77 Ways to Save on Travel

How to Save Big $$$ On Travel Expenses Top Strategies for Cutting Travel Costs Brought to you by U.S. Passport Service Guide www.us-passport-service-guide.com Important: Before You Continue You are granted 100% giveaway rights with this special report. You may give it away to anyone. You may not sell it. You can upload it to your website and offer it to your visitors. If you have any questions, contact me for details. How to Save Big $$$ on Travel Expenses 2 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED U.S. and international copyright laws protect this document. No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced in any way without written permission from the author. You may share, trade, or give this document away. You may transfer it to a CD or other media, email it, or upload it to any FTP site or other site where it could be downloaded. You may not sell this document. DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES The information provided herein represents the views of the author at the date of publication. Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update his opinions based on the new conditions. This report is for informational purposes only and the author does not accept any responsibilities for any liabilities resulting from the use of this information. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided herein, the author cannot assume any responsibility for error, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional. The reader of this publication assumes the responsibility for the use of these materials and information. No guarantees of income or savings are made. The author reserves the right to make changes and assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any reader of this material. Links in this document There are several links within this report that you can click on. They all appear as blue underlined text , just like you see on web pages. All of these links will take you to a web page on the Internet. So, before you click any links, make sure you are connected to the Internet. © Copyright U.S. Passport Service Guide How to Save Big $$$ on Travel Expenses 3 Contents General Travel Savings Tips.................................... 4 Top Strategy #1: Start Your Own Price War ........... 6 Top Strategy #2: Pack Up the Savings.................. 10 Top Strategy #3: Become a Travel Insider ........... 12 Top Strategy #4: Alternative Accommodations .... 14 Top Strategy #5: Become a Travel Expert ............ 17 © Copyright U.S. Passport Service Guide How to Save Big $$$ on Travel Expenses 4 General Travel Savings Tips Do Your Research It’s hard to know if you are getting a good deal if you are unaware of the market value. Within just a few minutes online, you can get tens to hundreds of prices for any travel service. Recently, someone offered to sell me a used digital camera. He sent me a web page that showed the same camera for about $120 more than what he was asking for the camera. After about 5 minutes online, I found the same camera new for $40 less than he was asking. With that information in hand, my friend was willing to lower the price. Ask, Ask, Ask This has to be the easiest way to save on travel costs. Don’t let lower prices slip by because you didn’t ask for them. In fact, you should make it a habit to always ask for a discount. You can word the question in a variety of ways. “Is there a discount fare?” “Is that the lowest price you have?” “Are you running a promotion?” Go When Fewer Go Discounts are harder to find during peak travel periods. It’s a basic law of economics. When demand increases, prices usually go up. To avoid paying big bucks, schedule your vacation during low travel season. Also, midweek trips usually cost less than weekend travel. Go Where Fewer Go Hot travel spots cost more. There are a lot of really wonderful places to visit where you can avoid the crowds and cut costs. Stay away from places on lists of “Top Destinations”. Go Where the Cost-of-Living is Low Mercer Human Resource Consulting does a bi-annual survey of the cost-of-living expenses in 250 locations worldwide. Using New York as a base with a score of 100, Tokyo ranked highest with a score of 143.7 and Asuncion, Paraguay ranked 144 th with a score of 40.3. You can see a list of the top 144 locations at http://www.finfacts.com/costofliving3.htm © Copyright U.S. Passport Service Guide How to Save Big $$$ on Travel Expenses 5 Clip Those Travel Coupons Are you a coupon clipper? Coupons are a great way to get dollars off your purchases. The same goes for travel services. You can find coupons in the travel section of major newspapers, in travel-related magazines and online both at travel web sites and at coupon sites. The Entertainment book is one example. It’s filled with tons of coupons with up to 50% off travel, dining, attractions and more. See details for Entertainment book here . Take Advantage of Travel Certificates Travel Certificates are used by businesses as incentives to acquire new customers. For a small processing fee of $10 to $25, you can enjoy free airfare, hotel stay or other travel services. Recruit a Group and Go for Free Group rates work on the same principal as vacation packages. The more you buy the less you pay. There are even some companies that will give you free travel if you form a group of a predetermined number of people. Search for agents that specialize in group travel and ask to partner with them. You recruit the group and they give you free travel. Plan Your Own Tour Similar to the tip above except that the entire tour is planned, organized and executed by you. The tour participants pay you as their guide. While a previous trip to your destination is a major plus, you can actually prepare by reading both online and print travel guides. Bid on Travel Auction sites are great places to find some good deals. At the time of writing, eBay ® listed 239 vacation packages, 116 cruises and 899 vacation rentals among other travel items. Click here to check out the latest Travel auctions . © Copyright U.S. Passport Service Guide How to Save Big $$$ on Travel Expenses 6 Top Strategy #1: Start Your Own Price War Ever taken advantage of a price war? You know, it’s when competing businesses begin drastically dropping prices on a product or service to outdo one another and conquer a greater number of clients. Price wars are great. It’s usually the only time you see “too good to be true” opportunities that are really true, like Ryan Air’s offer of free airfare within Europe in January 2002. The objectives of the company were to recuperate credibility in the airline after 9/11 and increase their visibility. The price war you start will be a little different. You can’t force travel suppliers to lower their prices. You can, however, create competition among travel agents that will lead to lower prices for your travel needs. Why consider a travel agent when you can book your own travel online? A travel agent is an expert. He knows the market much better than you do. He has tricks and techniques that you know nothing about. He has insider information. I only recently became a travel agent myself. I decided to become an insider. Why? Experience has shown me that travel agents always find better deals than I can find myself. We’ll discuss this more a little later. Now, back to the travel agent price wars. My first experience with starting a price war was actually unplanned. It happened in 1994 when I was living in Brazil and planning a visit to the U.S. A few months before my departure date, I began observing the price of airfare in newspapers and travel magazines. I consulted friends who traveled regularly. After discovering what I thought was the best deal, I called and made my reservations. Not one week passed when I came across a better deal than I had found earlier. I called the travel agency that promoted the offer, confirmed the price and made reservations. © Copyright U.S. Passport Service Guide How to Save Big $$$ on Travel Expenses 7 I then called the travel agency with whom I had made the first reservation and told them that I needed to cancel my reservations through them. Of course, the agent who attended the telephone wanted to know the reason for the cancellation. I told her that I had found a better deal. She then asked, “Well, how much is the fare and where did you find it?” When I told her, she said something that I had not expected. She said, “Hold on a minute. Let me see what I can do.” After a couple of minutes, she returned and announced that she could beat the lower price I had found. I thanked her, told her to maintain my reservation and hung up. I then called the second travel agency and informed them that I needed to cancel the reservation that I had just recently made. The person who attended the telephone asked, “Why?” When I told her that another travel agency had offered me a better deal, she said, “Hold on a minute and let me see what I can do.” A couple of minutes later she returned with an even lower price.

Load more