Thursday, October 31, 2019

How to reduce the cost of your vacation

I just finalized all of the booking for a cruise/city vacation in Holland and Baltic Cruise.  Below are some of the tips for reducing costs that I put into action.
1. The cruise was almost free as I had a future cruise credit due to a cancelled cruise by the cruise line. All I had to pay was $100 and the taxes. But the tip here is that I used the future cruise credit at CruCon.com (crucon.com) and got a $150 on board credit (OBC).  If a cruise line offers you a cruise credit, use it in the time frame allowed and find a travel agency giving OBCs this way you will reduce your overall cost. This will pay for the daily service charges)
2. Try to use your credit card, travel agency and or airline points even if its only a partial payment.  This time I used my expedia points (expedia.ca) and doubled the credit at one of their VIP hotels. In this case it allowed me a discount of $200 for a much better hotel in Amsterdam.  I also used up my Visa Adventura card points (cibc.com) which reduced a $1200 flight to $733 but I still had to pay for my seats and baggage.  I am flabbergasted that a seat on KLM is now $32 CDN each way and 1 checked bag is $60 each way.  If my KLM points had not expired I would have saved some money there.
3. If you are only staying one night as I am the last day of the cruise you really only need a hotel close to transportation to and from the cruise port and airport.  I have to stay one night in order to get a morning flight home the next day.  I used Booking.com  (booking.com) and my genius 2 level discount for a hotel walking distance to the cruise port and easy 1 train to the airport the next day.
 4.  This is likely the most important tip - watch the prices of your flight, cruise as this way you can book at sale times and you get the double wammy of the sale price plus the use of your rewards to get the lowest price.

I only like direct flights when I have to check a bag, prefer an aisle seat close to the front of the plane and hotels on the train lines and public transit or walkable to the sights I want to see. With a little planning and use of reward points I am saving over $2500 on this vacation.

Hope this helps
Marcia


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