How I Saved on My European Vacation...Airfare

When you start to plan your vacation, do you start to look at airfare prices and nearly give up? Yeah, I feel the same way sometimes and last year we abandoned our plans to go to Europe and just went to Anaheim instead. Our whole trip cost less than airfare would have. Well, this year we vowed not to let it happen. Airfare to the UK and Europe is still ridiculous, but this was the perfect time to use the frequent flyer miles we had collected with our British Airways card. When we signed up for it, we automatically were given 100,000 miles and have been using it for many things ever since. If you're going to buy things anyway, why not get something else out of it? We also started having our bills billed to that card and paying them off right away as we normally would.

So, just how much were regular flight prices to London? Oddly, London was the cheapest city to fly into. We checked Paris, as well as other cities in the U.K. like Dublin. After months of searching, the best price I could find online was just under $1,300 per person. Ack! The last time we went to London, it cost us less than $1,200...for both of us! Well, that wasn't going to happen. The only downside to using your frequent flyer miles is that you have to pay taxes and fees when you fly to a foreign country (and you might end up with a layover or two). We had to spend the day in Vancouver, BC, but we rented a car and did some sightseeing instead of being unhappy and spending all that time at the airport. I'll share more on that later.

Total cost: $1,400 (compared to $2,600 for full price)

Savings: $1,200

We didn't want to waste extra miles that we could use later on a short hop from London to Paris, so I did some research on budget carriers that were not the dreaded RyanAir. Last time we took the Eurostar, which I loved, but the cost was crazy. Now it costs something like $350 per person, which makes splitting up a trip really unaffordable.

I had heard great things about EasyJet, so I went online to check it out. I almost fell out of my chair when I realized we could fly from London to Paris one way (we were flying back home on BA from Paris) for $115, for both of us. I thought that choosing seats would be a big hassle, but for only $5 more, we were able to pick seats next to each other and got a free checked bag. I can't even fly from here to Seattle for $125 half the time, so this was a jackpot in my eyes. Not only was EasyJet better than even Southwest, but cheaper and the crew was really lovely.

Total cost: $125 (compared to $700 to take the train)

Savings: $575

So, not only did we actually get to go on the vacation we've been hoping to have for the last 5 years, we saved big everywhere. On airfare alone, we saved almost $1800, which, if you ask me, is a huge chunk of change...and almost a whole other vacation! Definitely a short getaway of some kind. 

Running tally: 

Accommodations: $342-522

Airfare: $1,775

What the most you've ever saved on airfare?

Do Your Holiday Shopping in Your Pajamas and Save!

I almost never go out and fight the crowds on Black Friday...or the rest of the holiday season. I don't have the patience to push people out of the way to save a few bucks. This year, why not stay in the cozy comfort of your own home and do your holiday shopping or travel booking? How can you do that? With the online sales and using Ebates. I never buy or book anything without first checking Ebates. What is it? It's a fantastic - and free! - site that offers you cash back for purchasing from online merchants. If you plan to make a purchase anyway, you might as well get something for being a loyal customer (or even a new customer). This Friday over 500 stores will be giving double cash back, which means you can keep even more money in your pocket, or buy more on the same budget!

Here's how it works: Sign up is quick and easy, then you're ready to shop! When you have a hankering to buy something, say, at Sephora, go to Ebates, sign in, click on Sephora and it takes you straight to the main website. You must go through Ebates, so they can track your purchase. At checkout, make sure you use the same email address you used to sign up on Ebates and within a few days, your purchase will show up in your account. You can track your cash back total to see how much you saved and then every quarter, Ebates sends you a Big Fat Check (if you choose that method) or a Big Fat Payment via Paypal. You even get $5 just for signing up! Who else does that? If there are coupon codes available or special sales, Ebates will show them to you, helping you save even MORE! Actually, after your first purchase of $25 or more, instead of a $5 bonus, you get a $10 gift card! 

 

 

I like to use my cash back as a travel savings supplement. Each time I make a purchase, I rack up cash and then it gets deposited right to my Paypal account. I use that money to purchase travel stuffs, like Groupons, clothing, tours and more! If I can get more cash back with it, even better! Of course, you can use it for whatever you want. This time of year, it's perfect for booking your holiday travel and buying gifts.

 

Stores you can shop at: Ebates has, literally, hundreds of online merchants you can choose from, including a long list of travel merchants. Just a sampling of those include: TravelSmith, Holiday Inn, Avis, Alaska Airlines, Camping World, Orbitz, Air France, Delta Airlines, HomeAway and even SkyMall! Keep your eyes out for the Daily Double. Each day one awesome merchant offers double cash back on your purchases for the day.

Why get elbowed in the eye trying to buy a gift this Friday when you can roll out of bed and hit the sales on your computer? No looking for parking, bundling up or hiding gifts in the trunk of your car with Ebates. Sign up now for free!

Are you taking advantage of Ebates' great deals this Friday or will you be braving the crowds at the mall?

Review Times Two! Skyroll Spinner

Have you been looking for the most versatile carry-on out there for your travels (or maybe for the person who travels a ton on your gift list)? I reviewed the Skyroll Spinner before, but I wanted to do a quick follow-up now that I had a chance to use it on my vacation where I dragged it all over, put in both the baggage hold and the overhead, and packed it full of shoes, toiletries, our laptop and other necessary items for my trip. How did it hold up? 

One of my biggest pet peeves with luggage is that it only tends to roll okay on flat surfaces. I am not super strong, and I don't like having to wrench the case over sidewalk cracks or practically pull my arm out of socket when encountering uneven surfaces, like asphalt or cobblestone. The Skyroll was not an issue at all. It rolled perfectly through the airport, down the airplane aisle (really!), along the sidewalk and over the worst cobblestone I've ever had the misfortune of walking on (even in flats).

Look at everything that fits in there!

Eric propped our travel tote on top of it (that didn't have a handle attachment) and had almost no issues with it falling off, even over cracky sidewalks and transitions from wooden floors to escalators. The three handles made it particularly easy to maneuver it, whether we were going up and down steps in the Tube station, hauling the bag up our spiral staircase (sounds awesome, but not great for taking luggage upstairs) or getting the bag into the overhead of the airplane.

On the Metro, Eric keeps his Skyroll friend close!

Another plus of the spinner is that it is compact. Even wrapped up in its garment bag, it fits nearly everywhere and doesn't ever get in the way. That garment bag comes in really handy, too. Nobody is going to be able to steal stuff out of the top portion of the bag, because it covers up the zipper, but not so much that YOU can't get anything out. It also holds extra clothing you might acquire, without adding much bulk. We left with it holding Eric's dress shirt and suit jacket and came back with a cape I purchased at a vintage clothing store. I never had to loosen the straps either, so it didn't come back any fuller than we started, even though we had more in the bag in the end.

There it is in the closet!

As I said in another post, we are definitely thinking about buying another one of these bags, because it's so handy and easy to get around. If you want to read my previous post, do so here, or you can go straight to Skyroll and buy one now!