We're 3 professional travel hackers. Here for 4 hours to help you find cheap flights and share our tricks! AUA!

Hi Tanner... Well you obviously can book tickets yourself. That has been made easier by websites. You don’t have to even talk to anyone to book a ticket. But is that the main problem? In my opinion, getting to understand your options is the main problem. And if you can’t talk to anyone about it, it gets harder to solve. While I am a professional travel agent and consultant, I do not recommend you use a travel agent if you are seeking very cheap fares. Why? Because, generally speaking, a travel agent does not make money on very cheap fares and might not even have access to them. Finally, if they ticket you a hacked itinerary, the airline might send them the dreaded ADM (a debit memo that the agent has to pay). In my opinion, unless the travel agent has access to a very cheap International Private fare, you will only be wasting your time.

This takes us to the important question – when to use and why to use a travel hacker to search flights and create an itinerary? When you hire a hacker to make your itinerary, you are hiring a person who supposedly knows the loopholes and will exploit them for you. This is not an easy feat by all means because not all travel routes are hackable. And if they are, then you must be willing to compromise – find the cheapest travel dates, connections, etc., etc. Sometimes the best travel hackers can do is exactly what Kayak, Momondo or google flights already show you. There are no guarantees. But at least you know the hacker probably exhausted all the known searches out there for you. OK so when to use a travel hacker? I say when you have a fairly complex travel itinerary, using a travel hacker can be beneficial because they will likely come up with options you never thought existed. If time is important for you and you are not inclined to DIY your searches, then using a travel hacker can be good because they will save you time. If you want to buy direct from an airline (to eliminate middlemen issues) and you want to find out more options, a travel hacker might be the one who can point them out for you. Consider a decent travel hacker as a good Uber of travel agents (TAs) and the main difference is that hackers do not issue airline tickets. I want to call them the new ALT – TA. Most of them are smart folks willing to think outside the box so that you can save money. If the hacker abides by some important rules like minimum connection times and avoiding separate tickets when they can, then what do you have to lose? The search fee you pay a travel hacker may be well worth it just for the time savings in addition to amount of money you could save.

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