At the beginning of the year we traveled to Antarctica, and while I was excited for the cruise, I was also psyched about the fact that we managed to organize free flights.
We had just enough points on our credit card rewards to book a free flight from Chile to Argentina after having paid for the Sydney – Santiago leg. And, even though getting to South America from Australia was expensive, we saw it as a win that premium economy was on sale, and actually cheaper than the fares listed for economy when we went to book. Seriously amazing timing.
And I think I was excited by the rewards flight because we so rarely manage to travel hack properly. First of all, we travel on so many varied airlines, that I can’t be bothered to keep track of frequent flier accounts to gather points. Even though I know I should.
Secondly, travel hacking for Australians is almost impossible, because it’s very difficult to accrue points, and we don’t have the level of rewards / programs that other countries have access too (America I wish I was you).
Even if we did, I really don’t think I would want the hassle of opening credit cards just for the sake of gaining points. And I don’t want to spend hours searching for deals through dozens of websites. Tough luck right. Though I do still have a couple of tricks for not paying full price.
Hack: Sign Up For Emails from Next Vacay for Cheap Flights
My Process for Booking Flights
My process for booking flights to date has been to pull up a third party website, like Skyscanner, Momondo, Orbitz (Skyscanner has a great free mobile app for finding cheap flights, and monitor the price over a couple of days.
I usually aim to book on a Tuesday, when airlines compete to release their lowest price, fly on a Tuesday, because other people don’t seem to want to, and pick annoying times of the day to fly (less demand means cheaper flights).
And sometimes I get lucky, as we did with our premium economy seats from Sydney – Santiago, and just happen to log on when there’s a really great price.
But finding an amazing airfare doesn’t have to be left up to luck, and that’s why apps, newsletters, and subscription sites which alert us to flight deals have seen a rise. They allow us to sit back with a cup of tea, email open, and wait for the travel deals to arrive.
The Rise of Travel Subscriptions
One of my biggest tips for hearing about cheap flights is to sign up for airline newsletters, as they send deal alerts and information on sales.
An issue however with this approach is that the deals are rarely relevant to my location, and between the 50 odd airlines who send me emails, my inbox overflows. Though after signing up for emails from a newcomer called Next Vacay, I’ve been able to go through my massive list of airline subscriptions and hit unsubscribe.
The subscription economy is booming at the moment, and companies like Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime are leaving competitors behind. So the emergence of the subscription model in the travel industry was only a matter of time.
Leading with this idea, NextVacay is an new, online and personalized travel agency that aims to make air travel more affordable. It works off a subscription model of $25 per year and supplies real time sales, deals and error fares (those absurdly cheap flights posted as a mistake by the airline) directly to your inbox, according to your home base airport.
A New Model of Finding Flights
Next Vacay CEO Naveen Dittakavi started the company after he and his wife caught the flight-hunting bug (admittedly a bug I don’t have, so I’m happy to let them do it for me!). They’d seen a friend’s Facebook post about a $300 round trip from D.C. to India and they were sold.
Friends noticed the couple’s frequent travels and asked how they were managing this. They were finding rock bottom prices (think Costa Rica for $273, and Santorini for $393) by obsessively checking crazy fare websites. But a time consuming task, Naveen used his skills as a software engineer to develop a system which found deals for them.
From that, Next Vacay became a subscription service that costs $25 a year and is personalized to members’ origin airports — and it’s one of the few of its kind that is questioning the old model of finding flights.
Once you become a member you get an email alerting you instantly when they find a great deal from airports near you, along with instructions to book the flight directly with the airline. Yep, you buy your ticket directly with the airline. Next Vacay makes their money from your $25 a year.
Screenshot of Next Vacay Site
Who Travel Subscriptions Will Appeal To
Sign up if any of these are you
➡The traveler seeking the best deals, but who doesn’t want to spend hours searching through dozens of websites.
➡The traveler who wants flights at travel hacking prices without the hassle of opening credit cards just for the sake of gaining points.
➡ Busy professionals who dream of traveling more.
➡ Backpackers; because you can travel far longer with the huge savings you find on flights, and $25 a year is nothing – even for you.
➡ Families; because when you’re booking 4 + airfares, the costs really start to add up.
➡ Millennials; Next Vacay brings back the comforting feeling of having a trusted travel agent but fits into our time constrained digital world.
➡ Newlyweds who want an affordable honeymoon.
➡ People who think they can’t afford to fly. These people are now traveling to multiple destinations, for cheaper than they ever thought possible.
➡ People who like to try before they buy. Next Vacay offers a free one-month trial. And they send you reminders before they charge your card after the trial is over.
