Travel

New to the travelling "hobby," not sure where to start to maximize the deals.

  • Last Updated:
  • Aug 7th, 2019 11:06 am
Deal Addict
Mar 29, 2012
1474 posts
368 upvotes
Vancouver

New to the travelling "hobby," not sure where to start to maximize the deals.

Hello, i'm new to travelling, the past 2 years i've solo traveled for vacation 3 times and I love it so much. I would like to make this a yearly thing, travelling at least once a year.

I'm really new to this entire thing and not sure where to start for deals or promos, or any advice like should I get credit cards or air miles. Is there is anything that would benefit someone travelling consistently at least once a year?

edit: I should specify that I mean travelling abroad to different countries.
Last edited by SquirreI on Aug 3rd, 2019 10:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
16 replies
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Nov 14, 2003
6675 posts
5466 upvotes
LaLaLand
Check the credit card section of RFD for various cards and welcome bonuses (WB). This is the fastest way to accumulate points.

Focus on one or two/three types of points - i.e. American Express (AX) Member Rewards (MR), which are transferable to airline programs, and Aeroplan (AP). If you collect points from too many different programs the return will be limited. I personally collect AX MR, AP and Delta Skymiles as these programs gets me everywhere I travel most often. I travel four to six months out of the year.

Traveling on airline points is very convenient for a single person as there are usually lots of seats. I personally like booking last minute as seats tend to open up as opposed to booking in advance. If I travel during peak periods, this is how I do it.

When paying for flights, generally, if you are single and have flexibility, travel low season as it is much cheaper than during peak periods.

It is not rocket science, but you need a plan, have to be disciplined and flexible with your schedule.
Deal Addict
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Oct 25, 2009
4329 posts
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Moncton
Points are a colossal waste of time. I’ve had two “free” return flights to anywhere in North America available to me for the last two years and I still haven’t been able to use them because of the logistics (and a slight obsession with maximizing value).

google.ca/flights for flights.
secretflying.com to dream.
Expedia.ca for hotels. If you compare, be sure not to use the half dozen other sites they own.
Use a Canadian travel agency site like selloffvacations.com if Cuba is of interest. AirTransat and Sunwing are also my go tos since I live in Moncton and no other airlines offer direct flights out of the country.

General knowledge helps. You want to go when it is busy enough for flights, but not during school holidays. Keep in mind holidays vary by jurisdiction. Flying February 14 is usually pretty cheap. Usually going to Cuba during Easter is also cheap.

For flights to Florida, Allegiant and Spirit out of Niagara and Plattsburgh or Frontier out of Buffalo and Burlington will have your head spinning with cheap possibilities. Keep in mind they charge for carry-on.
Flying to Canada is cheaper than flying to the USA, if you want to bus to Burlington or Buffalo (or even NYC) one way.
Toronto is a very small part of Canada
Deal Addict
Mar 29, 2012
1474 posts
368 upvotes
Vancouver
batcave wrote: Check the credit card section of RFD for various cards and welcome bonuses (WB). This is the fastest way to accumulate points.

Focus on one or two/three types of points - i.e. American Express (AX) Member Rewards (MR), which are transferable to airline programs, and Aeroplan (AP). If you collect points from too many different programs the return will be limited. I personally collect AX MR, AP and Delta Skymiles as these programs gets me everywhere I travel most often. I travel four to six months out of the year.

Traveling on airline points is very convenient for a single person as there are usually lots of seats. I personally like booking last minute as seats tend to open up as opposed to booking in advance. If I travel during peak periods, this is how I do it.

When paying for flights, generally, if you are single and have flexibility, travel low season as it is much cheaper than during peak periods.

It is not rocket science, but you need a plan, have to be disciplined and flexible with your schedule.
MonctonMan wrote: Points are a colossal waste of time. I’ve had two “free” return flights to anywhere in North America available to me for the last two years and I still haven’t been able to use them because of the logistics (and a slight obsession with maximizing value).

google.ca/flights for flights.
secretflying.com to dream.
Expedia.ca for hotels. If you compare, be sure not to use the half dozen other sites they own.
Use a Canadian travel agency site like selloffvacations.com if Cuba is of interest. AirTransat and Sunwing are also my go tos since I live in Moncton and no other airlines offer direct flights out of the country.

General knowledge helps. You want to go when it is busy enough for flights, but not during school holidays. Keep in mind holidays vary by jurisdiction. Flying February 14 is usually pretty cheap. Usually going to Cuba during Easter is also cheap.

For flights to the Florida, Allegiant and Spirit out of Niagara and Plattsburgh or Frontier out of Buffalo and Burlington will have your head spinning with cheap possibilities. Keep in mind they charge for carry-on.
Thank you so much. It's a lot of information.
Deal Fanatic
Feb 15, 2006
9183 posts
3861 upvotes
Toronto
MonctonMan wrote: Points are a colossal waste of time.
That's for people who don't know how to collect or use them.

