I want to see my family more often, but they are spread out all over the eastern U.S. My husband and I have a 5yo child.
Whenever we fly, it costs at least $1200-$1500. (That’s not going to destinations like Miami, that’s goin to like MSP.) I feel like we know lots of families flying all the time but don’t understand how they financially swing that.
My husband and I are both 6+ feet tall and my husband is a big guy, so things get painful if we aren’t in the extra legroom seats. Because we have such a young kid, we have to purchase in a way where we can pick our seats – we can’t get last minute assigned seats that would separate us.
We used to have the Alaska card for BOGO flights yearly, but now we don’t live near an Alaska hub, and they don’t have nonstop flights to the destinations we want to go to.
I’ve had a delta account for years but still don’t have enough miles to cover a single flight….how do people build up enough miles to use them all the time?
I feel like I’m missing something with making air travel cheaper. Is it that most people are under 6 feet tall so they can deal with the cheap seats? Most people take shitty times like redeyes? Most people use things like Expedia where you don’t actually get assigned a seat?
Edit- when we lived in the PNW it seemed like ppl we knew regularly flew to India / Asia to see extended family, or flew to Hawaii/california for vacation couple times a year, etc. We just don’t get how.
How do other families fly so often, is frugal flying just not for us? What tricks are we missing?
byu/Ok_Driver_878 inFrugal
Posted by Ok_Driver_878
36 Comments
Lots of families are in a lot of debt and a few paychecks from being completely broke.
High earners included.
We get one, maybe two tickets a year using our Delta card. We charge everything and pay it off at the end of the month. I think we get a $200 flight credit too. We also have a similar age child so book where we can pick seats but not extended leg room because we are not tall.
use a credit card
Frugal doesn’t equal broke. Airline miles are a thing. Churning is a thing.
Get a rewards credit card and book early/be flexible on dates.
Fly on off days, weeks, and/or months, and book at least three months in advance.
We fly on Thanksgiving day and the weekend after to avoid paying a premium. Additionally, never fly on or around Spring Break. Otherwise, travel before Memorial or after Labor day.
Most people I know who travel a lot earn their tickets by travel miles on their credit cards so you might look into getting a credit card that offers travel miles. They are usually big bonus travel miles when you first sign up too.
A combination of things you said and also flexible dates and times and locations.
There are cheap flights but you can’t be set on where you’re going and when you’re going.
Which with a school aged kid and family in specific locations it’s not possible.
Also I have noticed flights to big cities are much cheaper. Example LAX to JFK, cheap, Reno to say Memphis expensive. Supply and demand
I have a coworker fly Frontier a few times a year. Shes able to get her tickets when they’re on sale and than cashes in her rewards. We’re also close to a frontier hub and so is her family that she’s visiting.
I think it depends where your flying to and where you currently at. Because I know others who can’t fly that often cause the people they’re visiting aren’t near where the budget airlines fly.
Consider booking two seats together, but not the third (if this is possible while booking). That’d give your child at least one adult sitting with them. At 5, this should be doable. And all those other people? Betcha a bunch have their travel/flights on credit cards that are not being paid off monthly.
Planning by buying early. Use low cost carriers like frontier. Pack light. Credit card points.
We play the cc points game hard. It does require a lot of responsibility to not go deep into CC debt over just some points.
But it allows us to take international flights as a family of four (we generally just pay cash for domestic flights, as the redemption rate usually isn’t as good)
Additionally, I used to travel pretty heavily for work…that alone can rack up some serious points/miles, especially if you can use your own credit card. I remember burning a million Marriott points on a big anniversary trip, then still earning another 600k just the next year….very few of those points were actually earned with my own money.
But my biggest takeaway: Earn bank cc points, not airline miles…i.e. Chase Ultimate Rewards, AMEX Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou points, etc. They can be transferred to a slew of different airlines, often at much much better rates than directly with United/Delta/etc.
1. All spending possible goes on a rewards credit card (not just an airline card). Gives us flexibility to use those points toward different airlines.
2. Fly at unpopular times, Tuesday middle of the day, not around holidays, etc. be flexible in travel days and times to look for the cheapest option.
3. Fly popular routes, going to MSP? Use delta. Going to Denver? Use United.
4. Cheaper seats. $300/round trip for a mid to cost flight is not that high. Add in baggage fees, selecting seats, extra legroom, it gets pricier.
5. Most families aren’t flying all that often. Or at least not taking everyone. Many people I know have not been on a plane regularly, or their 10 year old kids haven’t ever.
I recently had to replace my roof and during that process, it became clear to me how many people in the United States live their day-to-day lives deeply in debt.
We have found international travel to be cheaper. Last trip to Iceland for two adults from US was 1,200. We use credit cards that build points for free stays and include free breakfast. The breakfast options outside of the US have been amazing and make it so we usually only eat out one other meal a day.
Never compare your internals to other’s externals.
Many of these families may be in debt more than you’re willing to carry. For me, that’s as little debt as possible and I find other solutions.
