Ahhh, yes. The number one contemplated subject in travel – how to advantageously navigate flight prices. Flights are simply amazing. They’re what makes it possible for us to explore the far reaches of the earth and experience all the magic that is TRAVEL. But they’re also – as I’m sure many of my fellow travel advisors would agree – THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.
Airlines aren’t flexible, they have a seemingly unlimited amount of fine print, and no rhyme or reason to their pricing patterns. They cause delays, cancellations, and can be affected by such unpredictable things as weather, strikes, and mechanical problems. All of these reasons and more are what make understanding the airlines such an extremely daunting task.
In this post, I’ll attempt to de-bunk many common myths about purchasing airline tickets as well as give you a little peek into what Aum Journeys has learned after 7 years of experience in the travel industry.
1. BE FLEXIBLE!
I can’t stress this one enough. The more flexible you are, the better pricing we’ll be able to scout out for you. A flight arriving into the destination in the evening, for instance, is usually cheaper than one arriving in the morning because it’s less desirable – no one wants to miss an entire day of vacation. You have to decide what’s more important to you—price or an extra day to explore.
Are you traveling over a holiday like Spring Break or Christmas break? If you can leave a few days prior to or come back a few days after that break, you’ll likely save hundreds on airfare.
2. Use Google Flights to Shop.
Google Flights is literally my saving grace. Want to get an idea for when the cheapest time to fly to a certain destination is? Google Flights will tell you. You can apply filters like length and number of layovers, airline, duration of trip, and more. You can even put in multiple departure or arrival cities and it will tell you which is cheapest of all of them.
3. Check alternate gateway cities.
When we refer to “gateway” in the travel industry, it means where you’ll be flying out of and back to after your trip. If you live a few hours away from another airport that you’d be willing to fly out of for a significant price difference, check it!
For Aum Journeys clients, many of you are in the Metro-Detroit area. We get the best of both worlds. We can choose between flying from the US or Canada. Going to the Windsor airport is often easier than Detroit because it’s so small, and I’ve saved clients hundreds (even thousands) of dollars by flying them from there to Europe or the Caribbean.
4. Don’t wait until the last minute.
Last minute deals aren’t a thing anymore. The closer you get to travel, the less availability there is, the more demand there is, and hence the higher the prices will be. When you’re ready to book your flight and have accepted the fact that it’s going to cost a good chunk of change, BOOK IT.
Don’t wait until Tuesday morning when you think the airlines will release their pricing or change their prices. Don’t wait until your next paycheck because you want to gain more interest on the money you have in the bank. You’ll be in quite the foul mood when you go to book your flights and the price has gone up since you last checked.
And do not – I repeat, DO NOT – check the flight prices again after you’ve already booked. They’re unpredictable and what’s the point of finding out? You’re locked in once booked, no matter what.
5. Make sure you know what you’re getting.
Sure, it may seem cheaper to book your flights on Kayak.com, Expedia, or Travelocity, but it’s not. There will never be a time when the same exact flight will be cheaper on a booking website than it is when you book it direct with the airline. If you’re seeing a lower price there, there’s a reason for it.
Often, it’s Basic Economy class, where you don’t get a seat assignment and are essentially flying on stand-by. If you have to change your flight down the line for any reason, you’ll have to call the website you booked through. You may have trouble getting through to them and they’re going to have a harder time making the changes than an employee of the actual airline would. Not only will you be paying the airline’s change fees, but you’ll likely be paying an additional fee to the intermediary as well.
If you’re booking flights on your own, always book direct so there are no surprises.
6. Book with a travel advisor.
We’ll save you time and money. Even though we charge a planning fee upfront for our services, we can’t tell you how many times we’ve saved clients hundreds of dollars as a result of industry relationships. We have access to package rates on flights + hotels that can’t be found anywhere else.
Not only that, but we also have the knowledge to make sure there are no surprises, AND we can coordinate your arrival and departure into your destination flawlessly. There’s nothing worse than finding out you booked your flights for the wrong date or airport.
Let us handle the dirty details. You just handle the fun part!
Leave a Reply