Seven Secrets to Keep Holiday Travel Cheap

Oct. 21, 2009 — -- This is the story of a very foolish flier I will henceforth refer to as Clueless Traveler.

He is clueless because he makes every mistake in the book when planning a flight -- and drives up the cost of his trip up by more than 350 percent. I know most of you will never make such ridiculous mistakes, but trust me: it can and does happen.

Let's see where Clueless Traveler messed up, and how one can avoid this financial pain. All it takes is a little prep work. But more on that later.

By the way, the airfare and fees we will be dissecting are real figures; in the case of Clueless Traveler, the numbers come from the typical charges/fees of a legacy airline. Not to pick on legacy airlines because -- outside of checked bag fees -- most low cost airlines have similar fees, albeit at a slightly lower price point.

For more air travel news and insights, visit Rick's blog at: http://farecompare.com

Ready? This past weekend, Clueless Traveler made reservations to go home for Thanksgiving on a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. The airfare alone cost him $563.20, but the mistakes he made ballooned the total price to an incredible $2,046.

First mistake: No flexibility. Clueless made his reservation for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, returning on the Monday after. That Wednesday is always an extra-expensive day (as is the Sunday after Thanksgiving).

This year, Monday is not particularly reasonable either -- plus, several airlines have added a $10 "miscellaneous surcharge" to the ticket prices for travel on Nov. 29 and 30 just to make a few extra bucks.