Affordable Ways To Travel With A Big Family

At this moment, we are a family of four. We hope to have one more little bundle of joy. That means in the future we will be a family of five. As my family lives mostly in Iowa and Arizona, and my husband’s family lives mostly in Oregon, finding a way to travel around is essential for us. That is why I have already started looking into affordable ways to travel with a big family. I wanted to share some of the tips and tricks I have learned with my readers in hopes that someone could put this information to good use now!

1. Look for Cheaper Airlines

When you see this headline, I am sure your response is… “well duh!”. When I say this, I don’t just mean within your local airport. There are generally smaller airlines in bigger airports that you don’t hear about all the time.

Let me explain with my own example. We have an airport that is about an hour away. Naturally, this is our ideal airport. It is a small airport and tickets are super expensive. I have recently found out there is a direct flight through Allegiant Airlines from Des Moines, Iowa to Portland, Oregon and the tickets are very inexpensive. I am talking a $400-$800 difference PER TICKET! The only thing is, Des Moines is over 3 hours from us. We have decided it is well worth the drive to save that much money.

So, if you are like me and live closest to a small airport, maybe it is time to expand your search and plan on driving a little bit. Search the bigger airports and see if there are smaller airlines that can get you to where you want to go. Sometimes we fly into or out of different airports when we weigh the difference of cost vs convenience. Play around with it and see how much money you can save!

2. Lap Infants

3. Travel By Train

Not worth it with a small family

In my opinion, this option is only worth it if you have a big family. You can indeed get super cheap tickets with a small family, BUT at the cost of a lot of time and sanity. The affordable tickets are in a seat much like what you would sit in to ride on a plane (with just a little bit more room and comfort). Your child under two years old can be a lap child. So, that means they ride free, but you’re holding them on your lap for the couple day trip. This is also where the both of you would sleep. This is not fun for parent or child!

So, why is it worth it for a big family?

Once we are a five-person family, this is going to be an option I am going to strongly consider. Why would a five-person family be more financially beneficial on a train than a three-person family? Because at this point it would be financially beneficial to stay in one of their sleeper cabins! They can be expensive but compared to buying plane tickets for a family of five, you could certainly save some money.

Purchasing a sleeper car on a train provides so much more room and comfort than sleeping on a train seat. Your family can not only have their own little room, but each person has an actual bed to sleep on. Some of them come with a shower so your teenagers don’t stink up the sleeper car. In addition to that, some of them even offer complimentary meals if you purchase a sleeper car. That is another savings! So, I would say this is certainly one of the top affordable ways to travel with a big family.

4. Hopper App

There might be other apps like it out there, but Hopper (it is a little bunny icon) is what I use. You can use this app to determine the best time to travel, and the best time to book travel. You just type in where you are flying from, and where you are flying to. From here a calendar will come up showing several months of colors. You can select some dates you are considering, and the app will tell you a price prediction.

Price prediction is if the price is likely to go up, down, or stay the same. It will recommend if you should book now or wait. These predictions are based on flight patterns from previous years. The app obviously can’t know if its predictions are completely accurate, but it can give you a pretty good idea.

5. Don’t be fooled by some “cheap airlines”

There are some smaller airlines that give the persona of being cheap and affordable. When you are searching in an airline search engine, they will often come up by far the cheapest price of all airlines. That is, until you go to book the flight and they tag on fees for every little thing. Let me give you an example.

Don’t be fooled

My example is for a local smaller airline because they have gotten my hopes up and let me down multiple times. I just selected a flight through them that said I could fly round trip to Portland for $159. Wow, so affordable! Then I get to seat selection. On the way there the cheapest seat is $16, and on the way back the cheapest seat is $24. I have a layover both ways, so I have to pay both of those prices times two for the different flights. They so generously gave me a free personal item, but a carry on is $41. A backpack doesn’t qualify as a personal item, so if you want to bring one of those, plan on paying for it. A checked bag is $38 and that can’t exceed 40lbs. The average airline allows you to bring a suitcase up to 50lbs. Our final total with all “add ons”, taxes, and fees is $388.72. That is a $230 increase.

$388.72 actually isn’t bad for a final total on a plane ticket, but there are a couple things to consider. First, that is just for one ticket. The $230 increase would also apply to any other tickets you purchase. Second, the tickets I was booking were for February. They were not in the summer or around any major holiday. I can tell you from experience that they will be a whole lot more than this during airlines busier season.

When I have gone to book tickets from this airline in the past, once I got to the end the total ended up being significantly more than other airlines. This was only with essentials, and no extras such as priority boarding. So, if you have started booking tickets and realize that fees are just adding up way too quickly, back up! Don’t just keep going because you have gone too far. It is worth it to restart and find tickets that are going to be more affordable for your family.

You Can Do It!

So, as you can see, traveling with a big family is possible. You just might have to get a little creative and be flexible about your dates. Do you have your own tricks you have learned about traveling with a big family? Please share them below!