Money Saving Travel Tips for Septemer 25th
September 25, 2006 by Mary Jo Manzanares
Filed under Air Travel, Food & Beverage, Money Saving Tips, Travel Tips
Here are this week’s Money Saving Travel Tips:
- Share your frequent flyer miles with your traveling companion. Some airlines allow you to transfer miles from your account to another. A service charge may apply, so do the math to make sure you come out ahead, but if it gets you a free ticket or an upgrade it’s worth considering.
- Make one meal a day a picnic. Shop at local markets for fruit, cheese, bread, meats, and head to a park or scenic lookout point. Even if the weather isn’t cooperating, try a picnic indoors. A picnic in your hotel room can still be fun, if you bring a good attitude. Bring along a bottle of wine and make it even more festive. Enjoy a simple and delicious meal, and put the savings toward other expenses.
- Consider alternate airports. Many times airfare is less when flying into different airports in the same geographical area. For example, many airports ““ LAX, Orange County, Burbank, Ontario, and Palm Springs, serve the Los Angeles area. Washington National, Dulles, and Baltimore serve the DC-Metro area. And, or course, New York has Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark. Check the fares into each of the airports, and you may be surprised at the savings.
Given the crazy ticket pricing schemes, it is sometimes quite a bit cheaper to drive about 80 miles from here and catch a commuter flight with through ticketing to your destination passing back through the big airport just a few miles from here! I know some people who do this on a regular basis. And parking is cheaper at the smaller airport, too!
Thanks for the tip, Astroprof. It does pay to shop around.
Your picnic idea is a great one!
While traveling, we often eat lunch out because it’s the cheapest meal of the day usually, doesn’t often require reservations, is less crowded – and oh yeah, since we have kids, nobody is freaking out because they’re tired.
We’ll do dinner “in” if we’re at a flat or picnic out.
Hi Kelly. I never even considered the kids option. Probably because I don’t have them. But what an important consideration.
I enjoy doing dinner “in.” Sometimes in the fast pace of travel, its an enjoyable, and much needed, respite.
These tips help make travel more economical without cheapening the experience.
I fly into Newark, New Jersey, anytime I’m going to New York. Newark is much more compact and efficient than massive Kennedy airport. Navigating into New York from there is no sweat.
May I sugest another tip? Check the Web sites of transportation companies before arriving at your destination. Shuttle vans taking you from the airport to the hotel and back often provide discount coupons online that save you an average $4 off the round-trip fare.
I opt for Newark as well. It’s easy to take the train from there into the city.
And never pass up an opportunity to use a coupon. Thanks for the additional tip. I’ll give it its own billing in next Monday’s tips.