Every January, I leave the frozen farms of Illinois for balmy Tampa, Florida to partake in the Florida RV SuperShow. That means each year at about this time I have to figure out how I’m getting to Florida, what I’m going to drive, and where I’m going to sleep. I also try to pay the least money possible because The Autopian ends up picking up the tab in the end. This year I scored what I hope is a sweetheart deal. I’ll be going to Florida, spending three nights out there, and going back home spending just $400 on flights, lodging, and a car to drive. I’ve now perfected my cheapskate-ry and now you can, too.
I’ll let you in on some inside baseball. We’re very glad we can deliver our website to you without placing an ad after every paragraph like some of our competitors. Keeping operating costs down is important to our easy-on-the-ads approach, so when The Autopian is footing the bill for a trip – such as getting yours truly to an RV show – we aren’t splurging on first-class plane tickets, luxury rental cars, and staying at a hotel with a restaurant serving gold-encrusted steaks. Instead, we’re quite used to sitting in the backs of planes and staying at affordable hotels, and happy to do so.
I’ve turned it into a game where I try to figure out the cheapest way to conduct a trip without getting stung, sometimes literally, by a poor experience. In 2023, the first year I attended the Florida RV SuperShow, I scored a $58 round-trip flight on Frontier Airlines to and from Tampa. However, I ended up spending $200 on a rental car and another $350 or so on a three-night stay at a run-down La Quinta. We spent $608 on that particular Florida RV SuperShow, which isn’t bad, but I knew I could do better.
I thought that the better year was going to be last year when I got a departure flight from Frontier Airlines for about $50, a return flight from American Airlines for $111, and a rental car for $147. I was sitting at just $308, so to beat 2023 all I had to do was find a hotel for under $300.
Sadly, my plans fell apart as soon as I got to the airport. Last year’s Florida RV SuperShow happened while Illinois was deep into a sub-zero freeze. The folks at Frontier Airlines couldn’t get the plane at the gate fired up, then two more would-be replacement aircraft refused to light their jet fuel. So, my flight was canceled and Frontier had such a bad day that there wasn’t a backup flight. My next cheapest choice was $333 on Spirit Airlines. Ouch. It still hurts to think about spending that much on a Spirit flight. I then paid $252 to stay at what turned out to be a pretty nice Ramada.
When all was said and done, my flight, hotel, and rental car cost was $902, a much bigger bill than my 2023 adventure. Getting hosed by Frontier’s failure to produce a flight really jacked up my plans.
Flying Cattle Class
This year, I’m coming back swinging. I started planning this trip the second my media pass for the show was granted in mid-December. The first thing I did was search for the cheapest round-trip flight. I have a process for this. First, I go to a Google Search, pop open the Flights section, and search for the cheapest flight. Google usually shows what the airline itself offers on its own website, but I also check the airline’s website to be sure.
Once I have an idea of what an airline wants to charge for a flight, I divert to a website like Priceline to plug in the same information and see what I get. Often, I find the price on Priceline is the same as the price offered on the airline’s website. But every now and then, I end up finding a flight for half the price of what Google shows me. To be clear here, this post isn’t sponsored by Priceline. It’s just the app I’ve used for more than four years with reasonable success.
The cheapest flight this time was Frontier, which had a round-trip deal for $70, but I’ve been burned by Frontier enough times that I did’t want to chance it again. Next was Spirit Airlines, which isn’t great either, but in my experience, Spirit at least gets me where I need to go. Spirit offered a deal for $86 round-trip, and I can fit everything I’m taking into my “personal item” bag, so Spirit’s annoying upcharges won’t be a problem.
That Fresh Nissan Smell
I then used the same process to find a rental car. It seemed the best deal came from the Priceline app, which said I could get a rental car for three days for $51. Long after I put in my reservation I found out that Priceline chose Economy Rent A Car as the rental company. This company has mostly positive reviews on Google but mostly negative reviews on Yelp, so who knows what I’m getting? It seems a lot of people don’t like Economy because it charges Florida residents a $500 to $1,000 deposit and then imposes a 150-mile limit on those same residents.
The company I used in 2023 (Ace Rent-A-Car) had the same contradictory review problem and things went smoothly for me. So things could be fine or they could be a disaster. At the very least, I know the final price will be more than $51 after taxes and fees, but the final price should land somewhere in the ballpark of last year’s $147 rental.
