For most people leaving their college dorms and apartments, home is only about an hour to four hour drive away, which is not worth wasting a plane ticket on, but for those of you who live 8+ hours away from the place you call home, booking a flight home might be the best option for you.
Here are some tips and tricks you might have forgotten about that will help you make your trip back home just a little bit easier.
1. Book later flights
Everyone knows that flights nowadays are wildly expensive, and as a broke college student, you don’t have $400 to spend on a roundtrip flight back to your home town. As a result we see the increase of sites like cheapOair and FlightHub that promise the cheapest flights, but sometimes, using these sites might not be enough to get the price down enough. In that case, you might need to look into booking a flight later in the evening, flights at night usually aren’t that crowded and they end up being cheaper most of the time. Possible seat upgrade and saving money? I think YES!
2. Try to pack light
I know, I know, when going home for the holidays we want to pack like twenty cute outfits along with our scarves, booties, and other winter accessories, but without checking a bag, you can save from $25 to $50. Find a airline that allows you bring a carry on and a personal item (like a backpack) and try to roll your clothes as small as possible so that you can fit more than you usually would. It also saves a bunch of time when you can just grab your things from the overhead bin and leave the airport without having to wait for your bag.
3. ALWAYS carry hand sanitizer and wipes
The travel section of your local Wal-Mart or Target is bound to have TSA approved hand sanitizer and a small pack of sanitizer wipes for $1.50 or less. The planes should be cleaned after every flight, but as we all know, sometimes things can be missed. I suggest using sanitizer as often as you can and wiping down the arm rests on your chair, the window shade, and if you choose to use the bathroom, wipe that down reaaaaaallllll good. Because nobody wants to spend their time at home sick with some illness you contracted off the plane.
4. BYOS (Bring your own snacks)
Airport food is expensive, it like not only are they trying to rip you off with tickets that are high as the sky, but they also seem to raise prices at almost every place. Am I going to pay two dollars for an apple? No way. Pack some goodies you can munch on during the flight and during any of your layovers, that way, you only have to buy a drink if you need something to wash your food down with.
5. Stay calm
Airports during the holiday season can get hectic. There will be families rushing around to make sure their children have their passports and whatever else they need for their trips, and being in the middle of it alone can be overwhelming, especially when the dread flight cancellation or delays happen. When flight cancellations or delays happen, most of the times you can go up to the customer service desk of the airline you are flying with, get a new flight free of charge and they might even give you a voucher to use at any of the food places within the airport. When I got stuck in D.C. last summer for six hours, I was handed a voucher for fifty bucks and got in my steps by walking around the airport. So even though I did get home late, it wasn’t that bad.
6. Try to get a window seat
This one’s not really a necessity, but sitting in the window seat as you fly over bodies of water or during sunrise/sunset can make for some really beautiful pictures that you wouldn’t get otherwise. Plus, the window seat means no one is climbing over you every time they have to go to the bathroom, just a little added bonus.