Travel

I am fortunate enough in my profession to be able to do a great deal of traveling, both domestic and international. In fact, since my business launched, I have clocked up more miles in the last two years than I think I did in all of my years beforehand. The challenge however, for my associate Steve Buzzi and myself, was how to keep costs down when traveling. Travel is essential to my business, but so is trying not to spend much money, which meant that we had to be very smart about getting cheap flights. This is of course something that everyone tries to keep an eye on, and so here is how we go about getting our flights at the cheapest price.

Credit Cards

One of the best ways in which you can save money on flights, is by getting yourself a credit card which can help you out. Many credit cards offer rewards on your spending, by way of air miles which you can collect, and then use on your flights. Personally speaking I never liked the idea of using a credit card but since I learned about this reward, I use it for just about everything. Think about it like this, if you spend $1,000 per month, and used the credit card insist of cash, and then cleared the credit card at the end of the month, the only thing that will have changed for you is the fact that you’ve put air miles in the bank, win-win.

Online

The 2 main sites which i use to find cheap flights is Skyscanner and Momondo, these are what’s called flight aggregators and they search the internet to get you the best deals. What I like about these sites is that they don’t just search the airline, but also the third party sites who offer cheap airline tickets too. There is a huge range of filters on both sites which you can use to get yourself the very best deal, and the earlier in advance that you can look, the better the price will be that you find.

Connecting

My number one tip on how to get to your destination for the cheapest price possible, is to open your mind to the idea of connecting. For example, I recently flew from Mexico City to Edinburgh in Scotland, the original price for a direct flight was $900 return. Instead of taking the direct flight however, I decided that I would rack up a couple of connections, to bring the flight cost down. I flew from Mexico City to Houston where I waited for 5 hours in the airport, and then flew from Houston to Vancouver and waited another 3 hours before taking the flight to Edinburgh. This new journey took me 13 hours longer than if I had flown direct, but cost me just $397 return! More than half price, for the sake of a few hours, a great way to reduce your costs.

If you are preparing to hit the road and do some traveling this year, it is important that you make sure that you are well prepared ahead of you trip. The planning which goes into a trip is the difference between an epic trip, and one which cold have been amazing and you must ensure that you pack right, save up enough money, and that you have planned what kind of thing you will see and do whilst you are on the road.

Each year my buddy Gordon Tang and I will hit the road for around a month or two, exploring this amazing planet of ours. The most important items when I am traveling, is not so much my clothes or my plans, but rather my phone applications, applications which are absolute lifesavers, and here are the ones which I cannot live without.

WhatsApp

It is important for me that I can stay in touch with my family and friends when I am away, as well as being able to chat with my staff whilst I am on the road. For me the best messenger service to there is WhatsApp and everyone that I know will use it. What I like about the service is that even if signal is poor, you can still use it, I like that you can share just about any kind of message from voice, photo and video, and I particularly like the tool where you can share your location with people. If you want to stay in touch, this is the way to do it.

Google Maps

Of all the map applications that there are on the market, there are none better than Google’s offering in my view. Not only do I like the fact that you can use the Google maps application even when you don’t have phone signal, using the GPS on your phone, I also love the full interaction which you get with this app. For example you can use the map to search for places, then you can drill into the places to say locations interest. I also like the fact that you can put several pins in the map to chart your course and the synchronization with your Google account makes this the perfect package.

TripIT

When you travel, you are likely to have a great many busses, trains and planes booked up, which you need to keep information for. Equally, staying on top of days and dates when you rarely know what day of the week it is, can cause some logistical issues in terms of your travel plans. This is exactly why I love the TripIT application, which is an app that keeps all of you travel plans in one place. As soon as you receive a confirmation email from an airline or travel company, you can forward the email to TripIT, where it will be automatically uploaded to you application. Within the app you can keep boarding passes, confirmation numbers and more, and you will also get reminders on your phone in the days running up to your travels. Don’t miss another journey again, this is the app to keep your travel plans on point.