“How To… Get the Best Summer Airfares”

Have you bought your flight tickets yet? Some of these tricks might help! **DB

“How To… Get the Best Summer Airfares”

by Bill Fink via “Yahoo“

The River Thames in London (Photo: Ville Miettinen/Flickr)

As kids finish with school and the summer travel season kicks off, last-minute travel planners are getting sticker shock scanning airfares to Europe. June round-trip flights from New York to London are running $1,600, with fares from Atlanta or San Francisco topping $2,000. It’s shaping up to be one of the busiest summer travel seasons in years, and many airlines are pricing accordingly.

But there are deals to be had, if you follow a few basic bargain-hunting tips—some of them logical, some a bit surprising.

Summer vacation in Barbados? Don’t mind if we do. (Photo: Greg McMullin/Flickr)

Flexibility on Destination—and Departure Point

Airfares usually follow the basic rules of supply and demand. Europe is a super-popular summer destination, and so you usually get super-high fares.

Consider instead… Non-traditional summer vacation destinations like the Caribbean, ski towns, and the southern hemisphere (where it’s winter) can all offer compelling flight deals. And sometimes there’s an increase in the supply of airlines to a city—as is currently the case in Seattle, where Delta is expanding to make it their West Coast hub and engaging in a fare war with existing carriers, making it a rare destination deal this summer.

Surprising deals can also be found by changing your departure city. George Hobica of Airfarewatchdog.com cites Boston-Spain summer fares that are over $800 cheaper those departing from New York City. “For that, you could almost hire a limo to Boston and still save money!” he jokes, semi-seriously. So when planning those trips, think beyond JFK vs. LaGuardia or SFO vs. Oakland, and expand your search regionally.

“96 Travel Tips for a Student Budget”

by Kyle Owens via “GoOverseas.com”

“College is a memorable time in your life where you can study, meet people and expand your cultural horizon. Why not take that one step further? As a student, you typically spend a lot of your time in the library or in the classroom, which doesn’t leave you too much time for fun. Now, many students empty their savings account and fly somewhere tropical for a spring break trip – but I’m here to tell you how to make those hard earned dollars take you even further (for even longer!). It’s very important to travel and learn about the world outside of your own; however, you don’t need to break your bank account in order to make that happen.

Typically, the cost for a person to buy a one-way ticket to another country is less than one thousand dollars. Now, once you’re there things are going to cost hundreds of dollars, right? Wrong! If you’re a frugal person (and most student travelers are), you can easily manage to fund a trip. You just have to know where to look – that’s where I come in. I have traveled pretty extensively as a student, so I know which corners to cut and which to keep. Who knows, maybe 1 or 2 of these 95 tips will even inspire you to book your own college trip and start traveling!