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| Somewhere over the ocean between Chiang Mai and Phuket - Thailand (2015). |
See, I've always loved planes. As in, I am that mildly strange, semi-nerd friend that will sit next to you on a flight and give you fun facts about the engines, or seating capacity, or list the flight routes that the particular aircraft you're seated on most commonly flies. I used to be somewhat embarrassed by my love of planes, because let's face it, an obsession with planes isn't exactly high up on the list of 'cool' things, but with time and age I've come to wholeheartedly embrace the plane love because a few years back I realised that my love of planes had one very, very beneficial consequence - it made me particularly brilliant at being able to plan and book flights for less money, with better flight times and connections.
I am now the person many friends come to for advice before they book their own holidays, so much so that I consider myself a bit of a pro-bono travel agent. I don't mind in the slightest though, because I not only get to vicariously live my wild and wanderlusting adventures through my friends who I help send off on awesome trips, but I also get to save people money and time, which just makes me feel great and warm and fuzzy inside.
So, without further ado, here are my tips for booking flights!
1. Research you arrival and departure airports.
I cannot stress enough how much research can help you save time, money and stress. I know it seems so obvious, but so many people skimp on actually researching their intended destination and it can mean you end up spending thousands more than you need to.
Wikipedia is my go-to. As most people realise, you can search for everything on Wikipedia, including airports. I always, ALWAYS search for my intended arrival and departure airports on Wikipedia because there's this utterly wonderful section that tells you all the airports you can connect to via flights from each airport. This means you can easily, all on the one site, have access to information about any potential direct flights and airlines you can fly. This information is so helpful, because sometimes individual airlines or flight-search engines will not direct you to the more direct or cheapest flight option available, so it always pays to know from a third-party, namely Wikipedia, what your options might be. Now, keeping in mind that Wikipedia isn't always correct, you may find some direct flights only happen on certain days at certain times of the year, but nevertheless, I recommend to always check the airport on Wikipedia regardless.
Researching your arrival/departure airports on Wikipedia can also provide you with mega-helpful information about accessing that airport and how one goes about that. Sometimes there are good public transport connections, like trains or buses, and sometimes not, which can be difficult to know beforehand, but alas, Wikipedia saves the day yet again. I have in the past, changed my arrival airports based on these onward public transport connections where there is more than one airport in a city, because sometimes despite a flight being cheaper into one airport, if your only viable onward travel option is an expensive taxi, it might pay to buy a slightly more expensive flight to another airport if it has better and cheaper onward connections.
Essentially, the more you know, the better, so never, ever underestimate the value of actually knowing more than just the name of your destination!
2. Utilise flight-search engines and platforms.
I have one word for you - SKYSCANNER - i.e. a gift to us all and one of, if not the best, invention when it comes to travel.
Until recently, I thought everyone knew about Skyscanner, but then a few months back my roommate was booking a trip to the USA and complaining about flight cost and I asked if he'd checked Skyscanner. He responded with a 'what's that'. WHAT EVEN?! I could not believe he didn't know about Skyscanner, so in the potential situation that others be equally as unaware and oblivious as he, let me very deliberately and outrightly tell you that Skyscanner is amazing, and you need it in your life.
Essentially it is a search engine that allows you to put in your departure city/country, arrival city/country and corresponding dates and then it searches most airlines and flight-booking sites to give you the cheapest options available - i.e. it takes all the hard work out of booking flights and saves you $$. Through Skyscanner you can also order results by total journey time, departure or arrival time, cost, etc. meaning you can access a quick and easy overview of flight options depending on what your constraints might be. Skyscanner then allows you to choose your preferred option and directs you through to the relevant booking page.
I have a very strong preference to book with an airline directly. I have on some occasions, booked through an individual third-party retailer, though only where the savings made by doing that were exceptionally good. Whilst I have not personally had an issue with any third-party booking, it is worth noting that booking directly with the airline often provides you with higher cover/priority in the case of a delay/cancellation that a booking with a third-party would grant you. Any reputable booking agent, and often insurance, should provide basic coverage, but nevertheless, I am strongly of the opinion that the fewer middle-men/parties involved, the better, so I usually always search Skyscanner for my flight options, then go directly to the best airline's page itself to complete my booking, though the choice on whether to do that is entirely up to you. I should note, I am yet to have an issue with booking through a third-party, so I don't advocate against third-party bookings entirely, though I recommend proceeding with caution only where you make substantial savings by doing so. I recently booked a flight via a third-party because it saved me over $1500AUD, which is a huge saving, so in some cases, third-party booking can definitely be advantageous.
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| An example of Skyscanner with my current location, Canberra and somewhere I would much rather be, London! |
In 2016, I spent 3 months travelling before beginning an exchange semester in Germany. I had a very flexible schedule with no real fixed plans, and I estimate that my accepting and allowing for that flexibility, I saved myself thousands in flights.
I flew from Australia to Singapore to Turkey (via Qatar), to Jordan, to Dubai, to Bulgaria (via Doha), then Serbia to Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Germany, with some overground transport between those flights. This itinerary makes little sense when mapped out, with several flights going backwards on myself, or over entire countries I later backtracked to visit, but ultimately presented the most cost-effective way to visit all the places I did. The only reason I could manage the particular itinerary I ended up with was because I accepted flexibility in my plans, and decided that for me, saving money was the more important consideration rather than time, meaning that where it saved money, I either opted for longer flight routes or stop overs. Sometimes time will be more important, meaning you perhaps cannot have flexibility in your schedule, but it is worth seriously considering that taking an indirect flight or adding a stop over may be beneficial as it could offer massive savings and also allow you to see some additional places.