While I’m on the subject of rental cars, I recommend carrying a credit card if you can. In my experience, rental car companies tend to be a lot easier to work with when you’re using a credit card. Some rental companies also like adding a daily fee for using a debit card. It was a night-and-day difference when I got a credit card. Seriously, renting cars became so easy it was shocking.
Also, if you’ll be using your own insurance you’ll want to have a copy of your full packet. Yeah, some local rental companies are annoying like that. As a note: Normally I would try to rent a fun car or get a convertible or something like that, but that would be only on my own dime.
After I finished putting in the car rental reservation, the Spirit round-trip was now listed at $120. It appeared that way on travel sites, on Priceline, and even through looking at the prices on a fresh device in Incognito Mode. So, I set a price tracker to let me know when the price came back down. It took almost a week, but the price came back down to $84. That’s when I got the tickets. As of writing, the price for the same round-trip flight is $77, which is nice.
King Bed, No Bugs
Finally, we have the hotel. In my experience, booking hotels can be a bit wild if you’re trying to do it on a budget. The very cheapest hotels and motels will be advertised with random images that do not match reality and you’ll discover problems that are frankly unacceptable even for the most miserly of travelers. I have too many stories of bed bugs, entry doors that don’t lock, and hotel managers who were violently drunk. Trust me, it’s not worth it.
Instead, what I do now is get the cheapest hotel that has mostly positive reviews. In my case, this ended up being a Ramada next to Tampa’s airport. First I checked Google and then went to Ramada’s website, where the price was set to $119 per night, and $405.21 total (above) for three nights after fees.
The same room was $66 per night ($225 after fees) on Priceline, so I booked that version. In my experience, hotels usually honor the price I pay online, even though the $225 will be substantially less than the same room on the hotel’s own website.
Cheapskate Travel
All in, I’m looking at going to Tampa for three nights for around $400 or so, but the variable this time will end up being the rental car fees. Or, I suppose if I want to be the most correct here, that’s what the company will pay for me to do this trip.
Honestly, traveling as a cheapskate is a lot of work. You end up having to do a lot of price comparisons and sometimes you end up taking a chance on a company that might not be a trusted brand. But, what can I say, the thrill of the deal is almost as fun as the trip itself. At the same time, it’s also not all bad. Sometimes, in looking for a cheap hotel with good reviews, you end up in little ma-and-pop motels with lots of interesting history that you won’t get by hitting up the Holiday Inn for another night.
I think the thing I’m most surprised by is that despite everything that’s happened over the past few years with airlines, the economy, and basically everything else, travel is still affordable if you’re willing to dig in, search for good prices, and maybe cut out some luxuries. Hopefully, this trip goes smoothly. But rest assured, if it all turns into chaos you’ll be the first to read about it!
Also, credit cards are great because most of them act as secondary insurers for the vehicle itself and some others act as primaries. Also, many credit cards provide trip cancellation/interruption insurance. Basically, no travel in 2024 should be paid for with a debit card.
But “carrying a credit card” is good advice for most situations, assuming, of course, the person doing the carrying is a responsible grown ass adult capable of not also carrying a balance on said credit card.
Of course, they honor it. Priceline is a reputable vendor, why wouldn’t they? But did you read the terms and conditions on Priceline vs. the hotel’s own site? Willing to bet you that your Priceline itinerary is non-refundable and non-changeable.
…and maybe take a chance or two. Booking airfare through third-party vendors is putting too much faith into the carrier that nothing at all goes wrong. If it does, you’re basically boned.
There was a time I did this too.
The cheapest flight, no matter the risk of being stranded.
The cheapest hotel, no matter the mystery stains or horrible bed.
The cheapest rental, because a Dodge Caliber drives just as well.
Then I got older. I liked getting to my destination reliably and having plausible alternate options if something happens. Mystery stains in the room and surly hotel staff were not as endearing as they were. A rental that didn’t make me think ‘Geez, they’re trying to sell this junk to real people?’.
