Combine fare sales with ground transport for amazing bargains
Those of us who like to travel a lot really need to be creative to make our funds stretch as far as they absolutely can. Today I’ll be discussing another strategy that I’ve used in different parts of the world, including the United States. Especially for those with flexible schedules, there are fantastic deals out there if you look around.
New York to Chicago fare sale
When researching flights between New York City and Chicago today I noticed that Jet Blue is having a very impressive fare sale, with round-trip flights starting at $115 between the two cities if you travel on a Wednesday. Other days are slightly more expensive, but compare this to a roundtrip fare of $279 on any day when the sale isn’t in effect.
So obviously if you are specifically going between these cities you are set, but for a sale like this it can save money for those going almost anywhere in either region. Let’s say you are in Madison, Wisconsin and for some reason you wanted to go to Atlantic City, New Jersey. A flight from Madison to Newark would cost $400 or more, but a bus ticket from Madison to Chicago and a $115 RT flight and then a bus or train ticket from New York City to Atlantic City would come in around $150 total.
This goes back to one of the most effective strategies overall, which is to search for fares between the largest cities in your region. Not long ago we discussed checking for fares out of New York City and Los Angeles for just about any flight out of the United States, and this is similar.
Flying from Boston to Miami might not be cheap, so check New York to Miami and also New York to Fort Lauderdale. Prices on those last two routes are often around $100 roundtrip, with nonstop flights leaving every hour or so.
Sometimes big airports aren’t the best option
The key to this strategy is to find airports that have a lot of competition from different airlines. There are many airports in the US that are dominated by one carrier who operates a busy hub there, and flights can often be very expensive. Examples of this are Salt Lake City, Denver, and Charlotte.
If you were to look for a flight into Denver for a trip to Fort Collins you might find that it’s actually even more expensive. The best approach is to just keep checking possibilities until you are sure you are getting the best deal. In most cases your best option will be the easiest and most straightforward one, but in many other cases you can actually save a lot by being creative and finding a pair of cities that are well connected by ground transportation that also have fare sales going on at the moment.