How to Save Money When Flying

We all need to take a break now and then. But for many of us, our dream holiday destinations are far too remote to be accessed by anything other than flying. While there might be a range of airlines to choose from for most flights, the prices on offer can still sometimes deter travelers. But by knowing just a few simple, yet effective, money saving tips, you can greatly reduce the cost of taking your next international flight.

Fly with Asian Airlines Over Christmas

International airline operators usually get most of their business from the domestic market. This is especially true of airlines operating out of East Asia, in particular, populous countries like China. As a result, these airlines will base their prices on the demand they expect according to local holiday dates. This makes the Christmas period, and other holidays in the Western calendar, especially cheap.

In fact, you could make the journey from the UK to Australia over the Christmas period for very little. Other popular destinations throughout Asia are very under-priced when compared to the costs of flying with a Western airline.

Look at Charter Airlines for Last-Minute Flights

On the basis that last-minute bookers tend to be much less price conscious than those who book their flights well in advance, most airlines will hike their prices in the weeks leading up to the departure date of their flights. This is because those last-minute bookers tend to be those who need to travel due to an emergency, or due to business. However, charter airlines are an exception to this rule.

This is because the business model for charter airlines is structured around package holidays, and they often end up with undersold flights on their hands. In the UK, there are two such charter airlines who you should look to for cheap last-minute flights, Thomas Cook, and Tui. Tui used to be known as Thomson.

In order to minimize their losses from operating these undersold flights, charter airlines will offer the empty seats at a reduced rate. This is useful if you are looking to head on a last-minute getaway, but you have no strong preference regarding the destination. On another type of airlines, you will rarely find any deals this good. In fact, with non-charter airlines, you should aim to book at least six weeks in advance, although the optimal time will vary from airline to airline.

Check for Flash Sales

Getting the best deals on your flights is often a matter of timing more than anything else. If you happen to be looking at the right website at the right time, you will be able to make some quite incredible savings. In some cases, flash sales can reduce the cost of a flight by hundreds of pounds overnight. These sales tend to occur when an airline has released tickets for a flight far in advance, sometimes as much as a year, of the actual flight date. The airline will predict how many tickets they expect to sell as time goes on. If the flight isn’t selling at the rate that the airline is hoping for, they will often initiate a flash sale of tickets, whereby the price will plummet until sales have compensated for the lack of demand.

The nature of these sales, how often they are held, and the kind of savings that are available, will vary from airline to airline. You can use tools like Google Flights to track the demand for particular flights, snapping up cut-price tickets when they become available.

Don’t Put All Your Faith in Flight Aggregators

Flight aggregators are supposed to help you find the best possible prices for the flight route of your choice. However, the picture is not always so simple. In many cases, while flight aggregators can help to find the best prices for certain airlines, others will be cheaper to approach directly. With charter airlines and budget airlines, it is often better to book directly with the airline.

Always make sure to check the price of the ticket when you book directly from the airline, to see how it compares to the price being offered by the aggregator website. If there is a chance that you will need to change or cancel your flight, you should book through the airline directly.

Cancelled Flights

Under regulation EC 261, passengers are entitled to compensation for flights that are canceled in certain circumstances. Essentially, if your flight is canceled for reasons that are within the control of the airline in question, you can claim compensation.

You can make the whole process of claiming for flight cancellation compensation much easier by claiming through a service such as AirHelp. When you make a claim yourself, airlines are often slow to respond. AirHelp will ensure that your claim is submitted in a way that cannot be ignored or denied, and will help you to ascertain whether you have a valid claim.

Flying doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. If you have always wanted to jet around the world, don’t be put off by the perceived costs. With these simple tricks, you can often save a lot of money.