You might be surprised to know that there are many ways by which you can save money when booking airline tickets. The pricing shown when you check for the tickets online is hardly concrete, and you can definitely get something cheaper if you just take a look around. Robert Laney, the founder of 1st-Air.net and author of Involuntary Reroute, wants to make it easy for people to take advantage of booking ploys in order to save money on their airline tickets. Here are a few tips that you can follow when booking airline tickets.
Choose a favorable departure period
As you can probably guess, try avoiding peak travel dates like Sunday or the weekend before popular holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas to get the cheapest coach fares. Conversely, some of the best business class deals can be found around these same holidays with lowest fares often found when traveling on the holiday itself (i.e., Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, etc.)
Generally, airline tickets are cheaper if you leave on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays (and more expensive on Mondays and Fridays as these are the days when flights are more heavily booked). Business fares are lower around holidays since business travelers, who normally pay hefty premiums for comfort, are on holiday themselves and usually more frugal when paying for their own flights. And the best deals are often the dates of Friday the 13th: the superstitious don’t like this date, so prices are lower!
Book your plane ticket in advance
For the best deals, the rates are almost always lowest if you book your trip no earlier than 6 months in advance but not later than 45 days prior to departure. The closer you get to the departure date, the more expensive fares tend to be when paying with money rather than miles. A study conducted by the Momondo website reveals that the lowest fare is usually found 59 days before departure.
Be careful, this does not necessarily mean that the first person that books a ticket will pay the least. Indeed, the rates are constantly updated by the companies (yield management). It is also a “stroke of luck” sometimes, so you have to check multiple times online.
Look at the proposed fare for different airports
You might be surprised to know that the rates vary if you land in the same city but at a different airport. It’s important that you check this, so look at the fares offered on major airports like Lyon, Geneva, Paris and London (and other airports if you have a lot of time)!
Use an Online Enabler
The best thing that you can do is to use online enabler such as 1st-Air.Net. The website offers fantastic options to people who are looking at alternate ways of purchasing tickets and is a great way for people to save money when booking a ticket online. Do-it-yourselfers learn these and other money saving tactics through Involuntary Reroute, teaching flyers how to fly in the most comfortable seats for less than most coach fares.