SourceAlthough flight search engines such as the infamous skyscanner.net have made finding good deals on flights significantly easier in recent years (coupled with an increasing number of budget airlines internationally), there are still some very good tips and secrets to follow to make sure that you get the best deal absolutely possible. Here we take a look at the best of them…
Splitting Tickets
Rather than looking at return flights to and from your destination, it is always worth looking at separate one-way tickets each way and with different airlines. In Europe this could mean that you could fly your outward journey to Corfu on the budget carrier Easyjet, but return with an airline such as Aegean Airlines, the Greek budget carrier. This often pays off, especially if your choice of destination is popular with many flights by multiple airlines, because the competition drives prices down.
Travel Out Of High Season
Many countries are actually pretty interesting in low-season and also offer much cheaper flights as well as cheaper accommodation. Taking Thailand as an example, even in monsoon season it will not rain every day, and even when it does people are often surprised about how brief the rains actually are. The icing on the cake is that you will often have entire beaches to yourself during the day, and you will get to see magnificent sunsets after monsoon downpours from the comfort of your hotel or beach bungalow. Travelling in “cusp seasons” is also a great idea for much the same reasons highlighted above, but you will have a greater chance of perfect weather and noticeably cheaper flights as a countries tourist infrastructure enters the low-season.
Try To Fly On Weekdays
This is an old travel tip that is still relevant today. Airlines tend to charge more at the weekend because most people will only have the time off work to travel on Saturdays and Sundays. However, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays almost always deliver cheaper tickets since most people can’t get the time off work on these weekdays. So these days are inevitably the cheapest out of a week.
Avoid Public Holidays
In Europe, Easter is notoriously expensive if you are looking to fly off on holiday, because Airlines up the prices due to very high demand for flights during people’s time off work. And the same applies to the run up to Christmas. However, you can work around this by starting your holiday a little bit earlier, and returning home earlier (or later). For example, if you were planning a 2 week holiday in the run up to Christmas, flights are generally cheaper before December 20th , so you could book a flight on December 18th and return on New Years Day on January 1st, which is always very cheap.
Layover
Short layovers can cut the cost of a flight significantly as opposed to direct flights, saving you a $100 or even more in most cases. However, it can be something of a double-edged sword, because if your layover is long and in an expensive country, you may end up spending a lot of money on expensive airport food and drink while you wait for your connecting flight. This can negate the entire point of saving money by booking a flight with a layover, so be careful and assess how much you will actually save in reality. That said, some airlines offer a layover of a couple of days free of charge. Iceland Air offer up to a 5 day layover, which means you can essentially see 2 countries in 1 holiday without spending money on extra flights. In these cases, layovers represent great value for money.
With these tried and tested secrets on booking cheaper flights, you will be able to cut costs of your holiday down dramatically.
