Travel
Flights – Getting the best deals
By Ewan Sanderson
Mar 1, 2004, 18:10

So you’re planning a holiday and want the best possible deal on a flight. Nothing is more irritating than booking a flight then finding out later that you could have bought them for half the price. Perhaps you’ve already asked for advice and received conflicting pieces of information. Everyone seems to have his or her own ideas on when to travel, with which airline, etc.

All the advice can be a bit much to cope with sometimes, but if you remember one basic concept you will be well on your way to securing the best deal – airlines control the flight reservation process in an attempt to get as much money as possible for each available seat.

In some situations the airlines’ systems are impossible to beat. If you need to travel to a top destination, at short notice and in peak season, you are going to pay a lot of money. By following the advice below, however, you can at least learn how to make the most of the systems, using them to your advantage rather than paying through the nose every time you go abroad.

Tip 1. Book in advance

Decide on your destination. Allocate a budget. Look around. Book a flight a soon as possible

Many people make the mistake of trying to secure a ‘last minute deal’ on a flight. Quite frankly, these don’t exist. Booking a flight is not the same as booking a package holiday. Sure, if you are prepared to leave the next day, or even that night, you may be able to find a couple of weeks in Majorca, with flights, hotels, full-board, etc. all at a hugely discounted price but the same is not true with air fares.

The golden rule is always to book in advance. The availability of cheap seats on any flight is extremely limited in the UK, so as soon as you know where and when you want to fly you must act. This is especially the case with the new budget airlines such as RyanAir and EasyJet, which work entirely on the concept of first come, cheapest seat.

Tip 2. If possible, avoid peak times

Supply and demand. Seats are most expensive at times when most people want to travel.

If flights to Florida are too expensive in July/August, why not go in the autumn? This is an especially good tactic if you are planning a city break (e.g. a trip to New York), as the season you travel may well be less important than if you are looking for a beach holiday. But even if you are in search of a sun tan, it’s worth bearing in mind that summers abroad can last a lot longer than the English school holidays – traditionally the most expensive weeks of the season.

Be careful though, you don’t want to ruin your holiday for the sake of a cheap flight (you may have heard that Toronto gets pretty cold in the winter!). Also, bear in mind that not all destinations’ peak periods correspond with the best weather seasons (e.g. India).

Tip 3: Staying the Saturday night

Airlines have long realised that while holiday makers can be enticed into staying an extra day or two if it makes the flight cheaper, business travellers will always stick to their exact dates (most often within Monday to Friday). This is the principle of ‘staying the Saturday night’. Wanting to keep the business people (who are, afterall, travelling on expenses) and the leisure travellers separate, airlines restrict their cheaper tickets to those prepared to stay the weekend.

Staying a Saturday night is an extremely important factor on long haul flights (e.g. Canada, USA, Australia) when airlines would in fact prefer you to stay for at least a week. This is generally only good news however, as, unsurprisingly, only urgent business would encourage anyone to fly halfway around the world just for a three-day trip. Despite what the advertisements may tell you, flights are rarely that much fun!

On European flights, staying the Saturday is becoming less important as airlines loosen their restrictions in an attempt to compete with the likes of RyanAir and EasyJet. It is still worth bearing in mind, however.

Tip 4: What if I can’t stay a Saturday?

Why not try ‘nesting’?

Often, of course, non-business travellers can’t spare a weekend and are forced to pay business travel prices. If you are making a one-off journey, there is not much you can do about this; you will simply have to accept the higher fares. If, however, you intend to make the same mid-week journey on more than one occasion, you can employ a clever tactic known as “nesting”. This is particularly useful if you have family members living abroad or even at the other side of the country.

Imagine I plan to travel twice from London to visit my brother in Amsterdam (once in April and once in May) but can only spare a Tuesday and Wednesday each time. Let’s say the price of one mid-week, return ticket is £300. I will have to shell out £600 in total. I do notice however, that if I could stay a Saturday night, each trip would only be £150. If I could only stay longer, I could save a total of £300! An intensely annoying situation, but not if I employ the nesting method.

In order to save money, I buy a return ticket London-Amsterdam, marking the outward journey for the Tuesday in April, but the return for the Wednesday in May. I will keep (or ‘nest’) this return ticket for my second journey. Because, as far as the airline is concerned, I am staying a Saturday, this journey has only cost £150.

Next, I buy a return Amsterdam-London, marking the outward journey for the Wednesday in April (to be used for the return leg of my first journey) but the return for the Tuesday in May (this will be nesting for my second journey). Again, because the airline assumes I am staying a Saturday, these tickets are also only £150.

A very economical solution, and one that can be repeated! It’s not full proof though; if you have to cancel one journey everything can start getting rather complicated and your costs might mount up. Nesting is also unlikely to be particularly effective on long haul trips.

