Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World

Money is more important to airlines than full planes.

Traveling internationally with kids is difficult for many reasons. It’s a practical challenge to pack all the kids’ things, get the family to the airport, stave off a midflight meltdown, and organize logistics once you arrive. It’s a financial challenge, buying airfare (not to mention everything else) for five instead of two. And it’s a scheduling

(The website Rome2rio is the easiest way to explore public transportation schedules and prices anywhere in the world, including trains, buses, and ferries.)

Airlines want to charge different prices to business travelers and vacationers. Even more than that, they want to charge vacationers with low flexibility and/or low price-sensitivity more than vacationers who can travel anytime but need a cheap flight. The tricky part for airlines is figuring out who’s who. How can an airline determine a given trav

Some airlines and airports even offer perks for passengers with long layovers, including free hotels and tours. For example, depending on your flight schedule, airlines like Turkish, China Southern, and Royal Jordanian offer comped hotel rooms to passengers with long layovers. If you’re flying through Seoul, Singapore, or Taipei, they offer free ci

In theory, carbon offsets are an eloquent and effective solution. If a plane emits a pound of carbon dioxide and a preserved acre of forest sucks up a pound of carbon dioxide, from an environmental standpoint it’s a wash. In practice, though, offsets have had an inconsistent record. For offsets to work, they must satisfy three requirements: additio

When an airline advertises a sale, especially on international flights, it’s almost never worth your time. Think about how marketing works at its core: A company is trying to convince you to buy something. When an airline has $950 fares to Paris, it has to convince people it’s a good deal. But $250 fares to Paris need no marketing dollars. A fare t

Unless it’s a mistake fare—when an airline erroneously sells a flight at an unbelievably low price (more on these in Chapter 12)—I personally value booking directly at about $25. If I find a ticket I can book directly from United for $300, that same flight would need to be under $275 on an OTA for me to consider straying. If it’s a mistake fare sit

Seasonally, the fall and winter months tend to be cheapest, with the major exception of mid-December through early January. With schools and many businesses closed, the Christmas/New Year’s period is one of the most popular (and therefore expensive) times of the year to travel. Spring often has good deals, though as the calendar progresses into lat