JetSetMeister

I know I sound like a Kayak junkie, and honestly, I am. (If Kayak is reading this, no thanks necessary.. but I wouldn’t turn down a free flight). It’s because I’ve done my research so you don’t have to and know what works. If it’s a website and has to do with flights, I’ve been there.

The easiest way to find cheap flights is to keep an eye on airfares on a regular basis. You can set up fare alerts with most flight search engine websites these days (the pic below is of my fare alerts on FareCompare.com). You usually need to register for a free account to do this.

Back to Kayak: I set up ongoing alerts for every continent (because I like to go everywhere) so I’ll get an email whenever someone finds a flight that fits within my preset dollar amount. Here’s what my current alerts are set at (I intentionally set the alerts to low prices so I only get notified of a flight that I truly consider a deal).

Once you set the alert, you can forget about it until a happy little email drops into your Inbox telling you that someone found a $200 flight to Costa Rica.

The second way to utilize fare alerts is to set an alert for your specific dates. If you look at the above screenshot under ‘Expired Alerts’ you can see that I set some alerts over Thanksgiving weekend for a few different places. That way I don’t put all my eggs in one basket in terms of destinations - if I’m leaning toward Kenya but fares spike suddenly or I decide I don’t want to brave the 20-hour travel time, I can easily turn to my other options.

Anyone else use airfare alerts to stay on top of flight prices? What other websites make it easier to find cheap flights? I’d love to hear.

I’ve been pretty MIA, I realize, as I’ve been home in California for the past few months (that’s me as a retro flight attendant for Halloween) and have fallen off the blog train.

Fear not! Lately, I’ve been feeling the subtle nudges of motivation prodding me to pick up the keyboard and write about travel. Specifically the pre-trip part. Figuring out the where and the how. And sometimes most importantly, the how much.

For example, one of my best friends is a teacher and has 2 weeks off for her Spring Break. She and I have been throwing around ideas for places to go during her vacation.

Here’s the big question: How do you plan a trip when you don’t really care WHERE you go (you just know you want to go)?

In the next few posts I’ll share my haphazard fun and unique process for planning trips. We’ll just ignore the fact that I champion the no-plan plan for now.