Tip 5: Can you find a better deal?

It is crucial that you shop around when looking for a cheap flight. As well as going direct to the budget airlines that fly to your destination, you should request quotes from at least three travel agents (either in the high-street or online). Never assume that the first or second offer is the best you can expect.

As to whether online holds any advantages over the high street, or vice versa, the truth is both have their pluses and minuses.

Tip 6. Is your good deal really that cheap?

Taxes, extra charges, etc.

All too often, extra charges such as taxes and customer service charges are not specified as clearly as they should be. These expenses can add up to as much as £35 on European journeys (double that on long haul flights, and probably even more if you’re going to the US), so when comparing prices, make sure you are looking a the TOTAL amount you’ll be charged.

Tip 7. Always read the terms and conditions

European flights

If it hasn’t happened to you, it’s happened to someone you know: they’ve been unable/unwilling to fly but received no refund on their tickets. The very nature of cheap or discounted airline tickets makes it particularly important to read the terms and conditions. Inevitably there will be limitations such as no refunds, no name changes, no destination changes, no date changes, etc.

There is not really that much you can do if you want to cancel a low cost European flight. You can buy trip cancellation insurance, which may help, but only if you have a much better reason for not flying than, ‘I’ve changed my mind.’ Make sure you read everything thoroughly and know to what you are entitled. For example, you may not be able to get a refund, but maybe you can change your destination for a small surcharge. Admittedly, with European destinations, such concessions are not too common.

Worldwide flights

Thankfully, longer haul flights tend to afford passengers a little more flexibility. In most cases you will be able to change dates for around £30. But be careful, you may end up paying a lot more than that. Although the charge for changing date is given as, for example, £30, you will also pay for the price of the flight on your new dates rather than your original quote.

If you have done the wise thing and booked in advance to get the cheapest tickets available, but now want to change dates at the last minute, you may find that only expensive seats are now available. Ultimately you could end up paying more than £100 for the privilege of travelling a day later! Needless to say then, if you do have to change dates, make sure you attend to it as quickly as possible.

A rarer problem, but still worth mentioning, is the issue of stopovers. Some tickets allow passengers to stay for a day or two in a city en-route to your final destination (for example, you might stop in Singapore on the way to Sydney). This quite simply isn’t always the case however, even if you are travelling on an airline that permitted you to stopover the last time you travelled. Unsurprisingly, it is tied to ticket price – the more expensive the ticket, the more likely you are to be able to stopover, change dates/destinations, etc.

Tip 8. You name the price (alternatives to straight forward ticket buying)

If you think there is only one way to buy a ticket (namely, to search for a well-priced flight and pay for it) then it may interest you to know that the advent of the internet has led to several new and exciting methods of hunting for a bargain. Have a read below at some of your options.

Many people have taken advantage of the ‘name your own price’ phenomenon, although, to be fair, just as many have been left disappointed. This method moves away from the straightforward buying of tickets and takes place exclusively on the internet. You simply enter the amount you would like to pay for your flight, your dates and your destination. An airline will then decide whether to accept or reject your offer.

Unfortunately, the best known ‘name your own price’ website, priceline.co.uk, no longer offers this method of payment for flights (they still do accommodation) and the practice is generally much less common than it was even a year ago. Still you can always have a search and see what’s available. If you do make an offer, remember that anything less than 75% of the original price is likely to be rejected, these airlines are not so easily fooled. But, then again you may get lucky! Remember that if you are fortunate, and your offer is accepted, you are committed to the transaction and your card will be debited.

Potentially even more frustrating are the online travel auctions (e.g. auction-air.com, ebay.co.uk) although, again, there is always the chance they will come up with the goods. These work in a similar way to the ‘name your own price’ services, only you are bidding against other travellers. Real bargains are now difficult to come by, and more likely than not your remarkably low offer will be outbid about a minute before the deadline. It’s still worth a go though, if only for the excitement!

A popular alternative is to travel as a courier (see IAATC). You are likely to be restricted to fixed return dates and a fairly limited number of flights, but if you are prepared to put up with that there are real bargains to be had, especially on long haul trips.

Tip 9. Take two flights instead of one – ‘mix and match’

When are two flights cheaper than one? When you take a low cost flight to Europe, in order to take advantage of a cheap European airline’s great deals to your final destination. Don’t feel you have to stick to one airline; it may take a few hours longer to arrive if you stop off on the way but it could boost your holiday spending money quite considerably.

As you can imagine ‘mix and match’ usually only pays off on long haul flights. The method is often referred to as ‘split tickets’, which can become confusing if you are planning a trip to Croatia! As always pay close attention when booking your flights.