Between all the “free” offers which are actually just cleverly disguised buy-first-then-get-something-free promos, as well as some good discounts, getting the ultimate discount as a traveller is somewhat of an art form, but one which doesn’t necessarily require talent. It’s more like a skill which can be learnt, much like how a computer can be taught to recognise patterns and then create something which looks like art. But what exactly is the ultimate traveller’s discount?
The ultimate traveller’s discount is when you score an aspect of your trip for free, whether it’s the airfare or other transport costs, a decent roof over your head for a night or two, a free meal, a free ride at some or other theme park, or even a free invite to a party, activity, etc. It starts with getting in the right mind frame and in a sense creating an air of expectation around you which suggests that you’re not at all fully satisfied with what you’re being offered. The lines are very fine however and it takes a bit of practice because you don’t want to come across as a difficult customer or a raw freeloader. What you rather want to do is put yourself in a position where getting something for free is a far better option than having whatever it is you want wasted, for example. A great example of this works best in the fast-food industry, where pizza outlets which offer delivery services are forced to throw perfectly good pizzas away because they were either ordered by pranksters (it happens more often than you’d imagine), or they were late in getting delivered. Sometimes the orders get mixed up and so are cancelled as a result, while in the meantime a perfectly good pizza has already left the kitchen and was otherwise ready for delivery. Trust me, the staff working at a pizza place have likely had enough of eating pizza themselves, so you might have some luck scoring free food while travelling, especially if you’re a foreigner.
Some free traveller’s perks available require a bit more work to get, but usually in a rather indirect way. If you want to enjoy a VIP trip to Spain’s Ibiza Island for example and party it up under the sun and late into the night, who would have thought that it would be possible by entering a competition in which your challenge is to transform your body into a beach-worthy one?
The ultimate traveller’s discount is never presented on a silver platter, unless you’re a well-known, celebrated figure who doesn’t really need free stuff anymore, yet you get all the free stuff in the world. You need to look in the not-so-obvious places and at times make unusual inquiries. You’ll never know for example that you can score a free flight in an entire private jet, if you don’t ask your travel agent about those chartered flights which return empty from their one-way trips. The closer you look and the more you just ask, the more you’ll realise just how much free stuff is available for travellers out there.
