Travel like a pro: How to book cheap flights

Because summer is nearing, I’ve decided to blog a travel series. I’ve always loved to travel, and I’ve been fortunate to do it a lot more now ever since MasterChef fame. I fly close to, if not more than, 100K miles a year, so I would say I’m a pretty experienced traveler. It never fails to amuse me when TSA employees or flight attendants ask me, “Have you ever flown before?” simply because I’m vision impaired. C’mon, people! Do blind people not get around on planes like the rest of you?!But I just smile and say, “Yes, I fly a lot.”I figured with all this traveling I’ve done, I might as well help my dear readers with some advice. In the first of this four-part series, we’ll talk about airfare and how to get good deals on flights.

Be flexible with travel dates.

Air travel is usually in less demand on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, so if you can fly on those days, the more likely it is you’ll be able to find cheaper flights. That’s because business travelers usually fly out Mondays and back Thursdays or Fridays, while vacationers tend to fly out Thursdays or Fridays and return home Sundays. An added bonus for traveling during the week is reservations at hot, new restaurants or tickets to popular shows are more readily available, too.If you can be even more flexible with your time (as in fly during any month), the best times of year to travel are January, February, and October. Early to mid-November and December are supposed to be good times to fly on the cheap, too. Just remember peaks in travel are usually in accordance with the school year calendar—March through April is notorious for spring break season, May through September are obvious summer vacation trips, and the ends of November and December are Thanksgiving and winter holidays.

Know when to book your flight.

Airline prices tend to change Tuesday and/or Wednesday, and there are numerous faretracker apps and websites out there to help you gauge on when you should purchase your tickets. A general rule of thumb is, it’s the best time to book when it’s 56 days out from travel time.Of course, I still fall victim to this gambling move. Sometimes, I wait too long to buy, and airfare never drops back down to the initial $120 I first caught it at. Other times, I book a flight at $220—what I thought was a good deal—and later see it go on sale for $112. I’m no guru, and those faretracker apps are also not a 100% guarantee. That being said, what I said in the previous paragraph generally hold true, but do know that you book/wait at your own risk.

Take advantage of frequent flyer programs.

Since I live in Houston, I mostly fly United Airlines, which has a hub in my hometown. Therefore, I’m a Mileage Plus account member, part of the Star Alliance program, which has partnership airlines such as EVA Air and Air Canada among others. That means if I fly any of the Star Alliance partners, I get miles counted towards my United Mileage Plus account. Obviously, you can book flights using miles you’ve accrued, but the more status you build with an airline, the more perks you get, too, like bonus miles, free checked baggage, shorter queues at the ticketing counter, earlier boarding, and (my personal favorite) complimentary cabin class upgrades.Many airlines have credit cards that also help you earn miles and perks. For example, the United Mileage Visa with Chase gives you miles with the dollars you spend,limited lounge access, and free checked baggage.As an aside, I must tell you I’m in no way sponsored by United Airlines—it’s just the airline I’m referring to because it’s the most familiar to me.There are other cheap flight hacks out there, but I don’t know them all, nor do I have the time and dedication to figure them out. My friend, on the other hand, knows them all, reading multiple blogs and Twitter feeds each day for flight sales, checking destination countries’ airline websites for cheaper options, understanding the ins and outs of her frequent flyer program terms.This brings us to the last tip of my first pro-traveler series. It’s not a hack for finding cheap flights, but it will make your life a little bit easier: download the airline app. It makes flying convenient. You can book flights, check on the status of a flight, pull up your boarding pass straight on the app, keep track of your reward miles, etc. Hopefully, if you’re vision impaired, the app is screen reader friendly. (United is all right but used to be better—I still have trouble booking flights on the app. Southwest can be nightmare.) Of course, you need a smart phone to use the apps, but if you don’t have one, get a smart phone already!I’m not going to pretend I’m George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air and that I know everything there is to know about air travel, but hopefully this gave you a little insight. Know way more than I do? What are some of your travel hacks for finding cheap flights?