There are a few questions that people seem to always ask me when it comes to travel. Â The first one is “How much did it cost?” Â and the second question is “How can you afford to travel so much?”
How much do my trips cost? Â Well this to me is the mine field of questions almost like asking “How much do you earn” or ‘How much do you weigh” (the answers – “I used points/miles to save costs so within my budget”, “not enough” and “a bit too much currently”). Â Seriously, no matter how I answer someone will think I’ve paid too much. Â If I stayed 5 star, someone else will say “you could have stayed in a hostel, a tent or slept in your car instead” or “Wow, I’d never spend that much”. Â It’s all subjective and there really is no right answer – if you are comfortable with it then it’s all good. Â Although I have a tendency to get a bit crazy as evidenced by the $45 bottle of shampoo in London. Â I try my best to list in my posts what I’ve paid at the time so hopefully that gives you a general sense when planning your trip.
How can I afford to travel so much?  This question is a bit easier to answer although a few find it hard to apply in their own lives. My niece said to me at dinner one night “you’re rich since you travel so much” – I replied “I’m not rich, I use points” but how do you explain miles/points to an eleven year old?  I tried but then all was lost when I took her to Paris/London in business class on British Airways. I don’t earn any money from this blog (no ads, no sponsored trips) so my savings strategies aren’t new – they are just ways that have worked for me over the years.
Simple – Make Travel a Priority
1. Automate my travel savings budget – this one is easy to set up a separate savings account and have x deposited automatically each paycheck. Â I do a travel budget at the beginning of the year and incorporate it into my life budget to see what will or won’t work. Obviously mortgage, food, car is top of budget then gym (damn sweet tooth!) and travel.
2. Review all household and credit card bills for what you don’t need/can cut back/eliminate. Â I realized that I wasn’t home much to watch television so I changed my cable selections and saved $100 a month. Â The world didn’t end when I lost HBO and Showtime (ok, maybe a little). Â I’ve found myself buying the season pass on ITunes and downloading the shows to binge watch on the long haul flights. Â $30 for a season is much cheaper than the extra $200-300 Â for two/three months that the season lasts.
3. Plan out my travel wish list for the year, sign up for email notifications from those vendors and realistically set out the goals (cash and points) to save/earn. Â My entire budget could be wiped out with one dream trip unless I look at hotel/air mile goals as well. I can usually do two big trips and then a few smaller local trips a year.
Silly – Heavy Lifting, Free Cookies and Shoes
1. My Water Bottle Change Jar has been a surprising way for me to empty my very heavy purse. Â When I was going to Australia/New Zealand a few years ago, the bottle was 1/4 full. Â I decided to haul it (heavy manual work) over a few days to the bank’s coin counting machine. The machine spit out the international coins but in the end my tally was $1,200!! Â I was really surprised as was my family who now have a smaller coffee can version of this. Â I bought a new camera, hiking boots, a coat and helped defray the trip costs with the change. Â People might laugh at my coin bottle but it works – sadly it is now empty after my trip with my niece (she does like to eat!).
2. Loyalty cards at Panera and Nordstrom.  These are simple and a bit silly -some  people don’t care about free cookies and shoes but I do!  Panera seems to be everywhere and I love to earn a free drink/cookie/discount (small savings add up).  As for Nordstrom, using their credit card earns points toward $20 reward certificates.  You can be strategic and shop on double or triple points days  If you want to double dip, you can shop at Nordstrom via USAirways shopping portal and get 3x-5x USAirways miles and your Nordstrom points. I like instant gratification and go to the store rather than wait on the UPS guy. Oh the miles I’ve given up over the years!
Smart – Credit Card and Travel Planning
Credit Card Smart
1. Diversify points earning with credit cards. Find the hotel brand and airline alliance that are flexible and work with your travel goals.  I like  Starwood and British Airways. British Airways is OneWorld so I can redeem on USAirways or other partner airlines.
