Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Once you have made a booking now is the time to be taking out your travel insurance. See
Chapter 2 - Finance
for more information.
What to watch out for
Once you've booked a flight online, especially if you do it through an agent such as
www.lastminute.com
,
rather than direct with the airline, you may have to pay extra fees
for rescheduling, not to mention date restrictions if you need to change the date. Unless
you have a good, solid reason for cancelling - and most airlines define such reasons very
narrowly - you also risk losing the money you've paid.
As we mention in
Chapter 1
, increasingly airlines are covering their additional fuel costs
and taxes by adding charges for different services, like inflight baggage storage, airport
duty, seats next to each other (if you're not travelling alone). You need to have your wits
about you when you're going through the online booking forms as these extras can add a
substantial amount to the final total, making that budget deal significantly more expens-
ive than you originally thought (up to £100 at best and almost equalling the flight cost at
worst).
Remember, the ads usually say 'flights
from
£XXX' and that's your clue to watch out for
extras.
Bargain flights: scheduled airlines often offer discount fares for students under 26 so don't
rule them out. Other cheap flights are advertised regularly in the newspapers and on the
web. All sorts of travel agents can fix you up with multi-destination tickets, and student
travel specialists often know where to find the best deals for gap-year students.
It's worth checking whether a particular flight is cheaper if you book direct with the airline
- and if you are using a student travel card you may find that you have to do it this way to
get the discount, rather than using one of the budget deal websites.
Above all, travel is an area where searching the internet for good deals should be top
of your list - though it works best for single-destination trips rather than complex travel
routes.
For example, make sure your tickets allow flexibility and what the costs would be if you
decided to change your plans.
