✈️ Budget Life Hacks 💰: How to buy cheap flights to Steemfest ✈️steemCreated with Sketch.

in #travel7 years ago

So last week, @acromott and I won tickets to Steemfest from @blueorgy's competition. We were so excited to have financial help for the Steemfest trip. After winning tickets, we had to buy flights. Being that the event was only a month away, we were really worried that tickets from California to Lisbon would be extremely expensive. Well, I am about to let you in on a little secret that might just change you life, and allow you to go to Steemfest!

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So when doing a general search on Google Flights, it looked like our cheapest flight options for the days we needed to fly out on were over $1100. This is a lot of money as, we hadn't budgeted for Steemfest, so every penny/steem dollar counts.

Well, we learned about a site called SkyScanner.com and it totally knocked our total flight cost per person to $810 and we even get to stop by and visit Barcelona before making our way to Lisbon. (I will warn you, searching for flights took us about 4 hours, so be sure to set aside time for this project)

Here a couple of tips when using SkyScanner:

#1. Use a private tab
Always open SkyScanner in a private tab. Every-time, you are searching SkyScanner, you must close your tab and reopen it so that SkyScanner gives you the possible lowest rate for flights. If you do not, the price of the ticket will go up every time you re open the tab.

#2. Get creative, find connecting flights
If the flights SkyScanner gives you are not within your budget, try looking for connecting flights that will help get you where you need to go. This may mean you have to take 3 flights to get to your destination, but it will save you a lot of money. For example, on the way back from Lisbon to Sacramento, the flights were ridiculously expensive, because both airports are not as popular as San Francisco and Barcelona. Instead of having SkyScanner look for flights from Lisbon to Sacramento, we asked SkyScanner to look for flights from Lisbon to anywhere in the USA. From there, we picked the cheapest flights in the USA and connected to Sacramento. This alone saved us $200.

#3. Go directly to the source, purchase from actual airline site
When you are purchasing flights, go to the actual airline site as, SkyScanner adds on extra fees to their checkout process. If you go to the actual airline site, the tickets might be a couple dollars cheaper.

#4. Check Baggage Rules
Be sure to check out and read baggage rules for each airline you book. Many of them charge money if you want to check in your luggage. In our situation, all the flights we were on charged extra for baggage, so we decided that we are only going to take a small carry on luggage. So if you see us wearing the same stuff at Steemfest, you will know why :) haha!

I really hope this article was helpful, and if you are considering going to Steemfest, but expenses are preventing you too, try looking up flights via SkyScanner. Maybe it might just be within your budget after all! See you at Steemfest!

As @quinneaker once said to me, if there is a will, then there is a way!



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love,
Karen

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Great advice! If you're willing to spend a few hours searching for flights, and a few days (because some sites will increase fares of a particular route if you've searched for it on too many pages at the same time), you can usually find a great deal!

KEY NOTE: Don't Search on Kayak, Priceline, Expedia, etc, AND the Airline's website all the same time .. you will be making the price of your trip higher because you're artificially creating the demand for the route you're searching! (Even if you're using "Private" Browsing Tabs)

OMGSH! I never thought about that, but you are totally right! Thanks for the tip. :) Putting your comment on the top so people can read it too!

Thanks :)

A sure way to clear your browsing history (and the "least-technical" method) is to restart your computer. If you're like me, you never really "Shut Down" your machine, only Hibernate or Sleep. This will often retain your old IP address settings and websites will know you are still the same person who was searching earlier.

ahhh good life hack! :)

Thank you for sharing dear it is amazing and information for every one.really helpful post for us
keep it up.
and please friends follow me.

@mahmoodhassan

Hi @karensuestudios, I see you have mentioned me.
This is automatic response so that I may respond to your mention later.

Buen post @karensuestudios, buenas fotos, estas muy guapa jjj

Saludos desde Ecuador :)

wwooowwww very awsome and beautifull couple 💙💙
always be happy and keep it up my sweet friend 💙

awww :) thank you!

Great advise, and be sure to vary your dates of leaving and going as some days are much cheaper than others. And some places are only scheduled for certain days of the week.
so glad you are making the trip, and wish i could, but have previously scheduled an engagement. Good luck on everything.

ohhh that is a really great tip! very different depending on the date!

Never heard of that before. I will try this next flight i take :)

It's a pretty cool site to use! :) Enjoy!

Where there is a will there is a way!

Full Steem Ahead to SteemFest!

Awesome! I am so excited for you!!! @happymoneyman just nominated me to win the next group of steemfest tickets, if we will we can meet at steemit feast! If you have time please vote me. I would love to meet you two!

OMGGG!! yesss!! which competition.. is it the one with Firepower?

Yes!!! The Firepower one. @happymoneyman made a video and we posted on the contest page. Yay!!!

omgg! going to check it out right now! @happymoneyman's videos are da best! I love them!

His videos are the best! Thank you so much!

OMG you are all in! Look at you girlfran! you are awesome! :) I hope you get it! daww and the chickens and quails! :)

Thank you so much @karensuestudios! I hope to meet you there, that would be so fun!

Awesome post! Looking into flights with your tips now!

how did the search go!? You coming?

Omg yay!!! ❤❤❤❤

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