Balling On a Budget: Vacation Plan #1

For a couple of months now we’ve been ranting on Twitter about how FREAKING STOKED WE ARE FOR CANCUN! Going to Cancun has been a dream of mine since I was little and its honestly not that hard to get there. I ain’t gonna lie to kick it guys. I’ve honestly been broke as fuck these past few years LOL! Being a college student you either don’t have the money or sometimes your part time job doesn’t offer the leniency to make it to another country for set amount days! Don’t even get me started on SQUAD’s. Even with time and money it’s so hard to get all your friends on the same vacation schedule!!!

Now I’m not saying that I’m absolutely ballin’ now compared to how I’ve been the past few years I’m just saying that it’s actually not that hard to have a vacation if you plan accordingly! I may be able to afford this Cancun trip, BUT considering I have been scavenging and balling on a budget for so long I was still able to incorporate that broke college girl mentality into my vacation plan!

Vacation Plan #1: Flight Tickets

First and foremost, BOOK YOUR FLIGHT. The best way to not regret missing out or second guessing something like traveling is to just buy your ticket with no refund or cancellation options LOL. Easier said than done right *Rolls eyes*? Well roll your eyes at me all you want cause its easy and here’s how! VOLARIS Airlines! It is a Mexican low-cost airline based in Santa Fe, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City with its main base at Tijuana International Airport in Tijuana.

Noted: We opted to fly from San Diego (via cross border bridge into the airport) it’s much safer than driving into Tijuana and into the airport for drop off. Now that that little piece of info is disclosed DOWNLOAD the Volaris App. You can book through the Volaris App anytime you want, however the best time to do it is when the mobile app offers you coupons for flights! The coupons are not reoccurring weekly features of the app. They tend to pop up monthly or every other month. And when they do it will only give you from 3-7 days to book your flight with that coupon code. So you don’t wanna miss these coupons especially when they’re up to 70% off your flight cost!

We had no idea this was a thing! Lupay literally called me at 9:30pm at night to let me know that her sister-in-law had a 70% off coupon for flights through Volaris! She was so HYPED! PLOT TWIST: The coupon code ended at midnight that night. So we ended up calling everyone in the squad and together we checked it out. Flights were ranging from $400-600 round trip to Cancun (This was in February). When Lupay put in the coupon code for a $586 flight it ended up coming out to about $175.80!

Expedia, Priceline, and Bookit.com all had their flights set for over $400 round trip with no chance of a better deal! It was too good to pass so everyone got on their phones and booked their flights! We stayed on the phone for two hours just setting up the itinerary's and making sure they were the same flights and destinations. The app even offered to let you choose your seats (there AND back) for an extra $14, so we ended up all being able to sit together. Talk about squad goals! So all in total after taxes, seat preference costs, and promo code applied the flight totaled to $197.13.

* Photos above reflect the estimated cost for a round trip ticket to and from Cancun for (1) passenger through Expedia, Priceline, and Bookit.com.

I personally need to see it to believe it. So, I wanted to show you guys a comparison of costs by using my own itinerary as an example. For (2) round trip tickets to Cancun we paid $394.26. If we had booked through alternative sites (Expedia, Priceline, Bookit, etc.) we would have paid over $400 EACH. By booking through Volaris we managed to pretty much get a free round trip flight with our 70% off promo code. Full Disclosure: My middle name is wonderful LOL *CRIES*

HELPFUL TIPS:

Plan what days work the best for everyone AHEAD OF TIME.
Change the currency from MEX to USD. It'll look like more in Mexico currency lol
Don't take too long to book your flight while on the mobile app.
The longer you keep the session open during booking the higher chances of your session timing out.
If your session expires you will have to start over and find that your flight just increased by $25 (can increase from $25-$60)
You still save money, however to ensure the best price try to book asap.
You don’t need to have a previous booking to get the promo code. Anyone with the app can get notifications for new promo codes!

In total there are 11 of us going to Cancun. My boyfriend and I ended up getting the cheapest price for our flights ($197.13 each). Don’t forget that includes taxes and seat preference cost! Everyone else paid between $200-$240 for their flight tickets. Which still isn’t bad considering the alternative: Expedia, Priceline, Bookit. I hope this was helpful for those of you who didn’t know about this! And don’t get discouraged about waiting for the coupon it pops up semi-monthly! So just download the app, turn on notifications, and wait for the promo code.

Subscribe to our mailing list and we will send you promo codes to help out or e-mail us at info@merakilb.com with any questions for help with booking the flight! Life's too short to miss these opportunities guys!

Check back next week for B.O.B Vacation Plan #2: Beach House