How to Buy Plane Tickets Online Cheaper
When it comes to traveling to faraway places, flying is almost always the preferred way. After all, barring the existence of a worldwide fast rail network, it’s the best way to travel. However, flying is decisively not cheap. But what can you do if you not only want to fly somewhere but also have money left over for fridge magnets and maybe food? That’s why Skycop has prepared this guide on how to buy plane tickets online cheaper.
by Skycop team
- 2019-11-14
- 2:54 PM GMT
Try “Incognito” Mode
This may be a bit of a contentious point, but it can’t hurt. Websites track your activity via cookies, which register all sorts of data that are supposed to improve your experience when navigating the site. Thus, you’re providing the website with your data. This may allow your ticket vendor to use your location data and whatnot to adjust the results you are shown. While this is supposed to be a feature that gives you the best deals for online ticket purchases, that may not necessarily be the way it happens. Use the incognito mode of your browser to get around these possible hurdles.
Shop Around
It is always a good idea to check prices at several vendors when you’re hunting for a bargain. When it comes to the hunt for cheap flight tickets online, don’t just stick with a single flight website. Check prices on several, even if they’re just ticket pricing aggregators. The way the websites look for cheapest flights – or where they look for them – may vary. Their algorithms are made by people after all and might prioritize different things when it comes to looking up prices. That’s why it’s possible you may find cheaper flights by browsing several websites or using different apps. Google Flights, Skyscanner, Momondo – you have many options open to you.
Be Flexible With Dates (And Locations)
Not every month is the same when it comes to flights. For the European market, travel increases in summer, as everyone tries to spend their holidays somewhere warm and exotic, and near Christmas, since people are flying to meet family and such. Of course, different places have different shoulder and peak seasons. Warm, tropical locations are usually popular during holidays and whenever its prime weather is. Other places are prime destinations for those seeking a winter wonderland or to visit a specific festival. In these cases, it’s best to find out when the shoulder/off-season happens at your desired spot, as that’s when ticket prices (and maybe even hotel prices) drop.
Use a Budget Airline
Now, this seems self-evident, but I have to mention it: fly a budget airline. Sure, a regular airline might offer a deal from time to time, but they’re not in the business of being cheap. Choose one of the budget carriers: Ryanair, Wizz Air, EasyJet, whatever. You won’t have the same experience as flying Lufthansa, but you’ll also save a Euro or two. Just mind those carry-on limits.
Try a Vacation Package
Most of the time, we don’t want to be constraint by package holidays. I mean, that’s what our parents used to do. Those are so last decade. But sometimes, it might actually be cheaper to book a holiday package. You may be trading away a bit of freedom to choose your travel times and hunt for additional bargains, but you might just net yourself a cheaper ticket (and whatever else comes in the package). Check out both airlines and third-party sites.
Be Flexible With Dates 2: Electric Boogaloo
Now, ticket pricing by date applies at the micro-level as well as macro. Some days and even times of day are more popular with travelers – and hence more expensive. So if you want to get some cheap airline tickets online, select flights that leave during mid-week and such – most people don’t like to travel outside of weekends. You should also look for flights that are late night or early morning – they’re terribly inconvenient, and thus less popular. And as we have established, less popularity means lower prices! So give red-eye flights a chance – and pack a good pillow. Good thing we wrote an article about sleeping on a plane, huh?
Try Flying Multiple Legs
A direct flight is always preferable, as no person wants to spend more than it’s absolutely necessary at an airport. However, opting for a two-leg flight might be cheaper in some cases. For example, you may fly most of the way with a regular airline and then finish the rest with a budget one. Fair warning, though: if your trip wasn’t booked for a single reservation, you can’t claim compensation if you miss the second flight due to the first one being disrupted! That’s because flights under different reservations will be considered by the law to be two unrelated flights. Keep that in mind.
Buy Tickets Per Person
For the sake of convenience, you can find yourself desiring to buy tickets for your whole travel group in a single reservation. However, if you buy the tickets online as, say, a family, the airlines tend to price them higher as the price is calculated according to the most expensive seat taken. That’s why you should do multiple reservations – one per person. That way, you will pay the correct price for the seats in question. In order to sit the group together, just select adjacent seats during checkout.
And that’s basically all you need to know about buying tickets if you don’t plan to engage in changing currencies or doing stuff that may make airlines hate you. And if your cheap flight gets delayed, canceled or overbooked, don’t forget to claim flight compensation via Skycop! There’s up to €600 on the line – you might not even have to look for cheap tickets online the next time!
Related articles:
Here’s How the Price of Airline Tickets Is Determined – and How to Get the Cheapest
The Best Events In 2019 That You Should Hurry To Attend
5 Tips For Traveling During Christmas
