#43 Traveling For Cheap During Off-Peak Times

One obvious perk of unemployment is suddenly having plenty of time to take the extended vacation that has been thwarted time and time again by work. Gone are the days of canceling a trip last minute because of some stupid deadline. With plenty of time on their hands, and no luck finding a job, the unemployed find themselves perusing travel deals and convincing themselves they need a vacation from their government-sponsored vacation.

Traveling while making money of course has its benefits but sometimes traveling on a government handout budget has its advantages. For one, there are no lousy mid-vacation interruptions when “Joe” can’t find a file, and no more stress about all the work left behind. Plus as long as the unemployed continue to pretend to look for a job, they’ll never run out of “paid” vacation days, and can take holidays so long as the free money continues to flow. One might even give themselves a challenge to find the best place to visit without exceeding what they make each week courtesy of those ever-so-regular unemployment checks. All great tips that can eventually be written about in a Traveling on a Depression Budget travel guide.

Not only are the unemployed graced with having an unlimited amount of time to travel but they can often find better travel deals because their datebooks are now blank. People with jobs have to struggle to find a cheap flights, hotels and car rentals because they’re usually restricted to traveling on Friday or Saturday and returning on Sunday. It’s even worse when they try to take advantage of a three-day weekend when prices skyrocket. The unemployed, however, don’t have days anymore and find themselves taking advantage of plenty of cheap travel deals that leave mid-week. 

Companies freaking out about their unfilled seats or rooms and are now offering recession travel deals to lure customers in. The problem is the people they’re targeting are often too afraid to travel because they feel they need to have a constant presence at work in order to avoid getting a pink slip. That’s when the unemployed swoop in for a cheap flight, a buy one night get three free hotel deal, or a discounted cruise at 75% the regular cost. Companies are so desperate for a customer that they end up throwing in even more perks too, much to the unemployed vacationer’s delight. 

One minor downside about taking advantage of off-peak travel deals is not having enough unemployed friends to travel with, or knowing too many people that are afraid to ask for time off. Sure, it might be hard to travel alone at first, but with so many deals to take advantage of, it’s something the unemployed can learn to live with. People trapped at home or at their desks can always tell when they’re no longer wanted when they stop receiving those generic “Wish you were here” postcards and start having difficulty being on the same time zone as their jetsetting unemployed friends.

Tags: crowd-less weekdays, recession, things to do when unemployed, travel deals, unemployment checks