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| This is Joo Chiat in Singapore. Singapore is a popular stop over for Australians on our way to Europe, but one I'd never taken advantage of before. With the introduction of budget airline flights there though, I took advantage of a cheap outbound ticket, spent a few days in Singapore then continued my onward journey and surprisingly saved some $$ in doing so! |
Thus far, joining an airline frequent flyer program hasn't had huge benefits for me, but in the future, it definitely will. Every single flight you take represents the potential to earn up to thousands of points which can, in some cases, represent free flights, accommodation, shopping opportunities, etc. You should never, ever, waste those points. Always collect them and save them because one day, you may so happen to find yourself on a flight booked entirely on those points and that is definitely AWESOME.
When booking a flight, I will almost always sign up for the loyalty program of the airline if I am not already a member or a member of an affiliate airline. Doing so has, in the past, led to a gate agent giving me a seat with spare seats either side (on an overnight flight too), allowed me to book a hotel for a weekend in Vienna without paying a single Euro and even got me some free groceries. Airline loyalty = points and points = GOOD THINGS.
It is always most advantageous to pick one airline and stick to that airline. That way, you'll earn and collect the most points and eventually and more quickly, reap the rewards. It makes most sense to sign up to an airline from your home country, because that is (assumedly) where you will fly most often to/from. These days most airlines have many global affiliates, meaning you can take a flight on an airline you might not necessarily be a loyalty member with yet still collect airline points for that flight. ALWAYS, always know what affiliates your frequent flyer program has and ALWAYS collect points (via online redemption on their site) for any flights you take. And, even though it may sometimes cost you a little extra to book a flight with the airline you are affiliated with, it goes without saying that the more often you fly with your airline, the quicker you will get points, upgrades, benefits, etc., so sometimes it definitely pays to spend a little extra and be loyal to one/a handful of airlines.
5. Watch for airline sales and specials.
This one is fairly obvious, though nevertheless important to mention. Essentially all airlines will have sales at some point, and yeah, you guessed it, usually it's cheapest to book when those sales are on. Sometimes airlines will publicly advertise their sales, though sometimes they only send their specials to those on their mailing lists, so if you are looking ahead at flying somewhere, it can pay to sign up to receive email warnings and offers months or even years in advance.
6. Have a look for nearby airports that might not necessarily be the main hub.
Some cities have lots of airports, like London (UK), which has 5. Where there is more than one airport, usually there will be a 'hub' which is home to full-service airlines and often has higher arrival and departure taxes, plus one or more budget airports or some that are hybrids of both. Airport taxes are often what makes a flight expensive, so it always pays to look around and see if there are any other options available that could be nearby and offer cheaper taxes and therefore cheaper flights. A good example is London Heathrow, which is the hub airport for London and has some of the highest arrival/departure taxes (the fees that airlines pay to fly in and out of the airport) in the world. These high taxes mean that often the other London airport offer significantly cheaper options, though it is worth considering that sometimes the cheaper airports have horrendous onward transport connections compared to the hub, meaning they can be more time-consuming/expensive/stressful to access and sometimes don't necessarily offer a worthwhile benefit to fly in/out of. It's always worth checking (via Wikipedia, see step one) if there are other options available.
Also, if flying somewhere like Europe, where everything is quite close together, sometimes it can be much cheaper to fly into/out of an entirely different country and simply use ground transport to end up where you want. An example of this is somewhere like Vienna, Austria, which can be very expensive to fly to, though nearby Bratislava, Slovakia can offer a much cheaper alternative with good onward bus connections to get to where you want to be.
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| You can see that searching 'London Airport' yielded multiple results, as there is more than one airport servicing the city of London. I suggest always searching '(city) airport' to see if that may also be the case for your destination, as usually when there are multiple airports, at least one will be predominately budget, and therefore cheaper! |
Round-trip tickets are without a doubt, the biggest trap that catches unaware travellers. Most people simply assume that booking one return ticket will always be the cheapest option, but this is frequently not the case, and instead booking two one-way tickets can offer significant savings.
Sometimes two one-way tickets with the one airline can be cheaper than a single return ticket and sometimes you may find it best to book two tickets with separate airlines for maximum savings - this will all depend on doing some good research and comparison via Skyscanner (see step 2). Essentially, always search for both one-way and return tickets and see what is cheaper - sometimes you'll be very surprised with the results!
Additionally, if you are travelling to a continent and travelling overland whilst there, you'll often find it significantly cheaper to book two separate one way tickets than to have a return ticket. This has the added benefit that you need not travel back on yourself simply to return to your arrival airport - i.e. when visiting Europe, many people might fly into say, Paris, and travel overland south-east to Athens before returning home. In this case, it is almost always cheaper (and more time efficient) to book one flight to Paris and another flight home from Athens rather than trying to do a return flight from Paris and needing to then travel back on yourself simply to get back to Paris, thereby wasting both time and money.
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| Somewhere over central Turkey on my way from Istanbul to Cappadocia (2016) |
* This is an unsponsored post. My opinions are, as always, my own. I received no compensation for this post, and merely enjoy in sharing knowledge with others in the hope that my experiences may save you time, money and hassle in the future!
P.S. I also hope this post proves that planes are cool and that sometimes, geeking out has definite, tangible benefits and that you should always, totally and unreservedly own your quirks and interests, no matter how strange they may be! Plane love forever!!!
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