There are many people in RFD who churn cards, collect points, and make good use of them. E.g. Amex bonvoy card for Marriott hotel. Aeroplan cards to collect ae points. Or other cards to get bonus points (BMO WE MC, or TD First Class Visa for TDReward points, etc.)
Deal Addict
Oct 23, 2017
2965 posts
2632 upvotes
GTA West
MonctonMan wrote: Points are a colossal waste of time. I’ve had two “free” return flights to anywhere in North America available to me for the last two years and I still haven’t been able to use them because of the logistics (and a slight obsession with maximizing value).
@MonctonMan describes the experience many people have.

You have to keep in mind that Credit Card benefits are cleverly calibrated. In practice, the benefit value is little more than one cent on the dollar. So if you have a card with an annual fee of $120, you have to put $12,000 a year through it to break even, before the benefit starts to have any value.

You can churn Aeroplan credit cards for point promotions, but you have to have a high income to qualify for those cards and then you have to wait for first-year-no-fee promotions and cancel before the fees apply for the second year. So this requires planning and discipline. Otherwise you are just buying points you may not be able to use for little more than their redemption value .

Then when you do get those points, you may find they have been devalued for most flights and end up in MonctonMan's situation.

There are some collateral benefits like "travel insurance" with those high fee cards. But compare the card fees with the alternative like buying your own coverage as needed - is it really worth the $120 or more fee for one solo trip per year? And remember those card coverages have lots of limitations.

I would say Reward cards make sense for high-spending people that can put several tens of thousands through their cards annually, and travel a lot so that they can really accumulate and use points and benefits. If you don't, get a no fee card and look for a cash-back benefit. You can always use cash, but you can't always use points! greedyrates.ca is a good site to find the best cards.

Get hotel chain memberships if they are free, since they offer some minor perks, but you are unlikely to rack up enough stays with one chain to get major benefits like free stays and breakfasts, unless you are a business or regular traveller. Or unless you are 100% loyal to one chain, which doesn't make sense for an occasional traveller when you look at all the options you have in various destinations. And no one chain has properties everywhere in the world.
Last edited by Dealmaker1945 on Aug 3rd, 2019 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Deal Addict
Oct 23, 2017
2965 posts
2632 upvotes
GTA West
MonctonMan wrote:
For flights to Florida, Allegiant and Spirit out of Niagara and Plattsburgh or Frontier out of Buffalo and Burlington will have your head spinning with cheap possibilities. Keep in mind they charge for carry-on.
Flying to Canada is cheaper than flying to the USA, if you want to bus to Burlington or Buffalo (or even NYC) one way.
OP is in BC so these options are not helping him.

In any case: I keep hearing this, and I can be at BUF or Niagara Falls Intl. in 90 minutes (I have Nexus and can cross quickly). They advertise a lot in Southern Ontario. But I have checked options from those airports many times and have never found an attractive sun destination flight. Reasons:

- For winter travel, Buffalo has those horrendous lake effect snow storms that can bog you down departing or arriving or getting there
- There are fewer direct flights and a flight south often involves 1 or more stops, so that a 4 or 5 hour flight becomes a whole day of travel time that shortens your vacay. (That we pay travel insurance for) And those stops multiply the possibility of delays and lost luggage. I don't want to take a 6 AM flight from BUF to save $100 when I can sleep in and take a 10 AM flight from YYZ and be on the beach before the flight via BUF lands
- The discomfort of flying on smaller regional jets in many cases
- Poor C$/$US exchange rates
- Different and confusing luggage limitations for both cabin and checked luggage
- Frequency of flights: may be daily+ for YYZ but selected days at BUF.
- You may get second-tier airlines like Allegiant Air with questionable safety records.
- I usually have Westjet dollars and sometimes Aeroplan points, and I can't use those flying from BUF.
Last edited by Dealmaker1945 on Aug 7th, 2019 9:09 am, edited 3 times in total.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Dec 24, 2007
1811 posts
2410 upvotes
BC
Cheaply depends greatly upon your flexibility to travel.

If you're stuck only able to travel during peak summer months, deals are hard to come by. If you're stuck with only travelling during June to August, then the best time is travel after mid-August as most of the American kids are back in school.

