The trip that started it all for me. Last year, I was in a desperate situation. I had just broken-up with my then “fiance” of four years, quit my cushy job as an IT Consultant, bought a house (I literally closed on my house the day my company let me go — more on those detials later!), and was just desperate to explore the world as I had recently been inspired by new friends.
I somehow stumbled upon this website, DealRay, that immediately changed the game. Essentially, they find price glitches in airfare and alert you of the deal via text. The deal typically lasts 24hrs if it’s international, but the flights available for the deal price typically span a number of months so if you’re ready to go, you can typically find a deal and have enough time to actually plan for it! (Besides the flight, mind you.)
The “subscription” is $9.99/month, which in my opinion is easily offset by the deals, but if $10 is still too expensive for you, with every friend you refer, you BOTH get two months free!
So, I decided to try the first month free. You get MAYBE two alerts per month of insane international deals (they post a lot of domestic deals, which honestly isn’t hard to find in the first place if you just use flights.google.com. Not only did I find a deal for less than $500, I paid $360 for a flight from LAX to Bangkok, Bangkok to LAX, then LAX to Vancouver. Yes, you read that right. I paid $360 for literally three international flights.
Now I know what you’re thinking, great but what if I’m not in LAX or New York? (You know, those big international hubs!) I’m from Denver, so I flew to LAX and had to find a return flight from Vancouver. For THOSE flights, I paid probably $52 for the one way to LAX (major cities are usually under $100 to fly to domestically if you’re flexible with your dates, again using flights.google.com), then Vancouver to Denver was $150~. So, that comes out to around $560. Not bad for three different countries, and that was over a 3-week span!
I’ve seen several other amazing deals. I’ve seen around $400 for round trip to Europe, and I’ve even seen $500~ round trip to the Maldives! That’s easily a $1500+ flight.
That was my first international trip, and the spark of a fire that can’t be tamed. I can’t even explain how much you grow as a person when you immerse yourself in new cultures and challenges. As I continue to grow this blog and share my obsession of saving money and travel deals, I hope you can grow with me too. 🙂
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