Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - How to Visit Japan for $200 and Other Travel Tips with Scott's Cheap Flights

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

Who wants to take more vacations?? Scott of Scott’s Cheap Flights tells Nicole how to make it happen. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Well, it doesn't. Charge for wasting our time. I will take a check. Like an old school check. You recognize her from anchoring on CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg. The only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. Nicole Lappin. Who wants to take more vacations?

I know I do. And to help all of us with our travel wish list, Scott Kai started the website Scott's Cheap Flights. And today he's going to give us all the insider tips and tricks on going where we want for the price we want. So, Scott, of Scott's Cheap Flights, help us find a cheap flight right now. We've all been cooped up. We want to get our ass out into the world. What is the first thing we do? Look, if I had to boil down my cheap flight advice to just one thing, just one thing for folks to remember today, it would be this.

one thing, just one thing for folks to remember today, it would be this. The normal way that we search for flights has it exactly backwards if you're hoping to get cheap flights. Now, what do I mean by that? The normal way that we search for flights is a three-step process. I call it the destination first method. Tell me if this sounds familiar. Step one, you pick where you want to go. Step two, you pick when you want to go there. And only on step three, do you look, well, what does the flight cost? You know, what are the, what is the airfare looking like? And by setting price as the last priority, it's not terribly surprising that we end up with some pretty expensive flights. So instead, what I recommend is like, look, if cheap flights are important to you, if you're really hoping to be able to get cheap flights, don't set it as the last priority.

Set it as the top priority. Take that same three-step process and flip it on its head. Step one, where are there cheap flights available out of my home airport? Step two, of those places where there are cheap flights available, which one interests me the most? Step three, what dates work for my schedule? By setting price as the top priority rather than the last priority, that's how you get cheap flights. And that's how you take three or four vacations for the price that you used to pay for one. And the last thing I'd mention there, a lot of folks might hear this

and think, oh, well, if I'm only looking at places where there are cheap flights, it must mean I'm only flying somewhere nearby, somewhere uninteresting. Maybe it's got five connections. Absolutely not true. One of the most interesting and bizarre things about airfare is that it bears little or no relationship to how far you fly. Let me give you an example. We saw a flight just the other day that we sent to Scott Sheep Flights members from Pittsburgh to Tokyo, Japan for $316 round trip at availability all the way through March of 2022. You know where else you could fly for $316 from Pittsburgh? Philadelphia. It's not as though, you as though cheap flights mean that you have to fly somewhere nearby. The funny thing about airfare is that it's so volatile. It's constantly going

up and going down. And so today's expensive flight might be tomorrow's cheap flight and vice versa. So essentially reverse engineer the process that we had taken for our entire lives on the internet. But where do we start figuring out the price now first, if we're optimizing for price? The way to do it is to first get out of the mindset of having to always choose a vacation first and then just crossing your fingers, hoping and praying that cheap flights pop up. And instead, keeping yourself open, making it serendipitous, saying, look, I want to take a vacation sometime soon, maybe sometime this fall. And when I see a great deal, I'm going to jump on it. But I'm not going to say in advance, oh, it has to be to Aruba. Oh, it has to be to Italy.

Oh, it's got to be September 8th through 15th or whatnot. To the extent you can give yourself more flexibility, the higher your odds of getting a cheap flight. And so obviously this is what we do at Scott City Flights. We make sure that you're never going to miss any great deals popping up out of your home airport. As soon as they pop up, we email it and we let you know. And so, for instance, for those folks in Pittsburgh, maybe they hadn't been searching or hadn't been thinking about searching for flights to Japan that very day that $316 round-trip fares popped up. But we want to make sure that you don't miss it, that you know about it.