➡ People who decide where they’re heading next based on deals and sales. If you’re not signed up to Next Vacay you’re missing out on cheap flights.
Become a Next Vacay member for $25 a year
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INSPIRED?! PIN THIS TO YOUR TRAVEL PINTEREST BOARDS ↓
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- This post has some fabulous insight on how you can save on flights, making sure you’re always getting the best airfare!
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- This post has some fabulous insight on how you can save on flights, making sure you’re always getting the best airfare!
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34 Comments
That’s some neat info! There is always some advice thrown around about how to go about booking flights. And when to do it; like days and months. But it’s all so messy. This helps clear up a few!
Thanks for this post! I should look into saving points and miles more because in Holland it’s not very common to do that, yet we have so many airlines and one of the biggest airports in the world right close to where I live. I can totally see how it gets more difficult from Australia though because you are a bit more isolated. I will check Next Vacay out because I used to work at a travel agency and could always get great deals, but not anymore so I need to find other ways :-)
Hi Megan! Thanks for the great trip!
In order to take full advantage of this website, would your travel dates and locations need to be flexible in order to take advantage of the greatest deal? You mentioned that you get email alerts based on your home-base airport, but are there are customization options?
For example, I’m looking to maybe go to Japan in 2020 for the Olympics, so obviously the dates and location are not flexible. Would I still be able to get airfare deals for that trip through this site?
Thanks
I have started saving points etc recently and wished i done it sooner. I given up on airline subscriptions because they are just one big pain in the ass when it comes to my inbox (as you mentioned as well). Neat info on here, and thanks for the tip off on Neat Vacay.
There are times I would love to be Australian. We have Trump and better airline points. Maybe it’s a wash. It’s amazing how vastly different airline prices are and how many “mistake” prices there are out there. If you have a connection to the travel industry like Vacay you could really save a lot of money.
That vacay site sounds like the bomb(Pun partially intended). I’ll have to check it out. Being Irish based though sucks as we just get cramped with Ryanair.
Eoin, check out “jacks flight club” . Similar to Meg’s description of Next Vacay, except they fly from Irish, UK and Northern European airports. Longhaul and some short weekend breaks.
Robbie
@zippittee
Meg, thanks for putting Next Vacay on my radar.
This is great, I hadn’t heard of Next Vacay before. Searching for bargain fares is so time consuming and there’s so many sites to sift through! $25 is very reasonable for this service, I’d much rather be enjoying a destination than being holed up over my computer searching for my next affordable flight. Thanks for the recommendation, looking forward to snagging my next flight for a rock bottom price.
I always love finding good travel deals. There’s a subscription I’ve for travelling from airports in Canada (where I’m from), but now I’m in Dublin and that doesn’t do me much good. I’ll have to check out these site. $25 for some good flight deals seems worth it.
Holy crap, I totally just put your advice about travelling on a Tuesday to the test and found straight up that flights to Canberra from Proserpine were over $100 cheaper on a Tuesday. That’s incredible. Thank you! Now I just need to figure out who is free to hang out with me mid week. Haha.
I dont really travel enough to warrant a subscription, but do collect my frequent flyer points where I can, kinda wish I’d been doing this for ever, but I was one of the dummies who thought my few points here and there wouldn’t really have much of an impact. How wrong I was?!
This is such a great idea and $25 per year is NOTHING compared to even the cheapest local airfares! I agree with you that the US has the best deal going on airline miles, but I wouldn’t want to keep opening new cards just for the sign on rewards. We live in Europe and did sign up more than a year ago for a credit card that gives us Lufthansa points. After looking out for all the deals and offers we can to collect extra points, we have a nice little stash saved up, but we want to keep them for long-haul flights so we can maximise the cost savings. I will check out NextVacay though, we will travel a lot more in the next year or so, this little gem could save us a lot! Thanks so much for sharing.
I’ll check NextVacay for sure. It is so difficult to find good offers from Athens airport in Greece, so I would need a little help with that! I usually check offers from Rome or Milan especially when heading to Europe, as there are multiple carriers operating there!
I’m a sucker for a cheap flight. I’ve wondered before if Next Vacay was worth it. Thanks for the helpful write up.
I am based in the UK and do travel hack but use points to fly business for less than economy as our taxes are so high, it doesn’t really make sense for economy, I haven’t heard of NExt Vacay but will check it out as sounds like it is very much up my street
I love using miles and points for free flights. It’s harder for you guys in Australia but as you’ve found it’s still doable. I haven’t heard about Next Vacay but then I have my own methods for finding flight deals. I’ll have to check them out because you can never have enough cheap flights.
