Author Topic: Stand by travel opportunities.  (Read 3581 times)

Diogenes

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Stand by travel opportunities.
« on: February 18, 2019, 08:10:59 AM »
Wife and I are post FIRE.

We would like to travel both domestically and abroad and not wreck our finances.

Would anyone care to share standby travel opportunities they have personal experience with?

We would be able to pack up and leave in a matter of hours.  No pets, adult child lives nearby to keep an eye on things.   

Thanks for any pearls of wisdom that might be tossed in front of us.

Diogenes

Monkey Uncle

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2019, 08:43:17 AM »
I have an account with Expedia, and they often send me email promotions for deeply discounted flights and/or hotel rooms.  You have to take the destinations and dates that they offer, which are usually a couple of weeks to a couple of months out.  I've never done it, because they don't often offer anything for places I want to go.  But if you want to do the standard big city or resort vacation, it might be worthwhile.

FreelanceToFreedom

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2019, 09:25:26 AM »
I dont know many last minute specific opportunities. That said, in general you can keep costs down by travel hacking.

Also, check out Scott's Cheap Flights. They send out flight deals via email. In the last week I've got alerts for round trip fares from West coast US to London ($350), all over Europe ($450), India ($600), Japan ($450), etc. It's not necessarily last minute deals, but being flexible with dates helps.


Oh - I don't know much about them, but if you're interested in cruising check out repositioning cruises. Basically cheap 1-ways on cruise ships that are repositioning for a new route.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2019, 10:53:42 AM »
How can you wreck your finances if your travel within your means? Crest your budget for travel and then decide where you want to go. Use kayak.com to search best days to fly and times to buy tickets.

travelawyer

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2019, 11:37:18 AM »

These aren't standby opportunities, but some things I have in my back pocket for FIRE travel are:

- Housesitting
- Car/RV relocation/delivery deals for roadtrips

And course travel hacking, for as long as it stays around.

Villanelle

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2019, 07:14:10 PM »
If you are interested in cruises, vacationstogo seems to have frequent last minute (a few weeks, I think) offers for cabins that haven't yet sold. 

JoJo

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2019, 04:34:00 PM »
I was also going to suggest cruises.  I was on a 15 night trip to Hawaii from LA.  Heard the one leaving after us was going for $699 per person for 15 nights.  Being close to a port of call is best - for ex: Seattle, Vancouver, LA, Fort Lauderdale, NYC, Houston, etc.

BrightFIRE

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2019, 11:31:45 AM »
Literal standby travel would be: book a flight for an expected popular destination and time (Caribbean in winter, Mexico spring break, etc.); show up to the airport; wait for them to offer you $800 (for example) to skip this flight and take a later one; accept, take the trip, and have $800 to use toward your next trip. I have had this happen many times, but have not had the option because I have limited vacation days. Once I FIRE, I can't wait to accept these lucrative offers!

Or https://www.lastminutetravel.com/en and https://www.theflightdeal.com/

ol1970

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Re: Stand by travel opportunities.
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2019, 06:45:11 AM »
We standby travel professionally I think, we have free flight benefits so we literally travel standby lol. We then just look for last minute crazy deals or go to awesome spots that aren’t in “high” season.  It’s awesome!  Last year we went to Paris/Kauai/Copenhagen/Jackson Hole/Napa/Sweden/Yosemite/Grenada/Maui/Hong Kong/Costa Rica/shanghai/Florida (3 times)/SanFran/amongst other places.  If you have extreme flexibility and a lot of patience it’s great, I can see how it would stress a lot of people out though.  We love it!