And so if you are interested in that deal, you can book it. And for the thousands of people who did book that flight, they probably woke up that morning with no intention of doing so until they saw, oh my gosh, I can book a ticket to Tokyo for $316 round trip. And so it's being serendipitous, allowing yourself to be open to when these deals pop up and trying to make sure that you just are in the know. The funny thing about airfare is that the better the deals, the shorter they tend to last. And that's why important, whether you're getting, whether you're signed up for scot-cheap flights, whether you're setting your own Google flight trackers or kayak flight trackers, or whether you're just somebody like me who loves spending hours and hours and hours every day

searching for flights, trying to find those deals, but letting the deal be the real kind of driver of where you're taking those vacations rather than trying to do it in reverse. That's how you get cheap flights and that's how you take more vacations. Hold onto your wallets, boys and girls. Money Rehab will be right back.

Now for some more Money Rehab. So let's say I'm in Pittsburgh and I don't want to go to Tokyo, but I do want to go somewhere else. How do I figure out where are the cheap, cool flights leaving from my area? the cheap, cool flights leaving from my area? My favorite way, my favorite tool to just sort of see what is available right now is Google Flights Explore tool. So when you go on Google Flights, this is my favorite way to search for flights. Some people swear by Skyscanner or Kayak or Expedia or Orbitz. The honest truth is that the airfare is basically the same no matter where you search. The difference is basically just in user interface,

user experience, whichever one you tend to prefer. And so I don't begrudge anybody who prefers another one. For me, my favorite is Google Flights. And they have this great explore tool where you can go on and say, look, this is my home airport, Pittsburgh. I want to fly anywhere, let's say in the Caribbean over, you know, in December, because I've got to, you know, I could take a week off then, time at work is slow. I can, I've got the time. I don't

care where I go. I just want to be on a beach in the Caribbean. And so it'll show you a map of all the fares that are available right now out of Pittsburgh, whether you're going to Antigua, Aruba, Curacao, St. Vincent, wherever it might be, it'll show you the whole map of fares. The key to remember though, and this is why Google Flights is actually kind of a compliment to Scott's Cheap Flights, not a competitor, is that what you see on that Google Flights Explorer tool and what you see anytime you search for flights is a snapshot in time. This is what the fares are right this moment. But the fares that are available right

this moment are not going to be the same as the fares that are available tonight. It's not going to be the same as the fares that are available tomorrow. It's certainly not going to be the same as the fairs that are available tonight. It's not going to be the same as the fairs that are available tomorrow. It's certainly not going to be the fairs that are available next week. And so unless you're that type of person who just loves searching each and every day, searching 14, 16, 18 hours a day, that's what we do is we make sure we're always on it so that when those great deals do pop up, we find it and we let you know about it, even if it's to somewhere you hadn't been thinking about. And the great thing about airfare is that the best deals are actually the unadvertised sales. This is a little insider secret. Anytime you see an airline hyping

up some sale, oh, we've got our $59 anniversary sale, our $79 Valentine's Day sale, just throw it in the garbage. It's basically never good deals. It's basically never many seats available. It's the unadvertised sales that are actually the real goldmine because this is when the airlines are quietly slashing those fares. When they had Pittsburgh to Tokyo for $316, New York to Milan for $130, you know, the other day there was flights from New York down to St. Thomas and the East Virgin Islands for $220 round trip. They weren't advertising those. They know those fairs sell themselves.

They don't have to put ad dollars behind it. And but this way they can kind of quietly control things and pull it when they feel like, all right, we've sold enough seats. We can get rid of this fair now. And that's kind of what we're always on the hunt for, those unadvertised sales. And how has the pandemic changed travel? What's harder? What's easier? What's more expensive? What's cheaper now? Gosh, where to begin? I mean, obviously, so many things got upended as a result of the pandemic.

