In our community, we all know travel hacking is a time consuming but also a rewarding experience. The memories made, saving thousands of dollars, and everything else makes it a fun journey. As I have continued blogging, I’ve met some incredible people along the way including a few travel hackers!
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In This Post
The Emergence of Amateur Travel Hackers
For those familiar with the SLC Airport, it is incredibly expensive to fly out of. However, with the average age in Salt Lake City being 28 years old, there are many young people looking to travel. In my search, I found travel hackers located here in Utah that I would like to feature.
What is travel hacking? What are travel hackers?
First, let’s define this very loosely used term. To me, travel hacking essentially means not paying retail. Whether it be taking advantage of sales, error fares, or credit card miles, these are different forms of travel hacking.
No, you do not need to be a credit card guru. No fancy software, or connections in the travel industry, or blogging needed.
Everyone mentioned below are regular people just like you and me. Like many of us, they simply refuse to pay retail.
@flight.fares.slc
Carson, a student at Utah State University, has had the travel bug for years. After experiencing the pain of paying retail for his adventures, he began travel hacking. As I have heard from other millennials, Carson’s parents never believed in credit card hacking for travel. But he decided to take the road less traveled.
We met at Chipotle for burritos and had a great chat about travel hacking. He expressed his passion for travel hacking by saying, “…there’s a lot of people out there that have a strong desire to see the world but don’t think they have the money for it. That used to be me until I really invested my time into learning about finding flight deals online.”
He goes on to add that “I don’t mind doing the dirty work in finding deals, and in return, helping people make memories through traveling that they’ll remember forever.”
I found it fascinating that his content is completely manually curated and created. Truly a labor of love! His findings are awesome and serve great value to people flying out of SLC.
Carson has the Delta Gold Sky Miles card for building miles, and his next travel destination is Russia for the 2018 World Cup! Check out his content here.
@slcflightwatch
Jaron and Paul have a unique story for creating their travel hacking Instagram. Both originally from Utah, they have the desire to see the world! After meeting up with them for dinner, I learned more about their travel hacking.
Like the famous finance podcaster Dave Ramsey, they do not use credit cards in any of their travel hacking! Just about made me faint. However, these guys are experts in their craft.
P.S. If you are interested in earning miles without applying for credit cards, click below!
Last April, Jaron found round-trip flights from SLC to Rome for $360 round trip! Shortly after, they found SLC to Chicago for $80 round trip! After this, they began investigating travel hacking and published @slcflightwatch on Instagram.
Paul has been in the hospitality industry for 10+ years. He’s able to leverage those perks for hotel stays all over the world. He calls himself a “luxury hotel snob”. With these perks, their only cost for traveling is flying and food. After taking the time to research travel hacking, they decided to create @slcflightwatch as a public service. Also, to avoid a bunch of texts from friends and family trying to find cheap flights.
Their method in finding these cheap flights is all through Google Flights. No fancy algorithms or systems!
On their bucket list right now is Amsterdam, Thailand, and Austin, Texas! Check out their content here.
How to find amateur travel hackers
One word, hashtags. I find many local travel hackers through social media hashtags. Also, I was able to connect with them via DM. Here are a few examples of what to search for, but replace your preferred airport code.
- #SLCflights
- #SLCcheapflights
The Bald Thoughts
Our goal at BaldThoughts.com is to “Travel More. Spend Less. Live Better.” With amateur travel hackers and social media, there is so much information available to us. With a little bit of work, you can save hundreds/thousands of dollars in your travels!
Do you follow local amateur travel hackers in your city? Give them a shoutout below!
