“The real voyage of discovery consist not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust
If you are agree -in some point- with this idea, let’s get to work!
How can I find the better deals on flights?
There are many options but I will try to summarise the one that I am usually using the most.
- Use incognito mode: Many flight companies trace your requests, the number you search a flight, the dates you do it, the location you are doing it from, etc, etc, etc. What most of do not like is that usually, that define the price you will see. The best way to avoid that, hide your searches, and the best way to do it is by using the incognito mode in your browser (trust me, I work in IT). Doesn’t matter if it is your phone or your computer web browser.
- Use flight engines that show final prices: There are manyyyy flight search engines you can choose, however not all of them show the final price including taxes. It is a common mistake and surprise gets by the end, over the payment, when you have already spent days looking for the best deal. Personal recommendation, use www.skyscanner.com
- Season of destination: Definitely not every country has the same tourism season -weather is a key factor on this- so try to avoid high season. Not only due to the fact that you will pay more, but also because you will enjoy much less due to the crowds on every aspect. One week or week and a half might have a huge impact on your great trip.
- Best combination: This is the key for this post. Have you done your homework above? Do you know when to travel? Are you flexible? Do you know approximately how many days you want to be abroad? Then let’s do a quick search on the prices, but let’s do it global, and highly visual over a map. I strongly recommend Skyscanner, furthermore if you have an open destination. The reasons for it is that Skyscanner shows you all prices worldwide, for the month you prefer, for a number of max days, and you can even filter the price to a maximum.
- Is it cheaper going from A to B? or book ABC?: Algorithms used by flight companies are great -and really profitable- for them, however many times travellers can also benefit from the error that this flight algorithms have. I found out many times how it is much cheaper to buy a flight Munich-Cairo-Amman and stop your trip in Cairo, rather than to buy a flight from Munich to Cairo only. Just keep something in mind, if you are travelling with hand luggage, all good. Otherwise, your check-in luggage will wait for you in Amman
(e.g.). Also, please keep in mind that this works only for single trips, not for round-way trips. Companies usually cancel your way round trip if you do not arrive to your final destination. - Hey! WAIT!, do not book yet: COMPARE! While Skyscanner is a great flight search engine, the booking is usually done by third parties. This third parties are really willing to offer you extra cheap prices, however if there is an issue… trust me… you will know how hell in earth looks like. In most of the cases, it will be impossible to reach them, recover your money, make changes on your trip and so on, so on and so on. Sometimes, prices are exactly the same that offered by the airline itself, so it will not harm us to double check if they offer the same price ticket you are interested in their website.
These are just a few tips and tricks, there are definitely much more. However, just these few steps might save you lot of money, that easily can be invested in future trips. Keep it in mind that most of the times there are better combinations, it just requires a bit of time to find them