The same trip, for a lot less money
Insider methods since 2002 - free to read, and a membership that pays you back
Most of what you pay for a trip is settled long before you reach a checkout page — by when you book, how you ask, and which door you walk through. That is what is collected here: the same seat, the same cabin, the same room, for less.
Collected by a travel professional, not scraped off the internet
101 Travel Secrets has been online since 2002. It began as one travel professional's working notes — the methods that actually moved the price, written down as they were learned, in a career that started in 1974. It has been kept current ever since, because the tactics that worked in 2002 are not all the tactics that work now.
Nothing here is a coupon site or an affiliate link farm. These are methods: when to book, how to ask, which door to go through, and the small mechanical details that quietly decide what you pay.
How it works
Read the secrets
Twelve categories, free to browse. Each one previews the payoff so you can see what is inside before you commit to anything.
Join if it is worth it
Membership unlocks every method in full — and adds the benefits below, which is where the real money is.
Book, travel, get money back
Use your own advisor or book it yourself. Either way the member benefits apply to every booking while your membership is active.
What gets covered
Airfare and frequent flyer strategy. Hotels and rental cars. Cruises, escorted tours and packages. Rail. Travel insurance and travel credit cards. Currency and money abroad. And the single question that changes the price more than any other — when to book.
See all twelve categories and how many secrets are in each →
The part that pays for itself
The secrets save you money on their own. The membership benefits are a different thing entirely, and they are the reason most people join:
- 5% back on every booking, rebated after travel. Not points. Not a voucher aimed at your next trip. A rebate.
- Every booking, not once a year. Book three trips while your membership is active and all three earn it. This is the detail people miss.
- The guaranteed lowest rate on cruises, escorted tours, packages and resorts — measured like for like, on something genuinely available.
- Rates you cannot see from outside on hotels, cars, insurance, transfers, luggage shipping and visa services.
- A real advisor, matched to what you are booking — someone who does this professionally, not a call centre queue.
- You keep every supplier offer. Onboard credits, discounts, free shore excursions, dining packages, add-ons — whatever the cruise line or supplier is already giving you, you keep it, and you still get your 5%. Never less than booking direct, always more.
Membership is $50 single or double, $100 family — and the second year is half price →
Free reader or member?
Reading free
You get the payoff of every secret and enough to act on many of them yourself. Plenty of people stop here, and that is fine.
As a member
You get every method in full, the 5% rebate on every booking, the lowest-rate guarantee, member-only rates, and an advisor of your own.
Questions people ask first
Is this a travel club that resells trips?
No. You are not buying inventory or a points balance. You are getting the methods, plus a rebate and a set of rates that apply to bookings you make while your membership is active.
Do the benefits apply to a trip I have already booked?
No. Bookings have to be made through us — if it was not booked through our service, there is nothing for us to apply the benefits to.
There is one narrow exception. If you booked directly with the supplier, that reservation can sometimes be transferred to us for servicing — but only if the supplier agrees to release it, and that is their call, not ours. A booking made through another travel agent cannot be moved.
And a booking already in penalty of any kind is not eligible, period — whether it was made direct or through another agent. Once a deposit or a change has gone non-refundable, the reservation cannot be transferred.
What if I travel after my membership ends?
You are still covered. What counts is when you book, not when you travel. Any booking made while your membership is active earns its rebate even if the trip itself takes place after your membership has expired — provided it goes ahead as booked.
Your term governs how long you can keep making bookings, not how long you have to take them. Book a cruise in month eleven for two years out, and it still earns.
How do I actually receive the 5%?
As a rebate after you return, based on what you paid for the booking. Paying it after travel is deliberate: it means nothing hinges on a booking that later gets cancelled or changed.
Is there a limit on how much I can get back?
No ceiling. The rate is the rate, on every booking, however many you make while your membership is active.
What if we are travelling as a bigger group?
Family membership covers up to eight people. Single/Double covers a maximum of two. Beyond that, get in touch — larger parties and whole-ship charters are handled by our group division, with additional group benefits.
What members say
I joined for one trip and made the fee back before we ever left. I've renewed twice since.
Four of us on one booking. The rebate came through after we got home, exactly as described — it covered most of what we spent on excursions.
Eleven of us travelling together. I expected a headache and instead had one person handling all of it, and every one of us got the same benefit.
What sold me wasn't the discount, it was having someone who actually picks up the phone. I'll join again the next time we book.