The best travel apps: Flight Hacks

A hidden-city flight is where you get off at a layover instead of the final destination. This can save you a lot of money because they're often cheaper than direct routes.

However, it's not without its risks and ethical dilemmas:

• You can't check luggage since it'll end up at the final destination
• If your flight is cancelled, delayed, or rerouted it'll be a painful adventure figuring out how you may get to your intended layover destination
• Airlines hate it (to the point they sued Skiplagged) and will penalize customers who do it often so you may have to book with one you don't want to fly with again
• It can wreak havoc on flight prices and schedules if too many people do it since systems will see so many seats are empty or they think someone is late to their connecting flight, inconveniencing others

If price is that high of a priority for you though, it's worth a try.

A stopover is when you stay longer than 24 hours in a given international city vs. a layover which is only 30 minutes to 23 hours. AirWander is a beautiful tool for finding stopover destinations that you can add onto your trip for free or cheap. For example: if you're flying to London you could spend a few extra days in Barcelona for not much more money.

You can do this with other flight searches but it's a lot more work. There's also no real risk unlike hidden city ticketing. Always worth a look.

Shit happens and sometimes that means you end up not being able to take your planned trip. That sucks, but what sucks even more is having to eat the entire cost. TransferTravel saw an opportunity here and created a marketplace where people can sell their unwanted travel plans with others who wanted great last minute deals. If you're flexible/spontaneous, it can be a really affordable way to travel.

If you're a nomad or just extremely spontaneous, you might travel to a country without knowing where you're going next. Problem with that is many countries don't allow a tourist to enter without proof of onward travel. You could buy a ticket yourself and then cancel it within 24 hours or longer but it's a bit risky especially if there are fees not to mention dealing with airlines is never a smooth ride. FlyOnward solves this by helping you easily rent an onward ticket that's completely valid for just $9.99.