Trip Planning

Get the best deals for your flight

Buy tickets early - Making reservations at least 3 weeks in advance will help you to get lower prices. If your schedule is very flexible you can try the "last minute deals", but for most of travellers this is a too risky strategy.

Purchase roundtrip tickets - Usually the cheapest fares are roundtrip tickets.

Travel on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday - These days are usually not as busy as the rest of the week, so ticket prices are often lower than the other days.

Spend a Saturday night at your destination - Low airfare tickets often require a Saturday night stay.

Do not discard unused tickets - Low fare tickets are non-refundable, but if you did not use it, most of the time you can still put the cost of that ticket toward a new reservation. Tickets can be used for up to a year after the original date.

Research and bargain - Get quotes from the internet. Then bring the lowest one to your travel agent and ask if he get a better deal. Ask if there are seat sales available, or a "companion fare" promotion. Try different airlines, different dates, different routes. The more flexible your travel plans are, greater are the chances to get a better deal.

Save on International phone calls

Look for a calling card that doesn't charge a connection fee or monthly fee, or tax. Fees take away minutes from your calling card. You can still take advantage of the low rates on these cards by using them up in "one lick" to avoid loosing minutes.

Try to use your phone card up in one or two long calls. Why? Because minutes are rounded off, so too many calls on one card adds up quickly or should I say takes away from your balance. Also, some cards do not charge an initial connection fee, but some cards will after you use the card after two or more times.

What is rounding? Some calling cards round to the nearest second, minute, others 3 minutes etc. Rounding means they measure your talk time in increments. For example if a card is advertising 3 min rounding and you talk for 1 minute the telecom company will round up to 3 minutes and charge your card for 3 minutes of talk time. If you talk for 5 minutes the company will round up to 6 minutes and take away 6 minutes from your card, if you talk for 20 min the Telecom company will take away 21 minutes from your card and if you talk for 12 minutes they wont take away any additional minutes because 12 minutes is an exact increment of 3. The lower the rounded minutes or seconds the better the value of the pre-paid calling card.

Do you want to keep your calling card for longer without loosing minutes in the form of fees? People who love to chat for endless hours (and that is now possible with calling card rates getting cheaper every day) with their folks usually buy the cards with the cheapest rate and use up their cards in one long call, so they don't have to pay a weekly or maintenance fee. However, you want to keep your card longer and not pay any additional fees while you keep your card. For your situation, you need to buy a card not with the cheapest rate/minute but one with a higher rate/minute but one that doesn't have any maintenance, weekly, or other fees. You will pay a higher rate/min but in the long run you still save because minutes (in the form of fees) aren't being taken away from your card while you sleep. Do remember that most cards expire in 90 days.

Don't use your calling card at a pay phone. If you can, call from home instead because payphones have a surcharge (about 50 cents). Of course this doesn't apply if you are at the airport trying to reach someone.

When you buy your card online choose delivery method by email vs. postal mail. Why? Because there will be a shipping charge added for postal mail (about $2). Email delivery is free.

Most people will want to use up their phone cards down to the last minute and you are no exception. Let your party on the other end know that you are using a phone card, therefore, "just in case" you run out of minutes before you can say goodbye, then tell them 'bye ahead of time and "just in case" you do get disconnected then let them know ahead of time, that you will call again some other time. I mention this because while some cards will let you know ahead of time when there's only one minute left on your card, but some other cards won't.

Don't use your international phone cards for domestic long distance. Why? Because your international card is optimized for international need and may not have the best rate for domestic long distance. Instead, use a pre-paid long distance card with the best rate for your particular situation.