How to Find Cheap Flights to Exotic Places

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

How to Find Cheap Flights to Exotic Places

Howie and I are getting so excited for our big adventure to Panama on Sunday! One of the first questions people ask when I tell them where we're going is, "What made you choose Panama?" Hmmmm, hard to say. It might be that we're too hipster for mainstream Costa Rica...or that we couldn't decide whether we wanted to see the Caribbean, the Pacific, the rainforest, a cosmopolitan international finance capital or a European style old town (seriously though, I'm SO excited)...or that I found an absolutely amazing price for our flight on The Flight Deal, a website that is almost too good to be true.

I know what you're thinking, The Flight Deal sounds like an incredibly sketchy website. But what you can't infer from the website title is that it's very technical and actually tracks airline algorithms over time to let users know when an airline company posts an "incorrect" fare for the flight i.e. when you can find a roundtrip ticket from Cleveland to Panama with a short 6 hour, 50 min. flight duration for $400! That's $500 less than the price of the same flight itinerary when I searched it a week after I bought the ticket! Hey, anything that makes it more cost-effective to travel is fineeee by me!

In addition to the amazing savings, my other favorite thing about The Flight Deal is that you don't purchase the flight through the website; tickets are purchased through the airline. That's right, I went on the American Airlines website to buy my ticket, entered the flight numbers that The Flight Deal provided me and bought everything through the airline, along with travel insurance! When I travel, I always prefer to book my flight through an airline company rather than a third party website like booking.com or Kayak after a terrible 4-hour delayed flight/missed layover situation when I was visiting Boston last spring! It makes life so much easier!

The only drawback to The Flight Deal, if you even consider it a drawback, is that you have to be a little spontaneous with your travel plans - the deals are usually only valid for a couple of days (or until the airline realizes it posted an incorrect fare!). And my fellow Clevelanders, unfortunately there aren't as many offerings on the website for Hopkins International Airport as other big cities - you'll find a deal on the site a few times a month, tops. BUT if you are one of my friends or followers living in NYC, Chicago, LA, Seattle, Portland, DC, Philly, Boston or San Fran, then you are one lucky duck because you'll be able to find deals for cheap flights almost every day, even for exotic Asian and European destinations!

My Advice: visit the website with an open mind and see what comes up over the course of a couple of weeks. You never know where you'll end up! We actually decided to purchase an additional domestic flight from Panama City to Bocas del Toro, an archipelago off the coast of Panama near Costa Rica, through Air Panama...but how could you not after seeing some of these pictures!