So last week, @acromott and I won tickets to Steemfest from @blueorgy's competition. We were so excited to have financial help for the Steemfest trip. After winning tickets, we had to buy flights. Being that the event was only a month away, we were really worried that tickets from California to Lisbon would be extremely expensive. Well, I am about to let you in on a little secret that might just change you life, and allow you to go to Steemfest!
So when doing a general search on Google Flights, it looked like our cheapest flight options for the days we needed to fly out on were over $1100. This is a lot of money as, we hadn't budgeted for Steemfest, so every penny/steem dollar counts.
Well, we learned about a site called SkyScanner.com and it totally knocked our total flight cost per person to $810 and we even get to stop by and visit Barcelona before making our way to Lisbon. (I will warn you, searching for flights took us about 4 hours, so be sure to set aside time for this project)
Here a couple of tips when using SkyScanner:
#1. Use a private tab
Always open SkyScanner in a private tab. Every-time, you are searching SkyScanner, you must close your tab and reopen it so that SkyScanner gives you the possible lowest rate for flights. If you do not, the price of the ticket will go up every time you re open the tab.
#2. Get creative, find connecting flights
If the flights SkyScanner gives you are not within your budget, try looking for connecting flights that will help get you where you need to go. This may mean you have to take 3 flights to get to your destination, but it will save you a lot of money. For example, on the way back from Lisbon to Sacramento, the flights were ridiculously expensive, because both airports are not as popular as San Francisco and Barcelona. Instead of having SkyScanner look for flights from Lisbon to Sacramento, we asked SkyScanner to look for flights from Lisbon to anywhere in the USA. From there, we picked the cheapest flights in the USA and connected to Sacramento. This alone saved us $200.
#3. Go directly to the source, purchase from actual airline site
When you are purchasing flights, go to the actual airline site as, SkyScanner adds on extra fees to their checkout process. If you go to the actual airline site, the tickets might be a couple dollars cheaper.
#4. Check Baggage Rules
Be sure to check out and read baggage rules for each airline you book. Many of them charge money if you want to check in your luggage. In our situation, all the flights we were on charged extra for baggage, so we decided that we are only going to take a small carry on luggage. So if you see us wearing the same stuff at Steemfest, you will know why :) haha!
I really hope this article was helpful, and if you are considering going to Steemfest, but expenses are preventing you too, try looking up flights via SkyScanner. Maybe it might just be within your budget after all! See you at Steemfest!
As @quinneaker once said to me, if there is a will, then there is a way!
love,
Karen