So, now I book flights with bigger airlines directly because when something bad happens, they don’t give me the run around if something happens. They just put me on an alternate flight. Clean hotel rooms with comfy beds and decent staff so I got a good night’s sleep when travelling, or if I needed something from the front desk, it was easily obtained. A rental that wasn’t a Nissan or a Dodge Caliber.
Which is to say: Mercedes, I’ll upgrade my membership at renewal time. Just so you can avoid Spirit and rental Nissans.
Travel a LOT for work sometimes. I use American, Delta, United. Stay at IHG, Hilton or Marriott properties. Rent from Enterprise or Avis. I do the same for personal travel, often using points.
I appreciate saving employer dollars, particularly small companies, but don’t put your well being in danger doing so.
Corporate travel is so weird. I too try to be a good steward of resources. I took a work trip with a former employer years ago. I found great rates on flight, hotel and car. The boss said great and I couldn’t book it. I had to use the newly implemented corporate travel website. It cost them about twice as much. It cost more using that site every time I had to use it. One trip I was called to the business office for turning in a receipt that was $3 over the breakfast allowance stipend. I was starving because I got in the night before and all restaurants were closed. I also pointed out there was no receipt for dinner because it was included in the conference the same day as that breakfast. They begrudgingly reimbursed me for the breakfast. All they see sometimes is numbers and no context. I have used corporate approved travel websites at other jobs since then. It is maddening how many dollars are wasted on travel.
A company I worked at did this found out the boss got all the travel perks
Oh, agree the rates on our corp travel site are insane. I can book direct and save, but is frowned upon.
“I’ll be going to Florida, spending three nights out there, and going back home spending just $400 on flights, lodging, and a car to drive. I’ve now perfected my cheapskate-ry and now you can, too.”
One of us! One of us!
Gooble gobble, Gooble gobble!
“Instead, we’re quite used to sitting in the backs of planes and staying at affordable hotels, and happy to do so.”
This is the way. I recommend to bring a good UV flashlight (365 nm) and check it over the hotel room, especially the bed sheets before you settle in though. You might be glad you did.
” (Ace Rent-A-Car) had the same contradictory review problem and things went smoothly for me. So things could be fine or they could be a disaster. ”
Here’s mine:
The good: Cheapest rental in its class. And it worked fine, no mechanical issues.
The bad: Rental agent was NOT happy for me to waive Ace’s insurance, like she got a commission from my buying it. I was sternly warned multiple times I’d be held responsible for any and all damage. ESPECIALLY SMOKING!! If the car came back with any hint of smoke I’d be charged a few hundred bucks for cleaning. When I pointed out the fact I don’t smoke and her insurance would have added up to more than her cleaning fee she got even terser. Same for fuel. I got the sales pitch and declined. She was NOT happy when I pointed out I had seen a couple of stations on the shuttle bus with much cheaper gas prices (I also knew from Gas buddy what the local prices were). I got a song and dance that those prices were only with a car wash. I was told I’d have to provide a receipt from a gas station within a few miles of the lot or I’d be charged too.
When I got the vehicle it was clear it had been a rental for a looong time. Lots of dings, dents scratches, etc. I took as many pictures as I could. When I got in I was hit with an overwhelming headache inducing wave of cleaning solvent. So I rolled down all the windows to air things out. By this time I was running late and had to get rolling. Unfortunately by the time I got to the road I discovered two things: a big star in the windshield that had been hidden in the glare and the unmistakable retching smell of cigarette smoke emerging from the different retching stench of the cleaning fluid. I pulled over and took a pic of the star hoping the time stamp on the image would vindicate me should I need it and kept the windows down hoping the stench would go away.
Flash forward to the return process
The stench never went away. Even with the A/C running I still had a low grade headache from it. I found the cheapest gas in town was JUST at the allowed mileage limit so I filled the tank and hoped for the best. I got the advertised cheap price with no car wash.
I pointed out everything to the return agent. The star, the stench, the multitudes of body damages, the borderline fill up. I had my phone’s pics at the ready at the mere hint of an objection.
” Oh, OK, you’re fine!” He said dismissively.
Are you SURE? I asked incredulously?
Came the reply: Yeah!
And I was. The final bill showed no extra charges.
TL:DR I got the cheapest rate but I ended up paying in stress and stench. A lesser cheap bastard may have preferred to pay more and put up with less.
> I recommend carrying a credit card if you can.