2. Conservative travel hacking – I pay off credit cards in full each month and do not carry a balance. I do not have 31 credit cards like a man I met at a conference, nor do I do the advanced travel hacking methods. Â I keep it easy for me to handle. This is important because not everyone can handle credit cards. Â When I needed to go to Toronto for TBEX, I opened a USAirways credit card for the 40,000 miles and used 20,000 miles ($80 taxes/fees) to save $500 in airfare. Â The potential savings on that one credit card opening is over $1,000! Â Two airfares, one credit card, annual fee $95
3. Review, Research and Change as needed. I use my credit card pretty much for all spending so that I can have a good snapshot of where my money is going and also to earn points for travel. Â I constantly research new deals to see if my current credit cards and/or strategy is still good. I am currently looking to change a credit card but need to do a redemption first as the annual fee to keep the points alive is hitting my ceiling of ROI.
Travel Planning Smart
1. Partner Credit – when I flew Alaska Airlines recently, rather than earn their miles, I chose to credit their partner, British Airways. Â You can do this with airlines and hotels – credit partners for the stay/flight. Â So many people abandon points and miles in accounts as they don’t know. Â Again, you need to map out a strategy and make sure it works for you. Â Once the airline miles are in the account they don’t come out and hotel to airline transfer rates aren’t always 1:1 and have minimums. Â I’ve abandoned hotel points in the past!
2. Kayak search tool has saved me hundreds of dollars in the past year on hotels. Â I will search there and then call the hotel direct to price match. Â Many hotels just need to do the search while you are on the phone and find the price you found. Â Others have some hoops but the savings are worth it. Â You still earn your points, pay less and if it’s a Kimpton, they give you $25 food credit to say “sorry we weren’t the lowest price as part of their best rate guarantee”
So these are my travel savings strategies, nothing new or earth shattering. Despite what my niece thinks – I’m not rich to travel. I am however rich in travel memories from the amazing places I’ve been with this strategy. What do you do to save money for travel?
21 thoughts on “My Travel Savings Strategy – Simple, Silly and Smart”
I had no idea that you could call the hotel directly and ask them to price match Kayak. Thanks for the tip!
Alana – Yes some (not all) hotels have a price match guarantee – in my experience Kayak has worked at Sofitel and Kimpton since they won’t match priceline or other bidding sites.
All really good tips!
I especially like that you clarified that when you reveal how much it costs you to travel there’ll always be someone to point out that they’ve paid less. But we all have different travel styles, budgets and comfort levels. I am not a hostel person and usually stay in a hotel but I’ve found using AirBNB or GowithOh can save me a lot if I am staying for longer periods of time.
I’m still figuring out the travel hacking business. I use Visa Aerogold here in Canada. I just used my points on a trip to Europe which saved me $1000 bucks. I find that I naturally accrue enough to fly to Europe every two years or so and that fits my travel style.
Murissa,
Thanks – I haven’t tried AirBNB yet would like to as they seem to have a fabulous selection around the world – don’t know GoWithOh will need to look into that. Canada is a bit tough for travel hacking especially as you are locked into Air Canada for so much but it’s great that you are earning travel with your Visa card. My friend in Ottawa does the same and just redeemed for their flights.
Awesome tips, Suzanne!
This is the first time I’ve heard of travel hacking.
Would love to learn more. I need to get on my game with this, I love to travel, but I know that I don’t always get disciplined enough to earn enough points, etc.
When did you start doing this, and is it easy for someone to catch up on points, since I’ve been hearing that it airlines are looking to change their way of giving out points (now based on priced, rather than distance…?). Something like that.
Anyways would love to hear more. We need to catch up!
Deepa – Thanks. It is still a good time to jump into the world of miles/points now deemed “travel hacking”. You are correct that some airlines will be changing the earning methodology but there are still great jump in/out (low risk) with credit cards for those who are disciplined and can handle credit cards. I just had a friend sign up for a credit card, make the minimum spend and he was able to redeem for 4 domestic USAir tickets for his family to Disney, saving a bit over $1,000! There are also other ways depending on your spend habits, shopping, etc. to earn points – happy to help you get started since each person’s goals/spend habits are bespoke
There is always someone richer, younger, and thinner, huh? Wonderful write-up.
