If you’re looking at long-term travel, permanent travel, or simply ways to make travel more accessible, we encourage you to use the following resources. All are tried and vetted over four years of trial and error, international and domestic travel, for both luxurious and shoestring trips.

All Flights:

• Skyscanner –> in private browsing. Please conduct your searches in private browsing so your search history is not tracked. Aside from the whole personal privacy thing, searches are closely monitored by flight algorithms and the more a route is searched (i.e. the more you search, the more ‘demand’ the algorithm records and the higher the prices go). Do a cursory search of your route in private mode to gauge price and then edit your dates, again in private browsing. 

Also, I know that there’s a skyscanner.com, but I refuse to use it because it defaults to an American dollar and for some reason the flights I search are more when I go to this browser. So go to http://www.skyscanner.net and change the currency at the top right to your currency.

International Flights:

If you are (or want to be) doing a lot of international travel and you don’t want to refinance your house to afford your airfare, please check the following airline websites, in private browsing, to see if your route is available:

• Norwegian: This is our first love because we got our one-way tickets to London for $249 on a brand new 747 Dreamliner which translates to amazing food and 100 hours of entertainment. Don’t let the name fool you – Norwegian flies all over Europe and beyond: Dubai, UAE; Istanbul, Turkey; Singapore; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Tel Aviv, Israel; and more! As of mid-2017 they fly out of a dozen US airports –

New York (John F. Kennedy – JFK)
New York / New Jersey (Newark Liberty – EWR)
Boston (BOS)
Providence / Boston (PVD)
Connecticut / Hartford Bradley (BDL)
Atlanta (ATL)
Orlando (MCO)
Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
Los Angeles (LAX)
Las Vegas (LAS)
Oakland – San Francisco (OAK)
Denver (DEN)
Seattle (SEA)

Out of Orlando (our home airport) to London is $460.

This is from Boston to London (Gatwick): $370

Denver to London Gatwick: $481

Keep in mind that for long term travel or just doing a couple weeks overseas, you’re often working one way, so if you’re in Seattle for example and you want to get to Europe, you can get to Europe for $200. 

Getting the most from your flights:

• Occasionally you may find a fare on skyscanner that is cheaper if you go directly to the airline. I’ve had a couple cases where an American Airlines flight will show $250 on Skyscanner but when I go directly to the American site it will be $225 or $230. This is where it helps to use private browsing to avoid both sites recording your flight searches.
• If  you estimate your travel expenses to exceed $3,000 in a given year and your credit falls in or above the “good” range (650+), you can get the most mileage from your travels by opening a credit card with a robust rewards program. This can depend on what airport you’re closest to – we chose American because of the bounty of Admirals lounges, variety in the routes (domestic and international) and a respectable rewards fare exchange. But we know not every airport has an Admirals lounge and you may get better rewards from a different airline or a different card altogether. Many travel cards worth their salt (Chase Sapphire Reserve, and little sister Sapphire Preferred, for example) will have a bonus points for obtaining their card and spending – you guessed it – $3,000 in the first three months. These points can then be redeemed for a variety of travel rewards. Disclaimer: ** This is not a call to apply for a card or rack up expenses if it involves you spending or stretching beyond what is feasible for you. **