Amtrak has been delightful 2/3 of the times I’ve needed to get somewhere cheap
High income
Travel work / company discounts
Military
CC Points/Churning
Costco travel
Giftcards from friends/family
Raffles/giveaway
volunteering For various charities/Church groups
Time shares
Sponsorship
Layovers
Savings /buying tickets off season
Signing up for various websites for promotional spam
Minimalistic living focusing income on “experiences” on a limited budget
Some people go into debt to travel. I had a friend with 30k in credit card debt, almost all from travel. Her plan was to travel while young and childless.
Have you heard of Going? They send you flight deals for places you want to go. You might not want/be able to go when the deals are happening. That being said, I have the free subscription and enjoy it a lot.
You don’t fly. You drive. We did tons of road trips when I was a kid to see family.
Please know a lot of small businesses have a travel reward credit card that they rack up points on and take flights for basically free.
Not everyone is playing the same game.
Non-direct. I bought five direct tickets two years ago (for mid December). JFK -AKL. Just under 20K. These were economy seats. I can’t quite believe I did it now.
I’m flying the same route again next week, this time non direct. Stopping 9.5 hours in LAX. $917 each.
There’s a range of answers.
People have more money. People *do* live nearer hubs or have other ways to utilize miles and FF schemes better. They fly on what are generally cheaper routes. They can book further in advance than you can. They have more flexibility with regards to dates, times, and routes. They are willing to take worse seats than you are. They know more tricks about following sales and getting cheaper tickets. They just accept it as a necessary expense. They don’t care as much about how much they spend. They take these flights at the cost of other things you do instead. Etc. etc.
Live frugally elsewhere so we can spend on travel.
But we’re also bringing in decent money, which is the actual secret ingredient to getting to travel at all instead of living frugally in every aspect while doing side stuff on top for income.
I married an airline pilot 😂, to see family we usually non-rev. We also have an AA credit card and can usually take one international first class flight a year on points. When we do buy tickets we get a 20% employee discount. Really helps. Sharing that not to brag just explain we are bypassing the system some.
It’s not perfect, but we fly a lot just in the Continental US. With CC bonuses and perks- I got companion pass for Southwest. So I could use my miles to fly, and my son would fly for $11.60 ish (fees).
That saved us a lot of money when we were flying.
Since SW is changing their business model, I don’t think we will be continuing with this moving forward.
Debt, they make a lot more money than you, or different priorities.
I am a homebody so I spend way more than the rule of thumb on housing (great location in the downtown area of my city), but rarely to never travel. I prioritize my home life over visiting people and places elsewhere.
The only way we can make it happen is because my partner travels for work often and gets to use his points accounts for hotels and flights even though payment goes on his company card. The result of which is a ton of miles to offset cost for us. Otherwise, we would be going nowhere that wasn’t driving distance. Mind you, we aren’t taking family vacations out the wazoo here, but twice a year we fly across the country to visit our in-laws and it’s always around the same time of year (no holidays) so we can budget effectively year to year.
SunCountry has super cheap flights!
If you don’t pick seats the airline still puts children under 12 with at least one of the adults on the reservation if at all possible.
We have friends that flew to India with their kids twice in the last few years (once was for a parents funeral).
They are in 20k of debt.
Don’t assume everyone is cash rolling everything.
Also what city are you in? And where are you flying to?
Expedia tends to not list the discount airlines like frontier and Southwest….worth adding them in the mix.
And yes…picking your own seat and extra legroom will upcharge you a lot.
I have 2 kids …with just get in line to board as soon as we can. Been times where we were all together but each kid has always had a parent sit with them.
Maybe book 2 seats together and let the 3rd float.
It gets worse when you have to work with school schedules. Plan on basically not getting cheap flights for 12 years.
I have been trying to get really cheap flights for my family for 25 years.
Basically unless I wanted to drive to NYC I wasn’t getting decent, cheaper flights – even though I had the choice of 4 airports in New England.
(I plan vacations, realize we have plenty of stuff to do within 10 hour drive and say fuck it. We wont do a flight vacation)
First thing, you deal with the discomfort of flying in the back of the plane. I’m 6’4”, pushing 300lbs, and I’ve never paid for anything but basic economy. Yes, it sucks, but I’d rather have the extra $$$ to spend at my destination (or save).
My wife and I never pay for seats with our kids. They are now 11 and 13. They’ve traveled with us since being infants. The airline always puts at least one adult with them.
Credit card points help as others have mentioned. Also we often drive 3 hours+ to larger airports to get better deals. Either at the start or end of the trip.
Also 6 feet tall. I don’t pay for extra legroom unless the flight is over 10 hours.
For the child assigned seating issue see if your carriers guarantee seating: https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-family-seating-dashboard?carrier_target_id=29821
If you rent, the Bilt card gave us enough points for 1-2 tickets a year. They are expanding to mortgages next year too.
Booking flights in advance ( pretty much a year out ) gives you cheaper point options.
Booking last minute can result in cheaper flights.
Flying to middle America is harder than flying to major hubs; its cheap for me to get from NYC to Rome, its harder to get to Utah sometimes.