What’s your process for picking your next destination and finding the most comfortable flights? Today we’re going to show you another way to think about booking that might improve your travel life dramatically.
If you’re like most people, you go through a three-step process similar to this when you want to book a vacation:
- Dreaming: You might get inspired by a TV ad, a movie that takes place in an alluring location, a well-written travel story, or simply by hearing about incredible travel experiences from your friends or family.
- Planning: You’ve made your decision to go somewhere using the aforementioned sources (to a place that’s probably as good a choice as a dozen others) and the planning phase begins. For many people this is a very time-consuming process. According to a report by Expedia, most travelers typically visit a whopping 38 websites—yes, 38—to find the perfect hotel(s) to stay at.
- Booking: Now that you have your destination, travel dates, and hotel set, you start thinking about flights.
this is not how you should book your next trip
Listen, it’s time to ditch that old-school way of thinking that leaves the airline booking for last. As you’ve likely seen from previous trips, it’s definitely the least fun part of the trip planning process when you do it like everyone else.
Here’s the problem with conventional wisdom: By the time you’re ready to book the airline ticket, you won’t be able to find any deals because you’ve already boxed yourself in by the dates of your hotel, tour, or cruise.
At this point you’ve spent weeks planning a specific trip around those dates, but you haven’t considered your options for premium air travel – which could have the biggest impact on your bank account.
Consider this: Here’s what happens when you plan the way most people do and book your airline ticket last. Those airline ticket prices skyrocket and you end up being forced to pay them anyway (or fly in a low-quality seat). You’re essentially setting yourself up for a lower quality travel experience because – if you’re like most travelers – you don’t have an unlimited budget.
Why would you settle for lower-quality flight experiences when you don’t have to? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of going on a vacation in the first place? Bad flight experiences will make you dislike traveling. And if you don’t like to travel, you’re going to severely limit yourself in terms of cultural adventures, inspiration, and life experiences that help you grow as a person. Traveling should never feel like a burden.
But here’s the thing – you don’t want to pay full price for comfortable flights either. After all, the best flights can be very expensive. So when you pay the exorbitant rack rates for premium flights – and you know that the people sitting around you didn’t have to – you’re going to feel resentful toward the airlines. Another reason that you’ll end up wanting to avoid traveling in the future.
IF YOU HAVE A FINITE BUDGET…
Most people don’t have an unlimited travel budget, so when you’re able to save thousands of dollars on premium airline tickets you can:
- Take longer vacations
- Explore more side-trips/stops/adventures
- Treat yourself to more private tours, higher quality transfers, and fine dining experiences
- Book high-end hotels, resorts, spas, and/or suites
STOP BOOKING BACKWARDS AND start using FCF’S SCREAMING DEALS FIRST
It’s time to stop boxing yourself into specific travel dates. This is often a losing mindset that will only set you up for disappointment and resentment.
Instead—embrace FCF’s Upgrade Mindset so you can enjoy every step of the travel process. It’s always best to start by booking your flight arrangements first. That way, you can secure the absolute best flight deals. Check out FCF’s newsroom for special flash deal alerts to locations close to your desired destinations. It’s a completely different way of thinking, but it is so much more effective. We recommend that you consider finding a flight deal to (or near) your top bucket list destinations, book the ticket, and then plan the rest of your trip. We’ll get into the logistics of that in a minute.
If you’re browsing flights and you can’t find a premium deal that takes you right to your preferred destination, you can always find a deal to one of your other bucket-list destinations. You’ll want to have a wish list of destinations in mind to do this effectively. That way, when the opportunity arises to snag a great deal on a premium airline ticket to one of those places, you’ll be ready to pounce on it.
CREATE A LIST OF YOUR DREAM DESTINATIONS NOW, BEFORE YOU START PLANNING
Who doesn’t have a long list of places they’d love to visit around the world? Everybody does. In fact, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t get excited about five—if not fifty—different places that they want to visit next. The thing is, not everyone takes the time to think about it. As an FCF reader, I can’t stress the importance of your list enough. You will always be able to find a premium deal to (or close to) one of your dream locations. Once you have that list in mind, here are a couple of other things you need to consider:
Be Flexible: Try not to lock yourself into super-tight date windows. But if you absolutely have to, then you just need to have more “destination creativity.” The more flexible you can be, the more hot destinations will inevitably be knocking on your door.
Consider multiple continents and different destinations. For your next trip, try choosing the destination that gives you the best travel opportunity during your time frame. You can also look at a few different places within a region to get a similar experience.
Here’s a question to ask yourself: why wouldn’t you let the best FCF deal drive your travel destination? For example, here’s an incredible deal on Cathay Pacific (normally $30,000+) that offers 90% off First Class flights to Hong Kong. Now that’s one heck of a way to start (and end) a vacation.
The best part is that you can book it for free using your Amex Rewards, Chase, CITI, or Marriott/Starwood points. But that isn’t the only option… Check out these awesome deals: First Class deal to Australia on Qantas, First Class deal to Asia on Singapore, First Class to Asia on All Nippon – there are so many others too. For one passenger, two passengers, and four. How much were you going to spend on your trip? Were you finding any First Class deals like this?
When you open yourself up to multiple continents – and multiple destinations on those continents – dream trips will start knocking on your door.
Staying flexible allows you to pounce on the truly great opportunities when they come up. You’ll start seeing incredible travel options everywhere. There is so much out there for you to discover.
HOW TO THINK AHEAD
There are two kinds of travel research. The fun kind that opens your mind to the world and has you learning about the unique cultural experiences you can have and exploring a completely different way of life. Then, there is the daunting kind of research. This is where you’ve got yourself boxed into a specific idea and you’re trying to force a trip that simply isn’t meant to be. Often, this research will only leave you stressed out and fed up with the process. Then when your trip finally comes around, you can’t even enjoy it fully because you spent so much time and money making it happen.
Back to the fun kind of research. I like to arm myself with ideas in advance so I’m always ready to make the best decision possible and jump on the opportunity when it arises. Besides, it’s a lot of fun to research destinations. You get to learn so much about different cultures, places, history, and ways of life. It’s a great way to broaden your perspective and enrich your life.
While I’ve been to hundreds of the most exotic destinations in the world, the two trips I’m thinking about next are Bhutan-Myanmar-Nepal and Madagascar-Mauritius-Uganda.
I prefer to hit a few spots and stay away longer. While this is NOT a requirement to the mindset I’ve been discussing today, it can make booking the best flights much easier, for similar reasons. That’s because it opens me up to many more opportunities that involve multiple destinations. It’s quite liberating to plan so freely like this. Will I start in Madagascar or Mauritius? Well, that all depends on which airline offers me the best First Class options.
Think flights first + dream about multiple destinations = more options = more enriched (travel) life.
In Part II of Stop “Booking Backwards” and Adopt the FCF Mindset to Get Incredible Dream Trips Literally Knocking on Your Door, we’ll take a closer look at “How to Process a Deal—and How to Determine What Trips Were Meant to Be.”