search using an incognito tab or that you clear your cookies because cookies will affect the price of airfare on all sites if you have searched the same route several times.

Once you find your flight you can use the tools I discussed here to book your lodging.

Savvy Travel Girl

Hello I am a single mother of four who travels the world on a budget. My hope is to inspire others to travel and live their best life. To date I have traveled to 13 countries on a modest budget.

Travel Tools

How Your Love of Shopping Can Benefit Your Love of Travel

I am a person who always wanted to learn how to obtain the perks that a frequent flyer enjoys. I thought that these perks were out of reach for me because I don’t fly frequently. I don’t have a job that requires me to travel a lot. During my entire working life, I have only had to fly for work two times! So far this post sounds like a downer but what I discovered was that frequent flyer privileges can be obtained by anyone who can harness the power of the points game.

While many have learned how to leverage credit card sign-on bonuses to their advantage this particular post will be focused on using the shopping portals of major airlines. When I discovered how to receive miles through online shopping I was hooked.

Because airlines such as American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, British Airways, Delta, and United all have shopping portals. When you make online purchases through their portals at your favorite retailers you receive miles on your airline reward account.

Unquestionably my favorite shopping portal is Southwest. But I have accounts with Delta, American, and British Airways as well. When I want to make an online purchase at a retailer, I check to see how many miles per dollar spent each portal is offering for that retailer and go with the portal offering the most miles. If they are all offering the same number of miles then I go with the account that has the most points in it. The goal is to top off the account closest to qualifying for an award flight.

Example: I want to purchase something at Macy’s. I check all the portals for how many points per dollar they are offering at Macy’s. I see Southwest is offering 7 miles per dollar spent at Macy’s. I sign on to Southwest Rapid Reward Shopping portal. I select Macy’s. It takes me to the Macy’s website. I complete my purchase on the website and it is registered with Southwest. I receive 7 miles for every dollar spent with Macy’s in my Southwest Rapid Rewards account.

In order to use these portals, you need to have a frequent flyer account prior to registering on the shopping portal. Obtaining frequent flyer loyalty numbers are free and don’t require a flight so there is nothing stopping you. Go get your miles!

SIDE NOTE: THIS IS ALSO A GREAT WAY TO KEEP MILES FROM EXPIRING.

Skylight Photo frame-https://www.skylightframe.com Skylight photo frame is a touchscreen digital photo frame that can be updated by emailing photos to your skylight email address. This way you can give your skylightframe email address to friends and family so that they can email pictures directly to your frame. This is a great gift because you can use it to display all your favorite travel photos

Eagle Creek Compression Packing Cubes-https://www.eaglecreek.com Packing cubes are an awesome asset to a frequent traveler. Go ahead and surprise mom with something that will help her keep her suitcase organized and underweight.

Life Straw-https://www.lifestraw.com– Life Straw makes a variety of water bottles with filters they also make a minimalist straw that filters parasites and bacteria out of water. This is a great product for the international traveler who frequently travels to areas where the water quality is not great.

Travel adapterhttps://www.sharperimage.com I love sharper image travel adapters. I especially like the nesting ones which I usually purchase at TJMAXX or Marshalls. The all in one adapter tends to be bulky and weigh down sockets sometimes depending on what is plugged into them.

Perfume-A 0.34 oz roller ball of mom’s favorite fragrance is great for traveling. I love Le Vie Est Belle and a purse size bottle comes in very handy when you are on the go. Even a jet setter likes to look and smell her best at all times.

A lounge Pass-If mom travels often but does not have elite status with an airline nor a premium travel credit card which grants access to airport lounges she might value an airport lounge membership purchased through priority pass www.prioritypass.com. I recall my first experience in an airport lounge. It was a welcome respite on a long-haul flight. I felt like royalty and mom will too with a priority pass membership.

