Travel
Travel Hacking 101
Published on January 25, 2026
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Introduction
Travel Hacking 101: Find the Cheapest Flights and Hotels (Without the Headache)
Booking travel doesn't have to be expensive or complicated. You just need the right tools and a bit of flexibility.
Forget clicking through a dozen airline websites. Forget wondering if you're getting ripped off. Two free tools will handle 90% of your travel planning: Google Flights and Booking.com. Learn how to use them properly, and you'll save hundreds (sometimes thousands) on your next trip.
Google Flights: Your New Best Friend
Google Flights is the most powerful flight search tool out there, and most people don't even know it exists. It searches across all airlines at once. No bias. No hidden fees. Just raw data presented in a way that actually makes sense.
Here's what makes it so good:
The Calendar View
This is where the magic happens. If you have any flexibility on when you travel, the calendar view shows you prices for every day of the month. That weekend trip might be $400 on Friday but $250 on Thursday. The visual layout makes it obvious when to fly.
Price Alerts
Know you want to fly from Vegas to New York sometime in the next few months? Set up a price alert. Google will email you when prices drop. No need to obsessively check every day. Let the tool do the work.
The Explore Function
This one's a game changer if you know when you want to travel but you're open on destination. Plug in your dates and Google shows you a map with prices to everywhere. Want a beach vacation in March? Explore will show you the cheapest beach destinations you can reach that month. It's perfect for spontaneous trips or when you just need to get away but don't care where.
Flexible Date Search
Even if you have a specific destination, you can see prices for a range of dates. Flying midweek vs. weekend can save you serious money. Google makes it easy to spot those savings.
Booking.com: Hotels Made Simple
Booking.com is the Google Flights of hotels. Massive inventory, transparent pricing, and a rewards program that actually matters.
The interface is clean. You can filter by everything that matters (price, location, amenities, guest ratings). But here's the real value: Genius status.
Genius Status Changes Everything**
Book a few times on Booking.com and you automatically unlock Genius status. This isn't some points program you'll never use. It's instant discounts (usually 10-15%) at participating properties, plus free upgrades and perks like room upgrades or late checkout. The more you use it, the better the deals get.
You don't have to hunt for these benefits. They're built right into the search results. If a hotel offers a Genius discount, you'll see it.
Stack Your Savings
Here's what most people miss: your shopping rewards browser extensions (Rakuten, Capital One Shopping) work on travel sites too.
Before you book anything on Booking.com, make sure your plugins are running. They'll often surface additional deals or cash back offers right in the interface. Sometimes you'll get 5% back on top of your Genius discount. That's free money for doing nothing extra.
Google Flights doesn't usually trigger cash back, but when you click through to actually book with the airline, your extension might catch it there.
Your Action Plan
1. Install Google Flights as a bookmark or app. Make it your first stop for any flight search.
2. Sign up for Booking.com (check our [rewards page](https://perksacademy.com/rewards) for referral bonuses) and start working toward Genius status.
3. Turn on your shopping rewards browser extensions before you start planning.
4. Be flexible when you can. The calendar view and Explore function are only useful if you're willing to adjust dates or destinations.
5. Set price alerts for trips you're planning months out. Let Google watch prices for you.
6. Don't overthink it. These tools are designed to be simple. Use them.
Travel hacking isn't about gaming the system or spending hours hunting deals. It's about using free tools that show you where the actual deals are. Do that, and you'll spend less time stressing about money and more time enjoying your trip.
Booking travel doesn't have to be expensive or complicated. You just need the right tools and a bit of flexibility.
Forget clicking through a dozen airline websites. Forget wondering if you're getting ripped off. Two free tools will handle 90% of your travel planning: Google Flights and Booking.com. Learn how to use them properly, and you'll save hundreds (sometimes thousands) on your next trip.
Google Flights: Your New Best Friend
Google Flights is the most powerful flight search tool out there, and most people don't even know it exists. It searches across all airlines at once. No bias. No hidden fees. Just raw data presented in a way that actually makes sense.
Here's what makes it so good:
The Calendar View
This is where the magic happens. If you have any flexibility on when you travel, the calendar view shows you prices for every day of the month. That weekend trip might be $400 on Friday but $250 on Thursday. The visual layout makes it obvious when to fly.
Price Alerts
Know you want to fly from Vegas to New York sometime in the next few months? Set up a price alert. Google will email you when prices drop. No need to obsessively check every day. Let the tool do the work.
The Explore Function
This one's a game changer if you know when you want to travel but you're open on destination. Plug in your dates and Google shows you a map with prices to everywhere. Want a beach vacation in March? Explore will show you the cheapest beach destinations you can reach that month. It's perfect for spontaneous trips or when you just need to get away but don't care where.
Flexible Date Search
Even if you have a specific destination, you can see prices for a range of dates. Flying midweek vs. weekend can save you serious money. Google makes it easy to spot those savings.
Booking.com: Hotels Made Simple
Booking.com is the Google Flights of hotels. Massive inventory, transparent pricing, and a rewards program that actually matters.
The interface is clean. You can filter by everything that matters (price, location, amenities, guest ratings). But here's the real value: Genius status.
Genius Status Changes Everything**
Book a few times on Booking.com and you automatically unlock Genius status. This isn't some points program you'll never use. It's instant discounts (usually 10-15%) at participating properties, plus free upgrades and perks like room upgrades or late checkout. The more you use it, the better the deals get.
You don't have to hunt for these benefits. They're built right into the search results. If a hotel offers a Genius discount, you'll see it.
Stack Your Savings
Here's what most people miss: your shopping rewards browser extensions (Rakuten, Capital One Shopping) work on travel sites too.
Before you book anything on Booking.com, make sure your plugins are running. They'll often surface additional deals or cash back offers right in the interface. Sometimes you'll get 5% back on top of your Genius discount. That's free money for doing nothing extra.
Google Flights doesn't usually trigger cash back, but when you click through to actually book with the airline, your extension might catch it there.
Your Action Plan
1. Install Google Flights as a bookmark or app. Make it your first stop for any flight search.
2. Sign up for Booking.com (check our [rewards page](https://perksacademy.com/rewards) for referral bonuses) and start working toward Genius status.
3. Turn on your shopping rewards browser extensions before you start planning.
4. Be flexible when you can. The calendar view and Explore function are only useful if you're willing to adjust dates or destinations.
5. Set price alerts for trips you're planning months out. Let Google watch prices for you.
6. Don't overthink it. These tools are designed to be simple. Use them.
Travel hacking isn't about gaming the system or spending hours hunting deals. It's about using free tools that show you where the actual deals are. Do that, and you'll spend less time stressing about money and more time enjoying your trip.