Cheap Airfare

I recently got a roundtrip ticket from Omaha to Orlando for $125.

Seriously.

I've kind of become the cheap airfare specialist. And sometimes the family travel agent.

I figured I should share my secrets to scoring these awesome deals (and, no, I don't always get great deals. I've had to pay close to $400 for some tickets before, but sometimes I just get lucky!)

1. Sign up for your favorite airline's emails. Mine are Southwest and Jetblue, so I get notices of their sales constantly. With Jetblue, I'm actually signed up with two different email address and sometimes the offers are different. You never know. Also, if you're saying you don't have a favorite airline, I'm saying why not? It really does pay to sign up for a rewards program and start earning some loyalty points. So try to figure out which airline has the best prices generally for your most common routes and try to stick with them whenever possible. I can't even remember how many free flights I've gotten on Southwest and I've only been flying them for about 6 years.

2. Sign up for Travelzoo and Expedia emails too, sometimes they have interesting destinations that I wouldn't have thought of before.

3. I monitor my favorite routes anytime I'm bored to check for crazy cheap deals on Southwest. Jetblue doesn't actually fly out of Omaha, so they're on the back burner for a bit.

4. I earn Southwest Rapid Rewards points on airfare, by taking surveys online (E-Rewards), on certain hotel stays, even on filing my taxes this year. Sign up for a rewards program and keep checking into non-conventional ways to earn points.

5. When I'm shopping for a specific trip, I search on Kayak and then set up a price alert to let me know daily what the airfare is. Yeah, sometimes it's annoying to fill my inbox with this stuff, but when I get that email that says it dropped $100, I'm totally excited that I waited on purchasing the ticket!

6. Really, I cannot sing the praises of Southwest enough. They don't charge you to change your ticket, so if the price goes down you can get a voucher for the difference. Doesn't even have to be the same flight, could be one on a different day or at a different time. Jetblue used to do vouchers as well if the price went down, but it had to be for the exact same flight and you had to do it over the phone. It was still awesome they did this, but again I haven't flown them in awhile so I'm not sure if they still do this.

7. Check with your credit card company to see if they have travel deals. With my Chase card, I can buy airline tickets partially with points and partially on my card, so even if I haven't saved up enough points for a full ticket I can still use them to get a discount. Also, if you're thinking you don't get any points on your credit cards, I'm asking why not? Get a card that gets points! Pay it off every month and start earning that free money! (Seriously though, pay it off every month. I'm not tell you to go into debt to get the rewards. They aren't THAT great.)

8. It helps to be somewhat flexible. I know that's hard for a lot of people, but it really is more pricey to fly on Fridays and Sundays or during peak travel times like around Christmas. If you want to a take a weeks vacation, try a Thursday to Wednesday trip instead of a Friday to the following Sunday trip. I know it's two days less of a vacation, but the price may make it worth it.

9. Check alternate airports. When I lived in Boston, I would check flights out of Manchester, NH or Providence, RI and sometimes found they were worth it. I'd also check NYC and Philly and coordinate a trip to FL with a weekend with my sisters.

And now, I should probably pack for my next trip tomorrow...