“How can you afford to travel so much?”

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me this question, I could probably fund another trip somewhere. So far in 2017, I’ve been on 3 international and 12 domestic trips.

I also have a full-time office job at which, contrary to popular belief, I actually do appear regularly. No, I am not a secret heiress, I don’t have a ton of extra income collecting dust in a bank vault, no sugar daddy in sight and I’ve never won the lottery. 

So many people assume that traveling costs a lot of money. While it is true that leisure travel is a privilege that does require some level of disposable income, there are many different types of travel that fall into various budget levels. Take accommodations – there are tons of options at different price points. You have home swaps, couchsurfing, hostels, Airbnb, hotels, and resorts, among others.

Personally, I love luxury travel. I love reclining in comfort at 30,000 feet. I like to ask a question and be reasonably certain that the answer will be, “Of course, Ms. Johnson, that will be taken care of immediately. Will there be anything else?”  Sadly, I don’t typically have luxury travel money. For me, the key to bridging this gap is in understanding how much I am willing to spend, and using detailed early planning, creative thinking, flexibility, and loyalty programs to get what I want at a price that is acceptable to me. For bigger trips that are not funded by loyalty points, a big part of affordability is to travel with a friend. I’ll introduce the basics of the two biggest parts of my personal travel strategy.

Early Planning

The first half of my strategy is to start early!!! While I am perfectly capable of pulling together a last-minute travel plan, why would I want to when I could start early and get exactly what I want and pay as little as possible?

Early birds have power because early birds have options. When you start planning early, you lessen the likelihood of being forced into paying a price you’re uncomfortable with because you ran out of time. More often than not, prices start out low and increase as time goes on.

Last year, I planned a trip to Italy, and the travel plans included 9 hours of travel on 4 trains. I bought my tickets 4 months beforehand for $85. A month after I got my tickets, someone else joined the trip, and their set of the same tickets cost $139. One month of difference saved me $54 – if that happens often enough, it really adds up. That $54 funded the eating of delicious Italian pasta, which, clearly, should always be a priority.

Loyalty Programs

One of my cardinal travel rules is to never stay at any hotel or fly on any airline that doesn’t give me some kind of return or contribution towards future travel or future special treatment.

Every time you use a hotel or airline without registering for the loyalty program, you are essentially saying, “No, thank you, I would not like to travel for free in the future.” That is silly. Who turns down free money?! Not I.

If you collect enough loyalty points, you could use them to fly in something like this:

and stay somewhere like this:

and all for somewhere between completely free and a fraction of the actual price.

If you can honestly say this sounds terrible to you…well…welp. All the welps. And all the sideeyes. If this sounds great to you, make sure you’re signed up for the loyalty programs! If you’re a latecomer to loyalty programs, you can usually go back and request credit for a past stay/flight.