Besides accommodation, travel costs are probably the first consideration when you’re making a travel budget. What if you could cut down on costs from the very start of your trip? You can do just that
Besides accommodation, travel costs are probably the first consideration when you’re making a travel budget. What if you could cut down on costs from the very start of your trip? You can do just that if you find cheaper flights from the get-go with these tips!
1. Book Early
Plane tickets always get more expensive the closer it gets to the date of departure. They tend to go up drastically in the last three weeks before the flight. Ideally, you should try to book flights at least 1-3 months before you plan to leave.
Flight search engines such as Google Flights or Kayak can help predict whether ticket prices are going to go up or down, and when. They do this by using algorithms to analyse historical data and, while they’re not 100% accurate, they do pretty well.
2. Be Flexible
Having flexible plans with regard to the exact dates of your travel can be helpful. Often tickets are cheaper in the middle of the week or on the actual day of holidays because fewer people travel on those days.
You might also want to consider alternative airports that might be nearby to your final destination. Often smaller airports in minor towns or cities are cheaper to fly to than big ones in major cities.
3. Use Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a website that collects flight prices from around the world to help you compare prices easily. Sky scanner can help you find flights for specific locations, but it can also be useful for finding out which countries would be the cheapest for you to fly to.
Just enter your departure airport, and then in the “Destination” field, select “Everywhere”. This will give you a list of countries and the highest priced flights of each country. Choosing a country will present you with a breakdown of prices for individual cities and airports.
4. Browse Tickets Using Private Mode
Airlines and flight booking websites are known to track your browsing, allowing them to predict your intentions and jack up the prices in an attempt to make more money. You can either use incognito or private mode, or a VPN to hide your browsing history and location.
5. Book Connecting Flights
It can often be cheaper to book two (or more) separate connecting flights than one long one, depending on the relationship between the countries of departure and destination. Most search engines will provide the option to filter itineraries by non-stop, 1-stop, 2-stop, etc.
Ideally, you can fly with the same airline, but if not, try to make sure they at least have a code-sharing agreement. This will make your journey a seamless one and allow the airline to take responsibility if you miss your flight. If the airlines don’t share codes, you should make sure that there is at least a 2-hour minimum layover between flights just in case anything’s running late.
That’s it for our top 5 list of flight booking tips. Hopefully, this will help you to save some money that you can use for playing the real money bingo Canada offers. You can then use your winnings on your next holiday!