Charles – Thanks! Yes, there will always be someone that has something “better” – I can’t get younger but I’d love to try richer and thinner though 🙂
My boyfriend and I employed a lot of these tips to be able to save up to travel for a year. A few people asked if we had won the lottery (I wish!), but we were just really aware of our spending. So thank you for reiterating that anyone can travel and you don’t have to be a millionaire. If it helps, I’d like to add that whenever I made a purchase I would check RetailMeNot (through the app or online) for a coupon and that usually saved me some cash. We would also trick oursevles by saying things like “This dinner for two at this nice restaurant costs the same as 4 nights in Argentina” and we would happily cook at home. If you haven’t tried AirBnb, I HIGHLY recommend it. You can get a place to yourself or save by having a private room in a house or apartment. Our recent trip to Cape Town was even more amazing because of the great host we had there.
Happy travels!
Maya – quitting your jobs to travel for a year is wonderful – I think we all wish to escape and explore. Agree that RetailMeNot is a great source for coupons, I’ve actually found a great discount on a photo seminar there. Great trick for dinner – I’ve done that with handbags – I own two because anything more would be a weekend here or there. I do need to try AirBNB – since I tend to use points for hotels, I haven’t had an opportunity yet but there are fantastic properties around the world – I did look in Capetown as they had wonderful properties – glad to see you had a great time – the Table Mountain photos are lovely. Look forward to following your continued travels –
Very helpful post, Suzanne. I use a Capital One no fee card to redeem for flights. The card is good for international travel because they don’t charge a currency conversion fee. I’d rather use airline points, but I’ve found it increasingly difficult to get tickets on the flights I need.
Suzanne – there are many credit cards out there now – travel based (Chase Ultimate Rewards), airline based (Chase United, BA, etc) that don’t charge fx fees. As for the airline points, the key (at least for me) has been using the partner airlines for redemptions.
Nice list, Suzanne — it’s great that you can get the points plans to work out for you. Lately they don’t seem to work for me, unfortunately. For years I’ve used Canada’s Air Miles plan, but now the taxes and fees charged on top of the miles make it unusable for a lot of trips.
I’ve seen more and more people recommend phoning the hotel directly rather than just booking online. And I can prove that it can save money as well as earning points: last year in Mexico I checked a hotel price on Hotels.com, then went to the hotel and asked their price — it was about 10% less, and they didn’t charge the room tax!
These are great tips! So many people think they can’t afford travel, but often that means 1) it’s not a priority and, similarly, 2) they aren’t willing or don’t know how to do the research on the front end. With a combination of advanced planning, strategic credit cards, points, and visiting cities that can be walked, we’re doing two long weekend trips for just $500. This leaves us with plenty leftover in the travel budget to splurge on a larger trip…though we’ll probably open on more travel card and try to save on that as well. I agree that you have to be so careful with credit cards, and I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but my husband and I stick to our budgets pretty strictly, so paying them off is never a problem. Can’t wait to read even more about your travels and your tips!
Brittany – two weekends for $500 is fantastic for a couple given I’ve spent more than that for 2 nights in NYC solo – it really is about priorities and glad to see that you both understand
I love this! I never traveled much as a child but my husband and I have been trying to find a way to take a fun trip each year. I always thought travel was kind of pointless because you just go somewhere, see something, and come home with much less money in your wallet. But since getting married and learning just how refreshing it is, how eye-opening it can be and how much easier it is to persevere through hard days/weeks/months when awesome vacations are coming up.
I love your tip about budgeting with a plan in mind! We definitely need to get better about this. Way to also take advantage of those credit card rewards! We recently got the Southwest card and I felt like I won the lottery. Thanks for posting these tips! I can’t wait to follow your blog more!
Thanks for the kind words. Yes, travel should be more than go,see, check the box – it is great to reset your mind, body and soul. The Southwest credit card is fantastic to use in the US especially if you earn the companion pass. I’d be on a plane every weekend if I had that pass it would make the work days go faster i think. I hope you plan a bunch of new vacations
Comments are closed.