The Wendy Perrin Report

7. How do you bypass the airline phone tree and speak to someone who can actually help?
If a family member has elite frequent-flier status with the airline, use his or her special elite phone number (as well as frequent-flier number and PIN). If not, press the number for booking international flights.

8. Want to save hundreds of dollars on an international flight?
Find out if it's a code share. When a U.S. airline and its foreign partner both sell seats on the same flight (making it a code share), one carrier's fares could be substantially lower, so check prices on both. The same seat on the same New York–Hong Kong flight could cost hundreds of dollars less through Cathay Pacific than through American Airlines.

9. How do you get the most comfort for your dollar in international coach?
Asian airlines generally have the best seats and service, and often have cheap fares on non-Asian routes that people don't realize they fly. Singapore Airlines, for instance, flies from JFK to Frankfurt; Malaysian Airlines, from Newark to Stockholm. You can learn which airlines fly your route at…you guessed it: itasoftware.com.

10. How do you find a cheap flight to Europe?
Look into flying via Dublin instead of London. Aer Lingus has cheap flights, and low-fare carriers fly from Dublin to many European cities. Be sure to allow at least two hours to catch a connecting flight out of Dublin.

11. How about a cheap flight to Asia?
Instead of booking one flight between major hubs, combine two that connect in a lesser hub with cheap fares—Bangkok, Manila, Seoul, Shanghai, or Taipei.

12. Want a better way to wait out airport delays?
If the delay is in the United States, join an airline club for a day (usually $25 to $45) so you can use its lounges. If you fly internationally a lot on a variety of airlines, join Priority Pass (prioritypass.com; from $99 per year) to gain access to more than 500 airport club lounges, mainly overseas.

13. How do you dodge paying for Wi-Fi at the airport?
Sit right outside an airport club lounge: Wi-Fi signals often glide through the walls.

14. How do you get the cheapest hotel room?
When you don't need a specific hotel, use Priceline in conjunction with biddingfortravel.com. The latter tells you how much to bid by showing you what bids Priceline has accepted recently for hotels matching your criteria. If the hotel postings at biddingfortravel.com are only for dates or in neighborhoods that you don't want, you'll have to use another tactic: Calculate how many times you can rebid on Priceline if your initial offer is rejected. When Priceline rejects a bid, it lets you bid again only if you wait 72 hours or change a parameter of your request, such as the zone you've selected. Bypass that 72-hour wait by adding a zone that has only hotels of a lower quality than the level you've chosen. Say you request a four-star hotel in a city where three zones have no four-star hotels: You can rebid three times immediately without risking ending up in a zone you don't want.