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If there's something Shel Horowitz is good at, it's flying for free. And when he isn't flying for free, the author of the e-book The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty With a Peasant's Pocketbook travels for almost nothing.

In short, Horowitz gets himself - and, in some cases, his long-suffering family - bumped off flights in order to receive travel vouchers. He builds in a day's worth of flexibility just in case.

"Whenever there is an opportunity to be bumped and I can take advantage of it, I do," he says.

Here's how Horowitz pulls it off: If the airport's waiting lounge is crowded, he knows the airline staff will probably start asking for volunteer bumpees. He goes to the counter before they make the embarrassing announcement that they've overbooked and asks to be put on their list.

His biggest score? Four $600 vouchers to be bumped in - wait for it - Great Falls, Mont.

"Before they finished making the announcement, I was at the counter," he says.

He and his wife used the coupons to go to Greece.

Other expert bumpees suggest making a reservation only if a flight is almost full. Or look for flights on heavily travelled days or on small-bodied planes such as 727s and 737s.

Just don't expect any cash if the airline can find you a seat on another aircraft within the hour - you'll be out of luck.

Horowitz and others willing to experience a little discomfort for bargain travel aren't the only ones looking for a deal. In fact, for many, locating the best travel deal is a lifestyle choice, not just a way to save a couple of bucks.

Rick Seaney, chief executive officer of FareCompare.com, says some people treat ferreting out good travel deals like a highly addictive hobby.

"Somebody will spend 10 hours of their time to save $20. It's amazing," he says.

But why, when many of us are happy to shell out half a million dollars for a two-bedroom bungalow or $50,000 for a car with heated seats and 16 cup holders, do we feel we're getting hosed if a plane ticket is $12 more today than it was yesterday?

"Most customers simply don't trust the price they see from the airline," Seaney says. "The system is set up for confusion. You may make a query three or four times a day and get three or four different prices."

Jill Wykes, a spokewoman for Sunquest Vacations in Toronto, adds that people seek out discounted travel because, well, they can often get it.

"Everyone loves a deal," she says.

Travel in the off season, she points out, and you can get a week at a Mexican or Caribbean resort for the price of the airfare alone.

And certainly the growth of budget airlines such as Ryanair, with its "virtually free" seat promotions, have spoiled countless travellers with incredible bargains.

But some travel cheapos are even more resourceful. A self-described, "points junkie," Dan Sondhelm from Alexandria, Va., swung a free honeymoon to Tahiti recently - including an over-the water bungalow - by cashing in his hotel and frequent-flier points. Sondhelm, who works in financial marketing, travels two or three days a week for business, but keeps the points he earns for leisure travel.

"You save a lot of money with points," he says.

Although he has never done it himself, other travellers who want to maximize their frequent-flier miles engage in something called "mileage running," adding as many layovers as they can handle - or the airline will allow - to increase the miles they fly. (Air Canada says the number of allowable layovers can depend on the fare and route, but generally fares allow unlimited connections.)

Then there's the cheap-travel option that once boasted the ultimate street cred among discount travel junkies: the air courier gig.

At one time, dozens of air courier companies sent people with free time and a visa around the world to deliver packages in exchange for severely discounted airfares. (Despite the mythology, most flights were never free.) It appealed mostly to college kids who didn't mind travelling solo and without baggage. But fax machines, e-mail and new security measures have taken a bite out of the consolidated courier industry over the past 10 years. And now that most airlines offer some kind of expedited shipping for packages previously handled by couriers, the industry is all but dead, save for a few dedicated companies such as Global Transportation Solutions in New York.

Global couriers usually get a free flight, hotel room and spending money for parking and other incidentals. They fly solo, but some bring their golf clubs along if they plan to stay a few extra days. The couriers are nearly all retired police officers, with the Canadian contingent composed mostly of former members of the RCMP and Toronto Police Service. A couple of former Air Canada employees also take the calls to travel at the last minute.

"We just pulled a guy off a golf course today to go to China," Global vice-president Marvin Stone said recently.

Inside job

Of course, one of the cheapest ways to fly - depending on whom you know - is still going strong.

Bill Douglass, a frequent flier from New York, persuaded a childhood friend who worked for an airline to let him be his designated "travel buddy" - the spousal designation was dropped after gay employees complained of discrimination - so Douglass had to pay just the taxes on a ticket.

"It was fantastic," he said. "Every time I could get a few days off work, I would tell my boss, 'I'm going to Peru for the weekend.' "

The grand total for that flight? About $120.

However, not everyone is looking for deeply discounted fares. Some people just want a better travel experience.

Enter Y-Ups, a way to get first-class seats at economy prices. These fares have been around since the nineties and were intended to allow frequent fliers to skirt corporate travel policies that prohibited first-class travel.

There are thousands of Y-Up seats available at any given time. They show up as the lowest rate on the website and are accompanied by first-class code letters such as q, y or z - easily located on websites such as FareCompare.com.

Work for it

Sandra Phillips of Montreal doesn't need to work the angles. As a travel writer, she often flies for free and gets to stay in high-end hotels to boot. Phillips takes about six "fam" - or familiarity - press trips a year. But make no mistake: What she saves in cash, she makes up for in work.

"Be careful what you wish for," she says. "I spent two weeks in Hawaii and didn't get a chance to sit on a beach."

When you travel as a writer, someone else - usually a tourist board or PR company - owns your time and tells you what you're doing and where you're going. The days can be long. You're also usually responsible for many out-of-pocket expenses such as air transfers and car rentals.

"Of course you haven't paid $6,000 for the trip, either," Phillips says.

Yet the best tip for travelling cheap is possibly the easiest to pull off, as long as you don't get mortified easily.

"Never accept the first rate the company tells you. Negotiate," says points fanatic Sondhelm, admitting that he asks for travel agent rates (he is also a part-time agent), AAA, corporate or weekend rates every time. "If I do this in person at a hotel, my wife walks away. She's embarrassed. But I don't mind. I don't want to pay full price."