A few things that you're seeing that I think are more that are still going on today in terms of travel changes. One of the biggest changes you see right now is in the car rental market. Car rentals used to be one of the cheapest parts of the trip. You could regularly get $30, $40 a day rentals, not even have to think about it, just show up, you know, reserve it the day before. Nowadays, they are crazy expensive. I mean, I looked the other day for like to get a car rental in Maui, the cheapest car in the island was $650 a day. We're talking like over $4,000 for a week-long rental. And so having to really kind of make sure you are getting that car rental figured out, reserved, getting a good deal, really kind of prioritize that rather than having to spend as much time on the flights, which are large, by and large, really cheap nowadays has been

certainly a change from what we saw pre-pandemic. One of the big changes, though, I think that we saw... Well, hold on. Before you get to that part, I just wanted to pop in and say, you know, I was thinking that as you were talking about looking at the destinations, because all those places in the Caribbean sound great, but the cheap flight is not where the trip ends, right? So then you have the hotel situation and you are Scott's cheap flights, not Scott's cheap everything. So then how do you take those other factors into consideration? Yeah, a few things to think about here. I mean, the good thing, one of the reasons why we really, why I was like so motivated by cheap flights and not, you know,

why I'm not Scott's cheap hotels or Scott's cheap car rental is when you get to Paris, you not only, you know, there are a thousand different hotels there and there are 10,000 different home share rentals, you know, Airbnb, VRBO on down the list. And each one of those, there's a much more sort of direct correlation between the price you pay and the quality that you get. You can get a hostel in Paris for 30 bucks a night in a shared bunk bed, or you can get a $10,000 a night presidential suite at the Ritz. And those prices tend to say not only pretty consistent, but they tend to be a very direct relationship between price and quality. With airfare, that is absolutely not true. On your next flight, try asking the person sitting next to you what

they paid to be on that flight. I think you'll be surprised how different it is than what you paid. Chances are, if you have a flight with 100 people, chances are they probably paid 100 different prices to be there. And I think that's indicative of just how much airfare is volatile. It bops around. It's not something where there's a consistent price. Oh, what does it cost to fly to LA? What does it cost to fly to Paris? It completely changes not only by where you fly from, when you booked, what season you're going, but also just what day did you happen to look at? What hour did you happen to look at? How are prices happening to be acting that day? And so this is because airfare is so uniquely torturous. I think that's why it acts as such a hurdle for so many of our vacations. It's one of the things that, you know,

It's one of the things that we all daydream about trips, but I think the cornerstone that takes a daydream about a trip to that trip actually being real, the moment that happens is the moment you book researching, you know, oh, what would I do when I'm there? It's the moment you book those flights that is when it goes from just a thought to an actual reality that it's happening. And that's why I've kind of dedicated my life and my career to working on this cheap flight angle and helping people figure out how to not overpay for flights so that they can take more vacations as a result. And are you airline agnostic or do you prefer one over another with the fees and the changes and the grace that they might give you? Buy me a few shots and I'll give you my real opinion about a couple airlines. But the way that I tend to really think about it is that the best way to find cheap flights is to be loyal to the almighty dollar. Don't be loyal to one airline and pay more to fly that airline rather than another,

because as a result, you're just going to pass up on some great deals that might be popping up. One of the funny things is that, let's take Atlanta. Atlanta is a city where they don't get nearly as many deals as you would expect for a city their size because of the Delta monopoly there. Delta has a monopoly on the flights leaving there. It's that Delta monopoly that cuts down on the number of cheap flights. There's still some, but not as many as you would expect. But the funny thing about it is that if you live in Atlanta, the highest number of cheap flights is actually not on Delta. It's on United and American. And this is true basically in every city where there's, for folks living in Charlotte,

where American holds the monopoly, the best, the cheap flights are generally popping up on the competitor airlines, United and Delta. In Houston, they're popping up on Delta and American because United has the monopoly there. And so rather than staying loyal to one airline, being agnostic and being loyal to the almighty dollar, being loyal to cheap flights is the best way to go in my mind. Oh, man, it's so hard. It makes sense to not be loyal to the airline that is a hub, so to speak, in your city. But I was in Atlanta almost 20 years ago, and I know my SkyMiles number by heart. I barely know my boyfriend's number by heart or what I had for lunch, but I know my SkyVial's number by heart.

