Little Known Travel Hacks to Save You Time and Money
Let’s face it—we ALL want to save money. And we also know that time is money. So, if we can save both time AND money—and with less frustration, well, life is golden, right? Our travel hacks will save both!
When looking for prices for flights online, did you know that refreshing your window, or even leaving the site and coming back to the site may actually make the pricing go up? It’s called “dynamic pricing” which basically means that the pricing goes up as demand goes up. So, all those refreshes to the page and visits back was viewed as a popularity contest for those tickets. Here’s our way around it:
When you search on Google (or Bing, etc) and are on a PC:
- Right click on your mouse when you are ready to click a link
- A window pops up and you can left click OPEN IN INCOGNITO WINDOW ( This keeps your information privately held from the website trackers.)
Not sure about locking in that ticket? Afraid that you’d get a better deal as soon as your ticket is booked?
Did you know you have a 24 hour window to get a refund without penalty from the airlines, even on most non-refundable flights?
So, go ahead and book a flight, then watch it for another day to see if a better rate pops up. If it does, cancel and rebook at the lower price. You can also put your ticket on hold with most carriers such as American Airlines, Southwest, and Virgin America, who have free 24-hour hold services. United has something called FareLock starting at $6.99 that lets you wait up to a week before booking, while Options Away ($4 to $45) can hold flights for up to three weeks.
Now that we’ve got you the best deal on your flights, let’s move on to your hotel stay.
Pretty sure you’re familiar with travel sites like Expedia and Hotels.com, right? Did you know that they typically charge a 15% booking fee to the hotel for every reservation they take on their sites? Consider calling the hotel directly and asking if they can match that price from the website. Oftentimes, they will offer you that rate, maybe even a tad better, just to avoid that 15% fee.
A time hack that will save your sanity while traveling is to reserve your transfer transportation from airport to hotel ahead of time. KEE Limousine can manage every point of transfer for you through our wide network of licensed and vetted affiliates. Call our office and let us know where you’re traveling and our expert staff will make your reservations ahead of time and stay on top of all details of your ground transportation transfers, leaving you to be refreshed and stress free wherever you travel, around the world.
Traveling to another country? Try to avoid using the money converters found in most international airports—they notoriously have pretty bad exchange rates. Instead, use an ATM to get your local currency. They almost always dispense local currency.
Our last travel hack is for technology. We all want to stay connected while traveling, but you can’t always find a Starbucks wi-fi. Before you leave for your trip, download the app, 4sqwifi. This app enables you to find nearby venues which offer WiFi — and their password, around the world.
