I love to travel. It sounds cliche, but it’s true. At one point, I had been out of the country every summer for six years, including a six-month stay in Europe that included the ubiquitous backpack. How to win free air tickets?
5.Redeem Those Credit Card Rewards
Credit cards have gotten a bad rap when it comes to actually letting you use your points to get free airline tickets. However, some of them actually do have quality programs. If you’re looking for free tickets and will be using a credit card anyway, you might as well earn points towards your next trip. If you tend to fly one airline most of the time, you can also get a credit card that is strictly for that airline. Airlines that have their own credit cards include American Airlines, Delta, and United.
6.Get a Job at the Airline
Airline employees often get discounted flights or get to winning free air tickets. If you do a lot of flying, or would like to, and are open to a new or a second job, there’s no reason not to try and get hired by an airline. As a bonus, many airlines also offer free standby tickets for immediate family members, so you can all fly for free together.
7.Ask for Tickets as a Gift
Ok, so this one may sound like cheating because someone is still paying for the tickets, but the key is that YOU are not paying for them. If there’s a trip you’d particularly like to take and you’re the plan-ahead type, go ahead and see if you can’t get the tickets for Christmas. Maybe all of your friends or relatives could go in together. Even if they can’t come up with the full price of the tickets you want, asking for contributions can lower your personal investment significantly.
8.Ask for Miles Rather Than Money
If you know someone who racks up the frequent flyer miles, see if they’d be willing to transfer some to you so that you can get a free ticket. This is particularly useful if the person giving the miles has more than they will ever use, knows that their miles will expire before they use them, or wants to give you a significant gift but really doesn’t have the money. Try focusing your efforts on friends or relatives who travel quite frequently for work.
9.Win a Sweepstakes
There are many contests and sweepstakes out there that offer that win free air tickets. Sure, your chances of winning any single contest are low, but if you enter them systematically and frequently, your chances of winning eventually go up. While you can’t plan your life around winning a sweepstakes, the tickets would be a nice surprise whenever your name comes up.
10.Watch for Airline Mistakes
A couple months ago, United Airlines made a mistake and offered a bunch of tickets for very cheap or free. While the mistake was only live for a couple of minutes, many people took advantage of it. If you frequent travel forums, though, you can catch these deals because people will post about them almost as soon as they happen. Sometimes, airlines will try to rescind the tickets sold during these mistakes, but most often they are honored. If you want free tickets, this is a great way to find them.
Bonus Standby Tip
Standby is no longer free, unless you or an immediate family member works for the airline. Flying standby used to be a great way to get free and/or deeply discounted airline tickets. However, most airlines now require you to have already purchased a ticket to even be eligible for standby flights, and many will charge you an additional fee, too. Each airline has a different policy, so check this out before you try to fly on a standby basis.
Good luck, and good flying!
