Airline Tickets

Tickets are the biggest piece of any of our long distance trip budgets so we always start with that. Finding the best deal is definitely our goal. We know the more we save on tickets the more we can spend on everything else while traveling. We always consider flying out from Seattle’s airport, which is a 2 hour car drive from where we live. A lot of times there is a significant price difference. In the past we were able to save about $200 per ticket by flying out from Seattle’s airport. We do have some amazing friends and relatives who helped out by taking us to and from the airport plus handled all the stress of having an extra car parked in front of their house while we were having a good time. Is it such a blessing to have friends and family in different parts of country and around the world!

Another thing we take into consideration is a flight with an extra stop. This is our first time buying long distance flight tickets for the 3 of us. Our daughter is growing way too fast so there is no more taking advantage of a free ticket for her. She will be turning 3-years-old on our trip. I am very excited to celebrate Ashley’s birthday in Spain, although I still plan a celebration with close family which has always been special for me. Most definitely we considered all the pros and cons of having an extra stop with a 3 years old and decided that having a break in between the flights might even be good for us.

Vitaliy is an expert on finding great deals for airline tickets. I am pretty sure it is one of the reasons we haven’t stopped traveling. And how can I say no to someone who checks kayak.com several times a day for several months and is willing to work a second job or overtime so we can keep doing what we both enjoy. I have to say my husband can be very convincing but I have not been able to find a good enough reason to say no to that. I do think that our secret in finding the best airline tickets deals has been checking the websites off and on as often as possible and having enough time in advance. It might seem like a lot of work but it definitely pays off at the end.

We bought the tickets for our May 2017 trip in the beginning of November 2016, about 6 months in advance; and, by then we were sure we were getting a great deal. This time we will be flying out from Portland airport, 15 minutes’ drive from our home. Not bad at all.

Tips we used in the past and recommend for finding great deal tickets:

• flying out of a second closest airport (a chance to visit family or friends)
• layover or a flight with an extra stop (get to visit another city/country but be aware of visa requirements)
• being flexible with destination (check nearby airports as well)
• flexibility with dates and days of a week (flying out on weekend and holidays are almost always more expensive)
• modifying Kayak search and checking as much as possible on different days and different times of a day
• consider flying to one destination and flying out of a different one

Do you have any suggestions on finding great deals for airline tickets?