It’s the first time I’ve heard of Next Vacay. What a great idea and affordable too! Finding deals on flights can be such a time-consuming exercise as you said in your article having 50 newsletters in your email to shift through. Plus not being about the places you’re planning on going too. And you’re so right about Australian reward programs! I had to spend like 100,000 points for two flights from Perth to Melbourne which meant I needed to spend $80k to get those point. I think it took me about 6 years to get them haha!
These are such great tips! I had no idea Tuesday was the cheaper day to travel! Like you, we have a lot air miles that we need to use up. In fact, Air Canada is opting out of Star Alliance so I’ve got to get on that this year. Having a subscription is something else I should do. Nobody’s forcing you to book anything, but at least you have all the deals at your disposal.
Great information, as I have not heard of some of these. I’ll have to try some of these hacks out while planning an adventure. Next Vacay sounds interesting, that’s one I’ll be checking out right away.
Flights are always the most expensive thing on our budget, and sometimes we had to delay a trip because the flights were too pricey. Maybe I should start paying more attention to the newsletters, I never subscribe because more often than not I get lots of spam messages! But I might give a try at NextVacay, it’s both cheap and useful!
Hi Meg,
Nice Tuesday tip ;) I was not aware that things really dropped off price-wise on this day. Will forward to my book agent I mean Kelli LOL.
This plane/plain makes sense. Subscribe to receive the best prices versus doing as much leg work. When you think long term, and wish not to trade time for anything or money, you pay for services to max out your convenience factor. A few bucks here saves you hundreds or even thousands plus the element of time, which is invaluable, when you think about it.
Big fan of maxing my convenience factor these days. Especially as my blogging business grows.
Super flight prices I see up there, in addition to the free flights. Well done Meg!
Ryan
Grrrrr…. I hate hate hate the feeling of seeing someone else get a bargain flight or an error flight and finding out about it when it’s too late. A subscription service would be great for me, not only to curb my jealousy but also because we fly out of Ottawa, for the most part, but nearly all the emails I see have deals that look great but are for our neighbours, Toronto and Montreal. Good for them but I’m out of luck! So it would be great to get something tailored for my home airport.
Meg, That’s something really nice and quite useful. Even we are last minute ticket bookers and always fail to use travel hacks.Do we need to add the dates on the website for the particular trip? The Tuesday tip is really new to us and I am surely gonna try it out. Thanks for sharing.
The number of flights I’ve booked in the last six months is crazy, I could have done with some of these tips. And I’m definitely going to look into signing up for the newsletter.
Next Vacay sounds like a great way to keep track of fare sales. I’m going to have to go check it out, although I’m afraid I’ll be tempted to book flights all the time and never stay home any more!
I have the exact same problem. Too many airlines and as much as I travel I can’t seem to get enough points for a free flight.
only now, after years of traveling, I was able to collect enough points to get a free flight but only in the winter and only to Europe (Like 3-5 hours away) Lol.
Oh, I am so with you. I love the idea of travel hacking in theory but being from Canada we don’t have the same opportunities as Americans and I’m too lazy to spend hours combing through sites so I’ll definitely be checking this out. I did score one deal once, flying to Vancouver from Palm Springs was actually cheaper in Biz Class than Economy. Score!
As a flight attendant, I fly for free in the United States but even outside the U.S., I’ve never spent more than $100 for a ticket using my benefits. We’re allowed to fly on 50+ airlines around the world. With that said, I have friends and family asking about ticket prices all the time and I have no idea. This is a great resource for them and for me when I want a confirmed ticket instead of flying standby. $25 a year is nothing! I spend $25 at 7-11 on junk. I’m going to sign up and tell my friends!
We too are not good at using the air miles, have never used till date. The fact that we do not consistently fly on one airline has ensured this for us too. The very fact that we travel on airlines that have the best deal at that time defeats this purpose. Next Vacay sounds like a neat way to keep track of great deals and then tie up your travel plans with the best deals!
I’ve never heard of this before. And I thought I was actually doing a great job when it comes to looking for flight deals. I love that you can keep track of deals. Im like the majority of people who only look through websites such as Skyscanner, Google Flights and Hopper. But I’m definitely checking out NextVacay for future trips so thanks Meg for sharing!
Cool article! I love the Skyscanner app too. I find myself scouting for flights to anywhere anytime just browsing to help pass the time. I wonder if anyone else does this too. LOL
This is such a useful article, Megan. I can’t believe you managed to get free flights to Antarctica. That is my ultimate bucket list destination. I do use Skyscanner app but have never used the email subscription of Next Vacay This post is definitely going to be bookmarked by me.
Hi Megan – I was just wondering if you are actually seeing many deals out of Australia with Next Vacay???
Interesting article on a great service! Thanks, Meg!
I am interested.