If you are highly flexible to be able to travel whenever then you can check out:

Cheap airfares from your departure cities: https://www.airfarewatchdog.com and Vancouver Airport deals https://www.yvrdeals.com/
Last minute deals from: https://www.redtag.ca/deals.php or https://www.selloffvacations.com
Timeshare vacation resorts for $399/week: https://www.tripbeat.com/
Bid on hotels: Set your own price on Priceline.com or Hotwire.com

Sign up for all the major hotel chains to get their loyalty points
Become a member of CostCo and book through their travel site: CostcoTravel.ca
Signup for cash rebates on all your travel and other purchases on: ebates.ca for sites like Expedia.ca, hotel.ca, hotel chains, car rentals, etc
Last edited by WetCoastGuy on Aug 3rd, 2019 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Deal Addict
Mar 29, 2012
1474 posts
368 upvotes
Vancouver
WetCoastGuy wrote: Cheaply depends greatly upon your flexibility to travel.

If you're stuck only able to travel during peak summer months, deals are hard to come by. If you're stuck with only travelling during June to August, then the best time is travel after mid-August as most of the American kids are back in school.

If you are highly flexible to be able to travel whenever then you can check out:

Cheap airfares from your departure cities: https://www.airfarewatchdog.com and Vancouver Airport deals https://www.yvrdeals.com/
Last minute deals from: https://www.redtag.ca/deals.php or https://www.selloffvacations.com
Timeshare vacation resorts for $399/week: https://www.tripbeat.com/
Bid on hotels: Set your own price on Priceline.com or Hotwire.com

Sign up for all the major hotel chains to get their loyalty points
Become a member of CostCo and book through their travel site: CostcoTravel.ca
Woah... costco does flights?
Deal Addict
Oct 23, 2017
2965 posts
2632 upvotes
GTA West
SquirreI wrote: Woah... costco does flights?
No, but they are great for car rentals, and they also do cruises and vacay packages.
Deal Expert
Aug 2, 2001
18945 posts
10527 upvotes
Here are some random thoughts:
- Credit card churning can get you very cheap flights / hotels / etc. A great site to start with is Prince of Travel: https://princeoftravel.com/ There is also a credit cards subforum here, but Prince of Travel is exclusively related to churning credit cards
- If you're flexible when you travel then sign up for Chris Myden's newsletter for your departure city (Toronto is https://www.yyzdeals.com/)
- Groupon is often a great way to get discounted admission to attractions that are normal / typical (museums, events, etc.). Obvious downside is that you can not refund if you do not go so either buy closer to the date or have somewhat fixed plans in place
- Tripadvisor is a great site for reviews of attractions / hotels / etc.


Traveling once a year is likely not enough to get loyalty program points to make a difference which is why using third party sites for hotels may be more worthwhile because they do offer site wide discounts on a regular basis. That's where the credit card churning helps you accrue large amounts of points so you can get nights in a hotel / flights through the loyalty programs.
Deal Addict
Mar 29, 2012
1474 posts
368 upvotes
Vancouver
TrevorK wrote: Here are some random thoughts:
- Credit card churning can get you very cheap flights / hotels / etc. A great site to start with is Prince of Travel: https://princeoftravel.com/ There is also a credit cards subforum here, but Prince of Travel is exclusively related to churning credit cards
- If you're flexible when you travel then sign up for Chris Myden's newsletter for your departure city (Toronto is https://www.yyzdeals.com/)
- Groupon is often a great way to get discounted admission to attractions that are normal / typical (museums, events, etc.). Obvious downside is that you can not refund if you do not go so either buy closer to the date or have somewhat fixed plans in place
- Tripadvisor is a great site for reviews of attractions / hotels / etc.


Traveling once a year is likely not enough to get loyalty program points to make a difference which is why using third party sites for hotels may be more worthwhile because they do offer site wide discounts on a regular basis. That's where the credit card churning helps you accrue large amounts of points so you can get nights in a hotel / flights through the loyalty programs.
Thanks, it's a lot of information to look through. I'll probably be looking at this thread for months. Ideally I would like to travel more than once a year, but it's really expensive. I've spent $5000 every time for short 1-3 week vacations. But if I can figure out how to reduce that to maybe $2000 a trip, then that would be amazing.
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Oct 25, 2009
4329 posts
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Moncton
Dealmaker1945 wrote:
BUF advertises a lot in Southern Ontario. But I have checked options from that airport many times and have never found an attractive sun destination flight.
The USA has a 7.5% intra-USA tax. There is no Canadian or American sales tax on transborder flights, but a significant flat fee to the US government. So non-stop cheap flights to Florida will usually be cheaper out of Niagara Falls, New York (with Spirit and Allegiant). On more expensive flights, there usually isn’t much of an advantage.
https://www.niagarafallsairport.com/Passenger/Fly.aspx

