The Lastest in Cheap Flight Resources

A little off my standard topics, I thought I would share some information about cheap travel that I read in my daily tour of financial blogs. Ultimate touring is an expensive weekend activity, and it gets really expensive when you start traveling larger distances (mainly by air).

Look at: http://www.moneyfortherestofus.com/CheapPlaneTickets.html

This blog has a number of posts on how to travel cheaply. I took a look at both:

• kayak.com - a better than Expedia or Travelocity type site with more functionality.
• http://www.farecast.com/ - a newer type of website that will insure you on ticket prices and look at plane ticket trends.

I was also reading this article in the Globe & Mail talks about air passes and how they can potentially save you some money. The key is in doing the math ahead of time to see if you'll save anything.

None of these options are as good as Ryan Air and Easyjet over in Europe, but maybe you can save some cash.

You also need to consider the distance you have to travel to make it worth your while. A group of us will most likely be going from Toronto to Boston (approximately 8 hours on the road) for the Boston Invite. I found a cheap flight from Buffalo to Boston for around 117 USD. The problem is the time:

• 2 hours - ride to Buffalo
• 1 hour - before flight check in
  
• 1.5 hours - in the air
• 30 minute - out of the airport
• 1.5 hours - Rental and drive to Devens

These are rough estimates, but that's about 6.5 hours of traveling time over 8 hours. If there was a cheap flight directly from Toronto it might be worth it (I dislike Air Canada both in terms of cost and service). So the cost is significantly more for small time savings.

Since Canadian Nationals are in Toronto this year it looks like I probably won't be flying anywhere for Ultimate. Maybe these resources will help others save a few dollars.

PJ