This! Never, ever use a debit card for anything beyond groceries. Never connect any auto pay service to your bank account. If things go wrong, your account can be drained and hit with overdraft fees, with no way to get your money back.
Use a CC for everything. You get protection against fraud and additional perks like cash back or travel miles or extended warranties on purchases.
Keep the credit limit low and pay it off every month.
“but Dave Ramsey said…”
Agreed 100%. Having a credit card is pretty much mandatory in the modern era. Just make sure it’s connected to a hotel or airline or both.
Bingo – treat your CC like debit and you are all good.
Good job Mercedes. I have been fortunate not to have to fly anywhere since 2001.
And there’s a story about why I haven’t flown since June 2001.
Sitting on runway flying from Mobile to Denver. Had a sudden intrusive vision of four big passenger jets all crashing at the same time. This is while waiting to take off. As I was looking out the window, waving bye to my wife. The vision was so disturbing that I mentioned it to her on the phone when I arrived in Denver that night.
We both agree that such a thing will never happen, right?
Cut to Sept. 11. Less than 3 months after my pre flight vision. Sleeping in that morning when my phone starts blowing up with calls, texts from friends and family who I had related the vision to over that summer. All with the same question.
How could you have known or seen today coming?
Don’t get me wrong here. Not afraid to fly here.
But also not in a hurry to do so either, even almost 24 years later.
But when weird shit like this has happened in my life, well it takes a while to get over…Have always had a sort of ESP, or a X Files type of ability to see future events, but thankfully very few negative events/experiences.
Have a fun time and safe trip. Looking forward to the stories.
Never fly Spirit Airlines.
Sometimes you just have to take the airline equivalent of the bus.
Just be prepared to factor in the opportunity costs of having to know and be prepared for all the things that come with that choice that you would be paying in fiat to not have to know and be prepared for if you were booking through a major airline.
Never. The invisible hand of the free market needs to crush this company.
There are many reasons to have a credit card or two. I charge enough annually on my Alaska Airlines card that when converted into miles, buys me about 2 R/T tickets, plus status, plus some other perks.
Just pay your bill in full each month and you never have to think about APR. Not sure why anyone finds a debit card to be better.
Given that cash discounts are so rare, not having/using a credit card is leaving at least 2% on the table for every transaction.
I used to be a full-on debit card person. My thought process was that if I couldn’t pay for it with the money I had in my bank account, I probably didn’t need it. I also didn’t see a need to pay a bank an APR to use what would ostensibly be my own money. I guess that was the Dave Ramsey flavor of financial living.
I suppose that strategy did work through my youngest years. I had no credit card debt and eventually no student loans. However, there’s something the Dave Ramsey types never talk about: If you don’t have credit nobody will want to loan you anything.
As I entered my 30s I began realizing how much the world works on credit. Flash a debit card at a rental car counter and they’ll immediately start saying “do you have a return flight?” right before pounding your card with a $300-$500 deposit. Try to finance a car or motorcycle and the lender will say you have “insufficient credit history.”
I’ve since learned that it’s good to have some action in your credit history. Credit cards can be good, just don’t overdo it. 🙂
Here’s another winning tip for cheapskates who live close to the airport, as I do.
Frontier, Spirit, and Allegiant all charge $25 per flight segment for booking online. Buy your ticket in person at the airport and save $50 round trip.
Last year I flew round trip LAS-STL for $52 on Frontier. The year before that I flew the same route on Spirit for $28 r/t.
This brings up an idea I have for cheap airlines tickets. Since crammed into seats leads to cramped quarters and possibly blod clots I have an idea. No seats in regular class redesign the interior with 3 foot circular tubes in regular class have those tubes open up and allow passengers to insert their luggage. No seats unlimited luggage space you could triple capacity and allow people to walk free. Safety? Look at the average fair ground you can strap in and be a lot safer than a 1950s seatbelt and in case of emergency exist no seats in the way.
Why don’t businesses come to me pay me a fortune to solve their problems?
Priceline is the best! Ten years back, I flew to Tampa on my business account. Priceline got me an Alamo rental for $10 a day. I get to the counter and they’re out of economy and midsize. I ended up driving a 2014 Camaro convertible for $10 a day! .. the only bad part was, I liked that car so much, I bought a brand new 2014 Camaro SS as soon as I got home!
