Flying out of Midway on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday cost me $212 extra and I'm done pretending that hack works

Spencer Park · 2026-10-09T06:10:03.148952+00:00

I know everyone here swears by booking the weird 5am Tuesday flight to save money, but last week it backfired hard on me. I grabbed a 6am Tuesday flight from Chicago to Phoenix for what looked like $98, then paid $55 for an Uber because no trains run that early, $38 for airport food and coffee since I was up at 3:30, and $119 to fix a rental car pickup I messed up while half asleep. That's $212 more than the $189 Saturday afternoon flight I skipped because the sticker price scared me. The cheap fare days only work if your ride to the airport is free and you can sleep on a plane, and I can't do either. Now I just sort by total cost including getting there, not by the fare itself. Does anyone else actually track their whole door to door number or am I the only one who got fooled by the $98 headline?

💡Thought Shares

Loading…

Flying out of Midway on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday cost me $212 extra and I'm done pretending that hack works | Budget Travel Hacks - Thought Shares