Hacks to save money when booking your next vacation

It’s so expensive to fly, stay, eat, and drive that many of us can’t afford a vacation. In the United States, a weeklong vacation for a solo traveler will run more than $1,900. A family of four will need $8,000. Don’t pay the full fare to take off. Buy a discounted gift card to fly for a lot less. Or, cruise like a princess by stacking reduced cards together. Here’s how to hack a plane ticket: Four round-trip fares from LGA to Los Angeles would normally run $2,651.84 on Southwest.com. Go to the e-commerce platform raise.com. You can purchase a $500 gift card for just $444 and that saves a family of four $278. For cruises, check CardCash. 7 On Your Side found this deal on cardcash.com: $50 gift cards for 13% off. If a cruise ticket is $800, buying 16 cards would knock $104 off the price to sail the seas. Sites like Sparefare allow users to buy and sell non-refundable flight tickets and hotel rooms at a fraction of the original stay. RoomerTravel.com helps people cancel and prepare hotel reservations and not get stuck paying for an empty room. “You can go to a site like roomertravel.com where people try to resell their non-refundable rooms, but because they don’t want to lose the entire reservation they’ll sell them to you at a discount,” said Andrea Woroch, consumer expert. “And the site coordinates transferring the reservation, a great way to save, great for waiters, find deals on last minute trips.” “They offer hot rates on hotels, you don’t know the exact hotel, but you do know the star rating and the general vicinity of where the hotel is located. So you can at least see, is it close to the airport? Is it close to the attraction I’m visiting? And if it has a good star rating, it could offer 40% savings on hotel rates,” she said. Woroch has saved up to 40% off rooms for her family. Booking blindly as these sites are called, but if you see the rating, how bad can it be? If you do take a gamble, here’s a great hack if you don’t love your hotel: You can get a day pass to a luxury resort. Use the pool, hang at the tiki bar, play on the waterslide, and you don’t have to pay luxury prices. ResortPass.com finds day rates at the swankiest spots, which will allow you to come just for the day. This is something you can take advantage of even if you’re planning a staycation. Look for a resort pass in your own city to access pools, rooftops, lounges, and spas for the day. You can check it out without checking in. Make sure to review the refund credit and cancellation policies. The devil is in the details, so read the fine print. Always stay on the site for any negotiating, or exchange of funds, and don’t start texting or emailing directly with the buyer or seller. The sites have protections and guarantees so you don’t get scammed. Plus, research the company and read reviews before deciding to use the service or pay for anything upfront.