Buffalo does have Frontier and is arguably more convenient by Greyhound if you decide to fly from the USA and fly back directly to Canada. People who travel with lots of luggage sometimes find Southwest advantageous. Double checking to make sure Frontier still does Buffalo, first (December) dateI tried I got Buffalo-Orlando non-stop for C$130 plus luggage, return. You aren’t going to be able to do that from Canada. March to Tampa non-stop: C$185 return, plus luggage.
http://buffaloairport.com/Flight/Fly.aspx

Didn’t realize OP was in Vancouver. Allegiant flies out of Bellingham, Washington. They also fly out of Ogdensburg, New York, if you are in Ottawa, and Bangor, Maine, if you are in Fredericton.
Bellingham Airport route map (scroll to the bottom): https://www.portofbellingham.com/27/Airport
Ogdensburg route list: https://ogsair.com/
Bangor, Maine, route list: https://flybangor.com/passenger-information/airlines/
Plattsburgh, New York, route list: http://flyplattsburgh.com/Passenger-Ser ... nformation
Burlington, Vermont, has a Greyhound service (4 times a day) to the door. Summer Frontier flights to Denver, winter flights to Orlando. Route list (Porter dropped them): https://www.btv.aero/


Frontier is the only cheapskate airline to try Canada: Calgary.

This in only for the USA, for other sun destinations you are usually better off flying from Canada as we enjoy the tax advantage and there are usually 4 airlines or more doing the journey (Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, Air Transat, and the local Mexican, Jamaica or Cuban Airline). This could change if the Canadian government allows Air Canada to buy AirTransat or if Onex gets greedy with WestJet.
Toronto is a very small part of Canada
Deal Addict
Jan 31, 2013
1806 posts
520 upvotes
Red Deer, AB
Where did you travel to in the past? What kind of travel would you like to do?

I agree with the suggestions of YVRdeals ( the Chris Myden site). We’ve been lucky a few times to find really good deals, but you have to act quickly when you see them.

We flew return to Singapore from Calgary for $760 in 2015, and two years later YYCdeals posted a great deal to Vietnam. The only catch was that you had to return from Manila, but for $470 p.p. all in, that wasn’t really a problem :)
I haven’t seen deals like these anymore after that, but once in a while they also have $700 deals to the Cook Islands.
Deal Addict
Mar 29, 2012
1474 posts
368 upvotes
Vancouver
knuks101 wrote: Where did you travel to in the past? What kind of travel would you like to do?

I agree with the suggestions of YVRdeals ( the Chris Myden site). We’ve been lucky a few times to find really good deals, but you have to act quickly when you see them.

We flew return to Singapore from Calgary for $760 in 2015, and two years later YYCdeals posted a great deal to Vietnam. The only catch was that you had to return from Manila, but for $470 p.p. all in, that wasn’t really a problem :)
I haven’t seen deals like these anymore after that, but once in a while they also have $700 deals to the Cook Islands.
I've been to the Philippines and Japan often. I'm only interested in Asia. I'm Asian and I feel more at home in Asia. Just relaxation travels, an "escape" I call it lol. I'd like to visit Vietnam one day.
Sr. Member
Oct 3, 2011
604 posts
387 upvotes
OTTAWA
Dealmaker1945 wrote: @MonctonMan describes the experience many people have.

You have to keep in mind that Credit Card benefits are cleverly calibrated. In practice, the benefit value is little more than one cent on the dollar. So if you have a card with an annual fee of $120, you have to put $12,000 a year through it to break even, before the benefit starts to have any value.

You can churn Aeroplan credit cards for point promotions, but you have to have a high income to qualify for those cards and then you have to wait for first-year-no-fee promotions and cancel before the fees apply for the second year. So this requires planning and discipline. Otherwise you are just buying points you may not be able to use for little more than their redemption value .
This is why I like cash back cards... The benefit is more immediate and they usually come on cards with no fees, even at only 1%. If you run your own business and use your credit card for everything, then points can definitely make you a lot more return.

If you want to play the juggling game you really need to know the rules inside and out.. you have to know exactly every card agreement contract inside and out to get the most out of gaming the system, otherwise you end up wasting your time.
Sr. Member
Oct 3, 2011
604 posts
387 upvotes
OTTAWA
SquirreI wrote: Hello, i'm new to travelling, the past 2 years i've solo traveled for vacation 3 times and I love it so much. I would like to make this a yearly thing, travelling at least once a year.

I'm really new to this entire thing and not sure where to start for deals or promos, or any advice like should I get credit cards or air miles. Is there is anything that would benefit someone travelling consistently at least once a year?

edit: I should specify that I mean travelling abroad to different countries.
It's really not rocket science. Avoid high tourist seasons and balance it with avoiding bad weather seasons unless there's something you absolutely want to see during a specific season ie cherry blossoms in japan.

Have a cash float and an open schedule... be prepared to drop everything and just go when sales come up.

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