Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Know Your Price
People always try to get the lowest price, wait too long, and then pay too much. We all know airline prices
bounce up and down, yet most of us miss the lowest price by holding out a bit too long. Therefore, it's im-
portant to know what you want to pay, not what you hope to pay. What's the lowest price for
you
? What do
you feel comfortable paying? Don't wait for the perfect price; wait for
your
price.
Be realistic too. If the lowest available price is $1,000 for a flight but the average is $1,500, don't try to
wait for $800; that's probably not going to happen. Given that flights are best bought around eight to twelve
weeks out, I'll begin to look for tickets around three months in advance and slowly see how the price is.
If it starts moving to the high end of my comfort zone, I'll look at available seats on the flight I want. If
there aren't many left, I'll book the flight because normally this indicates prices aren't going to go down (a
mostly sold-out plane means airlines have no incentive to lower the price). Sometimes I don't find a price
I'm comfortable with and I look for a new place to go.
The prices of airline tickets aren't going to get any cheaper anytime soon. While tickets are historically
cheap when compared to inflation, it certainly doesn't feel that way when the ticket we bought last year is
twice the price this year. We can't go back to the time of cheap tickets, we can only hope to avoid paying
the highest price for the flight we want, and with the tips in this chapter you'll be able to do just that.
CHECK AN AIRPORT'S CARRIERS
One thing I often do is visit an airport's website to see what airlines fly into it. Sometimes you find small
airlines that are not listed on flight search aggregators like Kayak, Expedia, Momondo, or Skyscanner. This
is to make sure I checked all possible airlines and turned over every rock for potential deals. After all, I don't
want to find out later that there was an airline that offered a cheap flight that wasn't listed on a booking site.
When I was flying from Tallinn, Estonia, to Aarhus, Denmark, I couldn't find any flights listed on the
flight booking websites. Checking the Tallinn airport website, I found Estonian Airlines listed, and checking
their website I found that they flew to Aarhus via their partner SAS. This didn't show up on any booking
results. I ended up finding the flight I needed simply because I took the time to check which airlines fly in
and out of the airport and to go to their websites directly.
I use point-to-point tickets between all destinations I travel to. This is better if you travel like me and are
unpredictable. If you are part of a frequent-flier program, you can use reward miles to pay for tickets as you
go, or you can simply wait for cheap flights and use discount carriers.
For the best flight savings, I recommend combining the point-to-point method with using frequent-flier
miles for a free flight. If you managed to get one travel credit card with a large sign-up bonus, you can use
those miles to get a free flight. Then using budget airlines and the tips above, you can reduce your flight
costs even further.
