Ways to Save Money on Travel
You can save a significant amount of money by taking your vacation during certain times of the year. For example, the best month to travel in Europe is in September when the weather is mild, most of the tourists are gone, and you will pay about 40 percent less than you would if you took your trip in the summer. You can save 40 percent if you visit South America or Australia in the summer months, particularly in June. Other tips on saving money travelling are as follows:
Get the Best Airfare Deal. Use websites like Hotwire.com, TravelZoo.com, FareCompare.com and Airfarewatchdog.com to save hundreds of dollars off airline tickets and find the cheapest airline fares. Good websites allow you to compare rates to get the best deal.
Some airlines, such as Virgin America, JetBlue and US Airways offer price drop guarantees and will refund the difference in cost if the ticket you purchased is sold for less. The website Yapta.com will send you an alert when if the price of the ticket you purchased goes down.
Other ways to lower your airline travel costs are:
(1) Flying on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday is much cheaper than flying on a Monday or Sunday. The cheapest flights are those at dawn, lunchtime and around 6:00 p.m.
(2) Airlines can access your browsing history and know how much you paid for a previous airline ticket if your browser is set to accept cookies. When you buy a new ticket, they will analyze what you paid in the past for a ticket and will charge you more if they know you often pay a premium for airline tickets. Erase your browser history and set your computer to reject cookies before you order an airline ticket online;
(3) Airlines don’t give seniors discounts as much as they used to. As of 2013, Southwest is the only airline still giving discounts to those over 65.
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Car Rentals. Some car rental companies will try to sneak in big fees for e-toll passes, children’s car seats, or GPS devices. You can save money if you bring all of these things with you. You can order the e-toll pass from a state’s highway department before your trip begins. If you don’t, you will be surprised at the end of your journey with an inflated bill for the tolls you passed through while renting the car.
They might also try to get you to purchase car insurance you don’t need. Check with your auto insurer to see if you are already covered and find out if your credit card offers free car rental insurance as one of its perks.
Car rental companies might also try to blame you for any damage to the car, therefore, take pictures of both the inside and outside of the rental car before you leave the lot so that you have proof you are not responsible for any damages when you return the car.
Save even more by booking your reservation through the website AutoSlash.com. They will alert you if a lower price becomes available and apply any discounts to your reservation.
Other ways to save on car rentals:
- Cars rented at airports tend to cost 10 percent more than other car rental places. You could save by taking a shuttle into a city and renting your car someplace there.
- Renting a car from a smaller car rental company, such as Advantage or Fox Rent a Car could save you as much as 50 percent.
- Compare car rental rates at websites such as CarRentals.com, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com and VroomVroomVroom.com
Related topic: Ways to Save Money on Hotels
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