Flight Hacking

Like most computer-savy, cost-conscious travelers in our demographic we typically hit our favorite online travel sites (Expedia, Red Tag, Google Flights, etc.) or airline sites for travel deals and to make our own travel arrangements. I have learned about a better way–what others refer to as flight hacking–for finding deals and booking flights.

Using some new-to-me online tools, I just booked our flights from Columbia to Panama for US$344 for both of us. Using Expedia the same tickets would have cost US$623. I am now hooked on flight hacking.

I found a wealth of great info through several websites and blog posts. The most helpful for me was Nomadfly. Set up and run by Beck Power, it offers very cool insight into the travel industry and tips for DIY travel agents. Beck routinely mentions other flight-hacking sites and provides links to many of them on her site. Beck also provides an online flight-hacking course, which I subscribed to, and my first booking more than paid the nominal US$49 fee.

With a bit of persistence and a couple of good flight searching tools, the rewards can be significant. The trick is to be flexible–maybe extend a  layover into a spontaneous travel experience. It works for us because we are not constrained by departure and arrival dates and times. As this new nomadic life expands to more places around the world for us, you can bet that I will be having a blast flight hacking our way to our next destinations.