I always thought that I was pretty good at finding travel deals. I would always start looking for cheap international flights months and months before my trip, and would usually be able to save hundreds of dollars through careful planning and patience. I would find fairly cheap hotels in general, staying at cheaper places rather than throwing money around on pointless luxury. When I decided to go a trip with my cousin, however, I was in for a surprise. Apparently, I knew nothing about travel discount hunting.
My cousin, you see, could take finding travel discounts to extremes. Discount traveling, in fact, was somewhat of a religion for him. He was one of the only people I knew who still consulted a travel agent, however he rarely actually accepted the travel hotel packages that the agent proposed. He could usually find something better on his own, you see. He explained to me that it wasn't just an obsession. He used to be a traveling salesman, working on commission. The more that he could save on traveling expenses, the more money he had at the end of the day. Finding travel discounts just made good business sense for him, so he eventually got very good at it.
The key to finding good travel discounts is to keep an eye out for special promotions. Cheap tickets online sites are great, but they are only the beginning. A lot of the time, the credit card companies will offer a great travel discount to someone who is willing to specifically endorse their card. At some sites, Anyone who uses MasterCard gets travel discounts of up to 20% off. On other sites, the preferred card is Visa. Sometimes, hotels or travel agencies will give away huge travel discounts if you are willing to make your trip in the off season. The more flexible you are, the more opportunities there are.
One of the things I didn't know about was the fact that you can stay at nice places for very cheap. Even fairly luxurious inns sometimes have hotels discounts available if you are able to find the right deal at the right time. You see, the international tourism business varies so much that there are bound to be some great destinations where you can stay for very little money. It is all a matter of keeping an eye out. The more you look, the more discounts you will find.
|