Lol I was similarly upgrades to a 2014 Camaro during a work trip in 2013 and I couldn’t get rid of it fast enough due to the utter absence of visibility.
Yes, the visibility was terrible. It wasn’t bad in the convertible that I rented, but I never had to put the top up. The weather was beautiful the entire week I was there. As soon as I drove the hardtop, visibility became an issue.
I had the hard top. It was rough.
The only time I got a free rental car upgrade it was from cheapest up to a Chevrolet Corsica. I’m not sure how bad el cheapo was but I doubt the Corsica offered any better except room. And at 5.6 180 I didn’t need the room
I was visiting family and arrived at the rental car office only to be told they were completely out of vehicles. I was second in line to get dibs on whatever car came back, no extra charge.
The first return was a Chrysler Crossfire convertible and after 15 minutes of quick cleaning, the guy drove off in it. (I wouldn’t have minded one for a week.) I muttered “the next car is going to be a minivan.” I was wrong, it was not a MINI van. It was a FULL SIZED Chevrolet Express van.
I arrived at my relative’s house. “Hey, were you still thinking about that big IKEA shopping trip? Today is your lucky day.”
I’ve had this happen to me at both Tampa and Orlando. They always overbook rental cars.
I’m going to cram myself into a plane and fly for the first time in over a decade this summer so it’s good advice. I’m curious to see what the difference between PDX and RDM, because I don’t want to drive 3 hours if I can avoid it
I have found that Skiplagged can find some great deals, especially since it can put together multiple airline flights and use search parameters that nobody else does. Also thy have a cool chart showing day by day price changes. For example this past December 17 was vastly cheaper than any other day of the month. No idea why.Also you can do things like search for any airport in one state to any airport in another state and turn some surprising fares.
I don’t have anything to do with Skiplagged, other than admiring something that is obviously the result of a programmer wringing everything out of a dataset just because ha can.
Oh and the 4 stopover itineraries sorted by maximum travel time are hysterical.
Well done! I’ve had to find ways to pinch pennies a few times on bigger trips (like 4 people transatlantic) but there comes a point where saving another $100 or $200 often means giving up “the bird in hand” to take a gamble on a minimal difference in trip price. But I never really second-guessed Google Flights until you mentioned Priceline, now I’m gonna check them every time just to be sure. I used to rely on Kayak a lot, and occasionally a site called Vayama before that…not very many sites these days can hack together multiple tickets to save money, usually it’s all one set of codeshare airlines.
I gladly pay $50/year to Going.com (more commonly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights) because they send you alerts on places you might not have considered, but it’s not very useful for a place where you NEED to go on a certain date.
Hotel parking fees can get stupid — I understand them in city centers when they’re comparable to public lots, but I’ve stayed in suburban hotels on large in Memphis and Nashville where it felt like I was paying them to watch my car, even though they disclaimed all responsibility for that.
Remember just because a business has a sign they aren’t responsible for something doesn’t legally get them off the hook for something they are legally responsible for.
Couple comments:
Some hotels charge a usurious parking fee, especially with discounted reservations.
American Express has excellent rental car coverage included on their higher-fee cards, but you can ask for it for $20/rental on the low-end cards.
Oh yes, that’s a good note! I’ve yet to be charged a parking fee by a Ramada (and this one claims free parking), but yes, some hotels love doing that.
Excellent, it’s something that really makes me mad.
Try Laughlin NV no parking fees until bike week. Then rooms 4x as much and car parking spots are divided into 4 spots and $100 per.
I’m about two hours south of Tampa, wish I was closer, I’d lend you a car. A Mercedes should be driving a Mercedes, not a Nissan, no? Fly into Ft. Myers next year and we can make it happen!
I am forever grateful that nearly 30 years of work travel has resulted in airline miles and hotel points account balances that ensure I don’t have to travel on a budget for the rest of my life. I rarely go anywhere on vacation, but when I do, I go first class. But even on my own dime, Southwest is as low as I would ever go. As you found out with Frontier – when things go sideways if you are on the bottom feeder airlines you aren’t going anywhere.
