How to Fly for (Almost) Nothing!

One of the biggest expenses of traveling is the airfare. It can really add up, especially if you are traveling to multiple international destinations. Since we knew way in advance that we would be going on this trip, we started searching for ways to get the best deals on flights pretty early on. We ended up booking both of our flights from San Francisco to Spain and both of our flights from Thailand to San Francisco for free (only paid for taxes)!!

Here is how we did it:

1. Use Credit Card Travel Deals. 

Nowadays many credit card companies reward you with airline miles for signing up with them. They all have different requisites and offer different bonuses. We signed up to get emails from The Credit Card Fly to stay up to date on the best deals for cards. This is helpful because promotions change pretty regularly. 

We decided to sign up for the Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage card because there were no upfront fees and we were rewarded 50,000 miles each (the current promotion is 30,000 miles) just for signing up. The only thing we had to do was spend $1,000 on the card within the first 3 months of opening it. We chose to sign up right before moving to Utah because we knew we would have many expenses during that time. The $1,000 were quickly spent after renting a U-Haul, gas, books for school, etc. After spending the money, we put the card away so that we wouldn't use it anymore and set a calendar reminder for the next year to remind us to cancel the card. This way we wouldn't have to pay the yearly fee (they don't charge you until the second year). This is kind of sneaky, but it worked! We never had to pay any fees for the card and we were able to keep all of the miles. 

Quick Tips:

- Set alerts or sign up to get emails for info about different credit card travel rewards

- Sign up for the credit card that works best for your needs

- Set a calendar reminder for a year later if you plan on canceling it

- Open the credit card at a time when you can easily spend the money required to get the miles

Side Note: We have a good credit score so opening and canceling a credit card in a year didn't hurt our credit much. This is something I would be careful with though if you plan on using multiple cards and canceling them as it can negatively affect your credit.

2. Travel in Slower Seasons. 

This can be difficult if you have constrictions such as school or work but, when possible, traveling in slower seasons generally means cheaper flight tickets. We are fortunate enough to be able to start our travels in May since both of our schools are out by the end of April. This is an excellent time to travel (especially to Europe) since the weather will be getting warmer and their wont be as many crowds as in the summer. This made a HUGE difference when using our AAdvantage Miles to book our flights. We got one way tickets to Spain for as little as 20K miles for each of us. For June those tickets go up to 60K miles! Because of this we were able to book both our tickets to Spain and our flights back to San Francisco from Thailand using only our miles!

3. Call the Airline for Other Potential Options. 

We were having a tough time finding flights back to San Francisco from Thailand that would be covered completely by the AAdvantage Miles we had left. We tried looking at several different options on American Airlines' website, but they all required more miles than we had left. We called the airline to see if there were any other options and were surprised to hear that there were! American Airlines partners with various international airlines and they don't always advertise those flights on their website. We were able to book our flights back home through their partner airlines (Dragonair and Japan Airlines) and cover the flight completely using only our miles.

4. Check Nearby Airports in Your Destinations.

Check out other airports near your destinations as they may be cheaper to fly into. Many websites allow you to check a box that says "nearby airports" to make this easier. Just be sure to also account for any other expenses that might be required to get you to where you want to go though. For example, you may find a cheaper flight in another airport but you will also need to pay for transportation (bus, train, car) to get to your ultimate destination.

5. Be Flexible with Travel Dates.

You have better chances of getting better deals on flights when you have some flexibility with your travel dates. 

Some days of the week are just cheaper to fly than others. Weekends tend to be more expensive. 

Most websites allow you to check a box that says "dates flexible." Also, websites such skyscanner.com allow you to easily compare when the cheapest dates to fly are.

---

Being flexible in general can really go a long way to save you some extra cash. 

For example, we were able to book our flights from Thailand to San Francisco for so cheap (using only AAdvantage Miles) because the flight is crazy!! There is 1 overnight layover in Hong Kong and 1 all-day layover in Tokyo that will require us to get to another airport to catch our flight to SFO. 

Yes, this will be an exhausting way to get back home, but we see it as an adventure that saved us tons of money!