Eric Bowman. the executive editor at TravelPulse, offers some guidance to help you get the airfare you want at a price you're willing to pay.

<div class="block">National Cheap Flight Day is a great day to think about your next trip. As temperatures cool and the holidays arrive, it&#39;s time to start thinking about booking your flight. Eric Bowman. the executive editor at TravelPulse, offers some guidance to help you get the tickets you want at a price you&#39;re willing to pay.</div>

Stretching Your Dollar

Expert Advice on Booking Flights on National Cheap Tickets Day

In case you didn't know. Yes, National Chief Flight Day is today and what better way to celebrate than to speak with an expert who can help us get the most bang for our buck Eric Bowman, who is the executive editor of Travel Plus joins me now with everything travelers need to know Eric, when is the best time to book a flight for a getaway this coming fall and winter? Thank you for having me. Um I would say now is really the best time you don't want to hesitate when it comes to flights right now because they're getting pricier, they're filling up, you know, fall is typically referred to as the shoulder season, but we're not gonna really have much of a shoulder season this year. As you see, international flight volumes are up 100% domestic volumes of 98% hotels, vacation rentals, even car rentals, they're all trending up. So it's a busy time in this fall season for travel and you know, it's gonna be um a a great busy one and I'm I'm excited. I got some trips coming up too. Good. Well, I uh I would love to hear about those trips. Uh But how much money can you save booking ahead of time? Baby, you did save some money on those trips I did. Yeah. So booking in advance is really the best way to go, especially in this post pandemic travel space. You know, it's one of the better ways to secure pricing and you'll have more available options the further along that you book in advance. So travel advisors are actually recommending to you that you really start planning the process about a year in advance. So they're already seeing 2024 bookings trending up in this space. So definitely get in early when you can. Is there a difference in how long you should wait to book international travel versus domestic flights? Generally, you want to aim for that international flight about 6 to 9 months in advance and for domestic 3 to 4 months is ok. But a lot of it, it's really gonna depend on some variables of like where you're going, which destinations you're picking to how many different airports or options are available there. And what time of year you wanna fly as well because certain years, certain times of the year are a lot busier than others. So, but again, the earlier you start the better off you're gonna be. So I know you heard our poll before, I'm sure you did right before we started this segment. Most people, 40% I guess do book flights and travel with credit card points are these points really kind of the key to cheap flights very much so. Yeah, so the majority of us have to use credit cards for our everyday life, right? So you might as well make sure you're maximizing your points and building that up. You know, I actually booked two flights uh for this fall again. I cashed in points and it is such a sweet feeling not having to open up my wallet or dip into the bank account, so to speak and drop big dollars on a ticket. Um So if you can be patient and building up those points and save it up, uh maybe for an international flight or really help your wallet along the way and it can significantly change like how you do the rest of your travel process as well. You might be more apt to, you know, splurge on a price for a hotel or a couple of different things, um activities and attractions um depending on where you're going and everything since you didn't have to pay upfront for the cost of the flight. Ok. So any sites that you would recommend so that viewers can get the best price? Yeah, I would say first start with your local travel advisor's website, work with the travel advisor on on getting the best bookings, but in terms of like flights and stuff, uh Sky scanner is great cheap flights dot com is another really good one. And there's also going dot com, which is formerly, uh, Scott's cheap flights and they post all about mistake fares. So, which is when an airline makes a mistake and they put something up, they didn't mean to a much cheaper price. You gotta act on that. So, one of the, um, email blasts I got last week actually was a flight to Paris for $500 a round trip flight and that's normally gonna cost you close to or over $1000 depending on when you actually fly. So those, those are some good ones there. Yeah. So there was a tiktok trend about skip lagging. I want you to talk to me about what that is and why it actually might not be the best way to save money. Yeah. Skip lagging. Um, so that's when you buy a flight with a layover and as secretly that layover destination is the actual place that you want to travel to. It was just cheaper to buy, you know, that flight with the layover option. So, uh, airlines frown upon this. They can actually ban you on that if you, you know, skip lag and you get off if you connect in flight layover destination. American Airlines has actually, uh, banned a 17 year old pretty recently who did that and they're actually suing the website skip lag dot com United, tried a few years back and the judge dismissed it. So I certainly wouldn't recommend all that. Just because I don't think the risk of, you know, is better than the reward, you know, saving a couple, uh, dollars here and there. But you run the risk of getting banned from an airline completely. So, but I guess if you're going to do it, don't brag about it on tiktok. I think that's a good idea. This next option obviously will take you longer but might save you more money. Do you think it is worth it to consider booking longer layovers at to see multiple locations? Yeah, absolutely. I think you're gonna maximize your travel experience that way if you can get out and see more options available on that. I 100% agree with that. Yeah. Ok. Any other tips uh to share with viewers so that they can stretch their dollar? Definitely work with a travel advisor. That's always my number one go-to for all things travel because they're gonna be in your corner. Should something go wrong? And as we've seen over the last few years, anything can happen on stuff. So make sure you have that travel advisor. They've also got preferred partners so they can help get extra deals that you can't find online anywhere else deals like like free air, maybe that's packaged in with a river cruise option over in Europe or you know, discounted prices on hotels because they've got, you know, more of a last minute availabilities uh because they work with their preferred partners a lot. So a travel advisor is definitely the way to go to stretch that dollar. Any pro tips for flying more comfortably. Yeah, I mean, first class is the way to go if you can afford it. That's always, you know, a, a good one there. But I would say, yeah, if you are someone that knows you're gonna sleep on, you know, go with the, um, invest in a neck pillow because I love it. I, I know that I can fall asleep pretty much anywhere. Uh Now that I've traveled a lot more so a neck pillow is always good to go and yeah. Ok, so I know you mentioned you have some trip plans. Um you can share them if you'd like, but I'm also wondering if you were able to get good deals on them. Eric. Yeah, so I've got a couple of work trips. Um I'm going to Jamaica next week. Actually, I've got Dominican Republic later on. Um, so I booked it well in advance for the Dominican Republic and Jamaica one. So that, that secured stuff there and then I cashed in points for a flight to Vegas and it only cost me about 19,000 points. But uh I jumped on um, so pay attention to you the uh emails you get from airlines if you've flown with them before, sometimes they'll drop in deals that you can specifically use for those credit card points. So I jumped on that with Delta and, and save some good way on that. But again, booking early is, is really the best way to go when you, when you're looking at flights. All right, Eric Bowman. Uh Thank you so much for joining with the great tips on national cheap flight day. We appreciate it.