I’ll have to take you up on that offer one year! 🙂
That pricy international trip I took with Audi gave me a balance of nearly 100,000 miles with United. Sadly, I’ve already burned up about 72,000 miles on flights and upgrades since then. United allows you to pay in both miles and cash, but I found that if I didn’t have enough miles, United wanted me to buy miles to fill the gap at a rate of about 3 cents per mile.
However, I noticed that if I’m paying in miles, they’re worth about 1.1 cents. So, United wanted me to pay about 3X the value of my miles to spend them, which, yeah, I’ll pass on that. I’ll just wait until I get invited on another international press trip. 😉
Yeah, buying points and miles is usually pretty pointless unless you are REALLY close to the amount needed.
Sadly, pretty much all of the airlines and hotel chains have devalued them over the last few years too by pegging redemption amounts to the ever varying room and ticket costs rather than a simple reward chart. Though occasionally that leads to pleasant surprises in the off-seasons, usually it means paying a LOT more points/miles. But on the other hand, making awards earned by spend rather than distance flown has been a HUGE boon to me. I don’t fly FAR, as a rule, but I often fly on relatively expensive last minute tickets. For example, I need to go to Raleigh for work next week, and booked today that was $900 out of Sarasota (got to love clients who drag their feet getting the paperwork signed). In the olden days that would have gotten me 2000 miles, in the new money more like 13000 on AA with my gigantic Exec Platinum multiplier plus fancy credit card bonus. If they still did it by butt-in-seat miles I would not be an EP anymore.
If you are ever in SW Florida in the winter or Maine in the summer, look me up. I have some fun toys you can play with!
It’s a marketing scheme. Some fresh out of college bozo sells an idea. Then management buys in and wants it so bad they make it a killer deal. Everyone hops on it and then they realize they are losing money on it so devalue it again and again until worthless.
Newspaper field is a perfect example. So gung-ho to hop into the Internet that ads were only a $5 fee above the newspaper ad cost. The news on the site was free but the cost of the newspaper kept going up until people who preferred the paper version switched because it was free as opposed to $3 with less news. Now do you think the newspapers stopped the free stuff? Nope they stopped printing the preferred product to keep costs down to offset lost revenue. Management never admits a mistake and back tracks they adjust from the current situation that they fucked up.
Of course it’s a marketing scheme – and it’s a GREAT one, because it works. Even devalued, miles and points are VERY valuable when you have multiple millions of them. I’m sitting on 2.5M AA award miles and 4M IHG hotel points. And while I don’t use my miles all that often, I use my hotel points ALL the time – I just get them faster than I can use them.
For the casual traveler who might get enough for a free flight or a room every five years, they are largely worthless. But that is not who they are for. I can assure you that keeping me loyal to my preferred airline and hotel group makes them a LOT of money every year vs. my just flying whoever is cheaper. And linking the awards programs to credit cards has been a brilliant move for them – they SELL those miles to the banks for a fortune every year, to the point that the airline Big 3 actually make more money from that than they do on flights.
I know so many people who can’t be bothered when booking travel for work; they might hustle at vacation time to save themselves a couple of bucks, but when the company is footing the bill for a conference, they’ll pay anything for max convenience. Props to you for stretching the Autopian dollar!
When I first started traveling for work, the rule of thumb was to spend the money as if it was your own. Don’t book first class, but don’t get the absolute cheapest seats either because it’s more important you make the trip then end up in the Frontier situation. Same with hotels and food, don’t stay somewhere dingy and don’t starve yourself but be realistic too.
That rule of thumb worked well for years for me. Eventually I started getting status so I have been loyal to one airline and hotel chain for years now but I still cross shop to make sure they have competitive rates.
Where there has been some issue with this approach now is I am comfortable enough I’ll eat at nicer restaurants and stay at nicer hotels then I did 20 years ago. My tastes have changed and I spend accordingly when traveling for work.
Agreed but I went a bit different. Since we got x for per diem I looked for free breakfast. Since clients are cheap I agree to work through lunch if they ordered in. Do a basic dinner and in one year your per diem can pay off a $12k credit card bill.
If my company did per diem I would have been the same. Alas, reimbursement only.
Welcome to my part of the world. I’m across the causeway in Dunedin and can drive to the airport while napping. It’s unfortunately a bit chilly, but enjoy!