And I haven't changed because there was really no option when I was living there. And I wasn't as flexible, I suppose. But I would love to have you and a homie of mine who happens to have my same birthday, Brian Kelly, points guy, do this out over points versus almighty dollar. Yeah, look, points versus dollar. I think that is actually a great topic because it's one of those things where if you're hoping to fly in business class, if you're hoping to fly in first class, front of the plane, really cushy, got the champagne, lie flat seat, so comfortable. For most folks, they don't necessarily realize how expensive it is to buy those seats if you're flying, let's say, to Europe or Asia or

Australia. I mean, the normal business class seat, if you're flying from the US to Europe, is like $3,000 round trip. And a normal flight to Asia or Australia, more like five, six, $7,000 round trip. You know, that's totally out of the question for most vacationers. And so this is where I think points and miles are actually can be an incredible value for a lot of people because it's one of the most accessible ways to be able to get one of those seats. I'm definitely not a hater on the points and miles world.

I see the value in certain situations. I just don't recommend folks stay loyal to one airline or another because in the long run, they're going to end up losing money as a result. Makes so much sense. But what has never made sense to me is this whole idea that there are certain days and times that it's better to book a flight. I get this question all the time. Is that just hocus pocus or is there truth to that? Like Tuesday, Wednesday thing? Yeah, I love this question. And I think from the outset, it's important to disambiguate when we talk about what are the cheapest days for flights. It's important to distinguish between cheapest days to book and cheapest days to fly. There are no cheapest days to book flights. Many folks have heard, oh, it's cheapest to book your flights on Tuesday at 1pm

or something like that. And while this is a myth today, it's a myth because it used to be true. It still lives on in many folks' minds because 20 years ago, when airlines first started selling their tickets online, they really would load their fares once a week at a predetermined time, something like Tuesday at 1 p.m. And so if you were one of the first people to book those flights, you really could get the best deals possible. The problem is that hasn't been how airlines have set their prices for years. Nowadays, airfare is set algorithmically. It is on autopilot for the most part, and it's changing by the day, if not by the hour. While there's no cheapest time or day to book your flights, the good news is that

cheap flights are popping up all the time. But again, I want to distinguish, too, between the cheapest days to fly because there really are days when flights tend to, at least on average, be cheaper. And those are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The reason why flights tend to be cheaper on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday is because those are days that business travelers tend to avoid. Business travelers like flying on Monday and Friday and Sunday. You know, they want to be home with their families for the weekend. And so for the airline's perspective, it's all about what's called price discrimination.

They're trying to make sure that they are charging as much as possible to the business travelers who don't care what the price is because they're not paying for it while offering cheaper fares to vacationers, to leisure travelers. Because we, us vacationers, we're really price sensitive. It matters a lot to us what the flight costs because if it's too high, we're just not going to pay it. We're just going to take a road trip. We're not going to take that vacation. But that's not true for business travelers. They're going to pay whatever it costs because they don't care because it's

their company paying. So this is why the Mondays and Fridays and Sunday flights tend to be more expensive. The Tuesday, Wednesdays and Saturdays tend to be cheaper days to fly. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. Try a hybrid model combining the old-fashioned way of booking travel and Scott's method. You may not be the complete free spirit that will book a trip to any place, anytime. So find a middle ground. Start by setting a travel alert for your number one dream destination. You'll still need to be flexible on your travel dates, but you won't have to compromise location. Money Rehab is a production of iHeartMedia. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin.

Our producers are Morgan Lavoie and Catherine Law. Money Rehab is edited and engineered by Brandon Dickert with help from Josh Fisher. Executive producers are Mangesh Hatikader and Will Pearson. Huge thanks to the OG Money Rehab supervising producer, Michelle Lanz, for her pre-production and development work. And as always, thanks to you for finally investing in yourself so that you can get it together and get it all.