Smart ways to hunt
for cheap tickets

Location:
Plane tickets
/ Smart ways to hunt for cheap tickets
Short practical tips that you must
know...
Most airline
tickets are overpriced. But, over 3 quarters of buyers are unaware of it
and don't look deep enough to find more affordable ones. They buy those
tickets that are lower priced and published, intensively advertised.
Plane ticket
prices can be reduced, on average with 25-40 %, sometimes even with 75 %.
It lies in the techniques, the tricks you use to book. Be smart and you
will spend less!
In order to
obtain cheap airline tickets, you must first understand what factors
influence the airfare levels.
Here are the top
11 factors:
Date & time of flight
Date & time of booking
Modality of booking (online or offline)
Number of intermediate stops
Relationship between the different airlines if you need to change a flight
Carrier
Airports
Airline ticket seller (travel agency or airline company)
Period of the year (end season tickets are usually cheaper)
Client demand
How long the flight has been operated on that specific route
All these
contribute to the level of prices.
For example: the
more intermediate stops you have, the higher the prices are. Or, the later
you book, the lower the prices tend to be.
Be on the
lookout for the following opportunities to obtain cheap tickets:
Check all advertised airline ticket discounts
Check the last minute airfare deals (plane tickets sold just prior to
flight often cost less)
Be flexible on dates, check different dates & times adjust your trip to
the when the tickets cost less, not the tickets to the trip!
Check the offers of the low cost airlines and those of the conventional
carriers as well
Make comparisons of airline ticket prices of different travel agents and
airlines
Student airfares (student travel-specialized agencies especially offer
discounts for student flyers)
Senior airfares (airlines like SouthWest and Midwest and many
travel agents offer discounts for )
Buy round-trip tickets over one way ones
Book online instead of offline (internet booking is cheaper)
If you fly in group, take advantage of discounts for groups, in case your
agent or airline offers such reductions
Avoid holiday rush periods, because airfares increase, look for end season
deals (for instance: end of summer, early autumn)
Most
importantly, after evaluating your options, make a choice that you're sure
is the best one for you and book in advance!
Last minute
flights might cost less, but these deals don't always exist, so don't
count on booking late. Buy in advance after finding a good price!
Smart techniques for booking airline tickets, in details
Take our advices
presented below and you will certainly minimize your expenses!
Airfare comparison shopping
More and more
online travel agents introduce airfare comparison engines that display you
the prices of tickets sold by different agents. You can directly buy the
best-priced tickets from them or, if there are no such agents in your
country/region, you can make comparisons yourself.
Sounds as easy
as a clap of hands, but that's exactly why this is overlooked: you should
check the deals of multiple carriers that fly on the same route,
competitors and should also take account of the aircraft used (flights on
certain planes cost less).
Hunt for occasional discount
airfares
But, not just
"hunt like a blind hound", but keep in mind when these price-cuts are
offered. Because, discounts vary in dimensions from one period and
situation to another.
In order to find
substantial discounts...:
Look for published discounts on airline ticket prices (often appear
in newspapers, travel magazines, various advertisements)
Look for last minute discounts (either at specialized travel agents
or simply)
Check our the offers at the ends of important holiday seasons (in
early autumn, for example, ticket prices are lower)
Detect possible promotions
(rare discounts)
When a new
airline launches itself on a market it often offers a promotional discount
on airfares for the first several weeks, months.
Especially with
low cost airlines, this technique is widely used. Sometimes free airline
tickets are offered when the route is freshly launched.
Try online booking instead of
buying from an office
Online sales
implicate less operational costs to the agents and the airlines. This
reflects in the prices of tickets as well.
Since travel
services are sold over the internet, prices of airline tickets have
dropped significantly.
Minimize intermediate
stopovers or eliminate them!
The more
airports you stop over, the more you pay. Because, most often airlines are
charged fees by the airports where they land. This fee will be included in
your ticket's price.
It gets even
worse if you have to change carriers.
In case of
stopovers, most of the time fees vary between 50 - 100 $. And, most often
you will not be told about these charges, they will simply be "melted
into" your ticket's price.
Only accept
intermediate stops if you have studied the offers well and there is no way
to eliminate them.
When accepting
to fly with intermediate stops, it's good to continue your flight with the
same airline (if possible) or if not, then choose an airline that is
partners with the first carrier.
Airlines that
are part of the same airline alliance favor each other and they often
charge you less if you switch from one of them to the other in order to
continue your route.
Buy round-trip tickets
Almost all of us
know that this is cheaper than buying 2 separate one way tickets.
But,
interestingly, on long haul flights, quite often, a round-trip ticket
costs less than 1 single direction ticket! This most often happens on very
long distance flights, such as Tokyo - Toronto or Hong Kong - Los Angeles.
In this case, even if you don't want to return, you'd better buy a
round-trip ticket, because it's cheaper. Of course, you will only use half
of it!
Make a good schedules in
order to avoid possible necessity for rebooking
Some people need
to change their return departure date, because they have changed their
mind about the returning date. Sometimes a vacation is just so good, you'd
want to stay just a couple more days.
Rebooking means
that you will be given a new ticket or a mention that the flight date has
changed. Applied either for departure and return or just one of them, this
usually costs! Fees are called "rebooking fee" and vary between 50 and 150
$ with most airlines. Most major carriers charge such fees.
Plan your flight
well in advance, so that you don't have to modify the flight dates.
Take part in frequent flyer
programs
Most major
carriers have such loyalty programs. Even some low cost carriers have
introduced frequent flyer programs.
This helps the
carriers obtain a basis of loyal clients who usually travel with them in
exchange for discounts or free bonus flights.
If you fly
often, you must take advantage of the frequent flyer programs! This is a
tremendous opportunity to obtain cheap tickets, even for business class
flights!
Useful
related resources |

Last Minute Spider - Find Last Minute Flights
Possibilities for travelers to save on last minute airline trips.
Find out about the opportunities and book your flight ticket online!
Addition: September 17, 2009
If your
site is relevant to this page and offers good quality service, then we might consider listing it.
Contact us for details.
|
|
|