What Are The Best Airplane Life Hacks?

Jonathan Breeze, CEO at AardvarkCompare.com (2015-present)

The best, simplest, hack is to buy cheap - Never buy a Refundable ticket again - you have just reduced your ticket cost by 70%.

A hack is a way of getting more for less when traveling.

Blog | AardvarkCompare.com Airline Ticket Hack

This is a recent example, using American Airlines between Dallas and LA.
I am looking around 6 months ahead of time.

So, we buy a Refundable Economy Ticket. LAX to LHR in August for a week (6 months from now).

American wants $2,100 for a Main Cabin Fully Flexible Seat.Truly and honestly, I have no idea what this is. It’s in the Main Cabin, but is more expensive than a First Class seat. Truly Baffling.

So, we don’t click on this, but seek a more traditional Main Cabin (Economy) seat.
And now, this looks like a bargain, after we managed to avoid the $2,100 fully flex seat.

American wants $1,150 for a Main Cabin Flexible Seat.So, it is flexible, just not ‘fully’ flexible. American are kind; we can change our flights, not lose all of our money, but we will need to pay for the effort to make the flight change. $200. For a change fee. That makes the convenience fee to book a movie ticket seem fair and justifiable. $200 extra to allow me to make a change. Unbelievable.

Still, it’s only $200. It’s not as though the airlines feed on this at all. Surely, it cannot add up to much…

Well, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the Top 25 US Airlines rake in $3Bn a year in Reservation Change Fees. And $4Bn a year in Baggage Fees.
Seriously?!

If you didn’t hate the airlines before, you probably hate them now, I would imagine.
But, let’s go beat them at their own game..

Just before you hit the ‘Buy’ button, your brain kicks in, and you, unlike almost every traveler, decide to get creative.
Why not buy a Non-Refundable seat, and wrap it up with some ‘Cancel For Any Reason’ Travel Insurance from a Marketplace like AardvarkCompare.com

American wants $400 for the Non-Refundable Main Cabin Seat.

Add the Insurance, it will cost around $50.

We are choosing a really robust set of coverages..
Cancellation (Sickness, Death, Incapacitation etc) - 100% Refund.
Cancellation for Work Reason - 100% Refund.
Cancellation for Any other Reason - 75% Refund.

So, for $450 a customer booking that DFW - LAX return has nearly the same level of coverage as the person paying $1,150 for exact same seat.
A $700 saving.

Remember that the person in the $1,150 seat still has to pay $200 every time they make a change.
Whereas the person in the $450 seat just needs to throw the ticket away and use their insurance if a flight needs to be cancelled.

Clever Stuff!

If you are even thinking about buying a refundable ticket, then do the math on taking a non-refundable ticket, and a travel insurance.

The airlines are robbing people blind with their 3x pricing on refundable tickets.

Best of all, if you are in the USA, you can have absolute confidence that you are buying at the best possible price - Anti-Discrimination law works to protect customers from overpaying - you cannot find the same policy cheaper anywhere else.

Blog | AardvarkCompare.com - Will I Pay More Buying Travel Insurance from a Comparison Website? Nope. Not in the USA. Insurance prices are filed with state regulators - the price you see from a Marketplace like AardvarkCompare.com is the same price that you will get if you go to the travel insurer’s website. Basically, our services are free of charge to a customer.

Safe Travels!

The more expensive the ticket, the larger the savings.
First Class and Business Tickets can be insanely expensive, unless you play the system..

Blog | AardvarkCompare.com First Class Pricing - Beat the System

For those of you who would prefer to keep the airlines profitable, here is the price for a Refundable First Class Ticket from LAX to LHR..

$23,400 for a First Class Refundable ticket, or $6,800 for a First Class Non-Refundable with Insurance from AardvarkCompare.com

$6,800 for a $23,400 Seat?!

British Airways wants $6,300 for the Non-Refundable First Class Seat.

I then add a $450 Cancel For Any Reason Travel Insurance Policy from AardvarkCompare.com

That’s a $16,600 saving. Same flight. You’re welcome.

Safe Travels!

Travel Experts Find Airfare Hack To Save 20% Or More On Flights

The Travel Expert team atShuttleWizard.com has found an airfare hack that can save passengers 20% or more on flights (in our case 29%). The process is quite simple, anyone can do it, and it just requires time and some polishing of your airfare searching skills.

Why It Works: Airlines have complicated pricing algorithms that take into account dozens of variables to update their pricing on a daily basis. Most importantly, many airlines compare their pricing to the competition and adjust pricing accordingly. This opens the possibility for arbitrage scenarios where travelers can book a cheap rate for a competitive route that makes a stopover at your (actual) destination city. This fare can be lower than booking directly to your (actual) destination city.

We picked East Asia because this is home to one of the most competitive markets in the world. There are plenty of airlines competing for the same trans-pacific routes from major hubs in the States to capital cities in Asia. This mixture is great for travelers looking to find deals to travel to Asia. Here, we teach you how.

How To Do It: Lets go to Taipei. I picked December 1st, 2015 to try out this technique.  We will be searching for the cheapest one-way flight to Taipei following these simple steps:

1. Go to Google Flights and enter your preferred travel destination. In this case, we want to go from LAX and to Taipei (TPE).  
   
   

2. Look at the search results. The most affordable flight is with China Airlines for $561.00 USD.

3. Redo the original search and replace the destination airport with different airport hubs in that region of the world. In this case, we tried Hong Kong (HKG), Tokyo (NRT), Seoul (ICN), and Shanghai (PVG). Check out this list to see all airport hubs around the world. http://bit.ly/1JCaq0s.
   1. KEY: Under “More Options”, select your real destination city as the connecting airport (in our case Taipei), and complete the search.

4. In this case, Hong Kong showed up as the cheapest flight option with a stopover in Taipei. It will cost us $398.00 USD to fly LAX-TPE-HKG versus $561.00 USD for flying LAX directly to Taipei. That’s 29% cheaper. Huge savings!!

The Execution: During your travel day, please make sure you tell the check-in attendant that you only want to check-in your flight and luggage to Taipei– otherwise your luggage will end up in Hong Kong!! I’ve personally done this twice, once in Frankfurt and once in Jakarta, and I was prepared to give explanations and come up with a story but both times the check-in attendants just smiled and didn’t ask anything.

About the Author:

Alex Saad is the Founder and CEO of ShuttleWizard.com. He hopes to use his travel expertise to find cheaper airport transportation deals for fellow travelers. ShuttleWizard.com is an airport transportation search engine and reservations platform.