Use your powers of persuasion

Oh, the shameless things travelers do to save a buck.

One of my favorite examples comes from Mary Hunt, who publishes a newsletter dedicated to helping people save money. I once inquired about her favorite strategy for cutting lodging costs, and she answered: “Ask if the price they’re giving you is the best they can do.”

It’s that simple? Well, yes.

“Just keep asking. Ask when you call to make reservations. Ask when you check in. Ask when you check out,” she told me.

Her persistence pays off. She’s folded her hotel bills by as much as half just by asking.

Saving money when you travel, to borrow a phrase, is 10 percent information and 90 percent negotiation. Knowing where the deals are is only a small part of the equation, especially at a time like now, when the entire travel industry is in a bargaining mood. If you really want to save, you’ve got to speak up.

One of my other cheapskate role models, Charlie Leocha, thinks there’s only one thing better than cheap – and that’s free. I’ve personally witnessed him talk a front-desk manager into a free room. He seems to know exactly what to say at the right time, and to the right person. Fortunately, for disciples of cheapness like myself, he chronicles his adventures in a weekly column called Cheap Charlie.

You don’t have to be a professional to save money. Nor do your savings necessarily need to come with a price tag. Take Sara Grimm, a Wadsworth, OH, homemaker who recently spent a few days vacationing in the Florida Keys with her husband. “We were having such a good time and the weather was perfect,” she says. “I was whining to my husband about having to fly home to Ohio. He told me if I could get us a later flight for no extra charge, we could stay.”

Grimm called American Airlines and got through to “an extremely nice and accommodating” phone agent. When she explained the situation, the airline employee rebooked the couple on a flight leaving two days later, waiving the $150 change fee. “Then I talked the hotel clerk at the Westin into extending our amazingly cheap rate of $89 for the additional two days,” she reports.

No doubt Grimm saved some money by explaining her problem, but you can’t put a price on two extra days of vacation. Remember that when you’re talking to an airline reservations agent or someone working at a hotel’s front desk: not all savings are quantifiable.

That’s the case with another one of my favorite negotiating stories, courtesy of fellow travel columnist Chris McGinnis. In his book, The Unofficial Business Traveler’s Pocket Guide: 249 Tips Even the Best Business Traveler May Not Know, he describes one traveler’s upgrade strategy, which is to commiserate with a gate agent and then, at an opportune time, hand the employee a flower. The clever traveler often gets his seat assignment changed from the back of the plane to first class.

When you’re getting an upgrade to a better seat or room, it’s more difficult to say you’ve saved money, because you’re still spending something on the ticket or the room. Don’t let that get in the way of trying – the folks in the suite next to yours or sitting in that first-class seat probably paid a whole lot more than you did, if that’s worth anything.

But how do you do it? The best advice I can offer, other than reading this column every week, is to learn by watching. Note the way experienced travelers can get certain fees waived from their hotel bill; how veteran road warriors will find a less expensive ticket by being polite but persistent with a phone agent; how frequent travelers manage to talk themselves into an upgrade from a subcompact to a sedan. See how they move, what they say and what they don’t say.

Then go and do likewise.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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