Holidays are great… minus the flying part.
Flights are expensive, stressful and exhausting.
However with travelling being so common nowadays, a few of the more frequent travellers have worked out a few helpful hacks with booking the best flights.
1. Hidden Cities
Often flights with a stopover somewhere are cheaper than flying directly to that particular stopover. For example, flights from Sydney to Santiago, Chile may be expensive but flights from Sydney to São Paulo, Brazil with a stopover in Santiago may be a lot cheaper. If your destination was São Paulo, Brazil, then it’d be best for you to book the flight with the stopover and NOT board the flight for that extra leg to Santiago! However while this hack isn’t illegal, it is frowned upon by airlines. You’ll also need to make sure your bags get off the place with you.
2. Buy a flexi fare
It’s very common for airlines not to let you board your flight without proof of an onward flight these days. This is fine when all you plan to do is fly into a country and then fly out again at the end of your trip, but for those who haven’t booked the next flight yet, or for those planning to travel between countries overland or via ferries, this can cause an issue. So airlines have developed a flexible, fully-refundable ticket option which lets you reserve an onward flight under your name. You can then cancel it whenever you want (at no cost). Just make sure you check the terms and conditions properly!!
3. Use hacker fares
The term ‘hacker fares’ means purchasing two or more separate one-way flights from different airlines to complete your journey, instead of buying one round trip from the same company. Websites like kayak.com.au will track down hacker fares for you, in the same time it takes for you to do a normal flight search.
4. Travel on the right days
Flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays are often cheaper because they may mean travellers are wasting precious annual leave. If you’re willing and able to travel mid week, you can save serious coin as it’s in the airlines best interest to drop fares to fill seats during off-peak periods.
5. Book from a fake location
The cost of the same flight can vary depending on what country you are booking from – as in what internet provider you are using. Using a fake ‘point of sale’ can be a smart option. You can do this by using an airline’s local site instead of the Australian version or by faking your IP address to make it look like you are a local resident of another country.
Good luck and bon voyage!