Travel Tools

5 Things To Always Include When You Pack A Carryon

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

Five things to always include in your carryon are as follows:

Water Bottle– Always carry an empty water bottle with you. Once you get through the security check-point fill it up. This will save you from dying of thirst on the plane while waiting for drink service to begin. You will also avoid absorbent airport water prices.
A change of clothes and underwear– This is only applicable on long haul flights. If you get to your destination and find your luggage didn’t arrive you still have at least one day of clothing to wear while you hunt down your checked baggage.
A good quality reusable bag– I like to take a reusable bag folded up in my pocket or somewhere in my carryon luggage. This comes in handy when you get to the airport scale and find out your checked baggage is too heavy. Just take a couple of items out of the checked luggage and you can place them in your handy reusable bag. This bag also comes in handy when you purchase too much stuff in dutyfree and it can’t fit inside your carry on. I like to purchase my reusable bags from Marshall’s or Ross. They fold very well and last a long time and at only $1 it is a steal.
Trail mix– Bring trail mix or some sort of snack that travels well and is non-perishable. Once I was on a flight with no meal service. I did not eat before I got on the flight. Once I got to my destination the weather made it impossible to land. Our plane was rerouted to the alternate airport to wait out the storm. The food service at the alternate airport was already closed. I was hungry and tired and it was on this day that I developed tip number 4!
Your camera- ALL expensive electronic equipment should be placed in your carryon. I would think that #5 is self-explanatory but I was on a South African safari once and a fellow tourmate had placed her camera in her checked bags. Needless to say, she made it to South Africa but her camera did not! This tourmate is also the reason I implemented tip# 2.

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Why You Can’t Ever Find a Travel Deal: Finding a Cheap Flight

Savvy Travel Girl

Eagle Creek Compression Packing Cubes-https://www.eaglecreek.com Packing cubes are an awesome asset to a frequent traveler. Go ahead and surprise mom with something that will help her keep her suitcase organized and underweight.

Travel adapterhttps://www.sharperimage.com I love sharper image travel adapters. I especially like the nesting ones which I usually purchase at TJMAXX or Marshalls. The all in one adapter tends to be bulky and weigh down sockets sometimes depending on what is plugged into them.

Perfume-A 0.34 oz roller ball of mom’s favorite fragrance is great for traveling. I love Le Vie Est Belle and a purse size bottle comes in very handy when you are on the go. Even a jet setter likes to look and smell her best at all times.

Water Bottle– Always carry an empty water bottle with you. Once you get through the security check-point fill it up. This will save you from dying of thirst on the plane while waiting for drink service to begin. You will also avoid absorbent airport water prices.

A change of clothes and underwear– This is only applicable on long haul flights. If you get to your destination and find your luggage didn’t arrive you still have at least one day of clothing to wear while you hunt down your checked baggage.

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Savvy Travel Girl

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In order to use these portals, you need to have a frequent flyer account prior to registering on the shopping portal. Obtaining frequent flyer loyalty numbers are free and don’t require a flight so there is nothing stopping you. Go get your miles!

Eagle Creek Compression Packing Cubes-https://www.eaglecreek.com Packing cubes are an awesome asset to a frequent traveler. Go ahead and surprise mom with something that will help her keep her suitcase organized and underweight.

Travel adapterhttps://www.sharperimage.com I love sharper image travel adapters. I especially like the nesting ones which I usually purchase at TJMAXX or Marshalls. The all in one adapter tends to be bulky and weigh down sockets sometimes depending on what is plugged into them.

Perfume-A 0.34 oz roller ball of mom’s favorite fragrance is great for traveling. I love Le Vie Est Belle and a purse size bottle comes in very handy when you are on the go. Even a jet setter likes to look and smell her best at all times.

Water Bottle– Always carry an empty water bottle with you. Once you get through the security check-point fill it up. This will save you from dying of thirst on the plane while waiting for drink service to begin. You will also avoid absorbent airport water prices.

A change of clothes and underwear– This is only applicable on long haul flights. If you get to your destination and find your luggage didn’t arrive you still have at least one day of clothing to wear while you hunt down your checked baggage.

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