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CHEAP BACKPACKING/CHEAP FLIGHTS:Stick your tongue out at high flight prices

Everyone wants a cheap backpacking experience, and getting a cheap flight is obviously an important part of doing this.

I think most people are aware of the discount flight websites like whichbudget.com etc etc, but what most people don't know is that this should only be a starting point for you.

Back when I was shopping around for flights to Egypt from Australia, I spent hours searching on these discount websites and the cheapest I could find were for AU$2200 return. When I would go to travel agents they would be even more expensive.

And this iswhere the beauty of introducing competition into the market comes in.

I printed out the cheapest quote from the web and I took it to a travel agent, told them I had a cheap flight from the web and without telling them how cheap it was, I asked them what their best price would be.

This way, when they know they have competition, they are more likely to give you a lower price than when you first approach them.

If their quote is higher than the website I would show them the website quote and ask them to beat it. They would then do so, and print me out a new quote. I would then take that quote to the next travel agent next door and ask them to beat that new one.

I would do this for 3 0r 4 travel agents until I was sure they couldn't go any cheaper.

I would make sure flight centre was the last one on my list because they have a price beat guarantee and you don't want to use that until you already have the lowest price.

I ended up reducing it from AU$2200 to AU$1700 return.

That was 7 months ago - these days flights are much cheaper and you should be able to use this method to get flights even cheaper!

Got any hot tips on cheap backpacking? share them below :)