One of the biggest travelling myths that many people have is that there is no way to get around expensive airfares. This could not be further from the truth. With continuously rising gas prices and more and more traffic on interstate highways, flying has become one of the relatively cheaper and more convenient ways to get from one point to another. However, many people still believe they cannot afford to fly. Unlike other modes of transportation, airline fares are generally extremely flexible and with the right strategy, there is no reason why you won’t get the most affordable fares out there.
The first and most important step when looking to buy a cheap plane ticket is to find out when the peak season for a particular route is. Tourist destinations in particular have peak seasons, which can be found on the internet quite easily. If you are planning to travel during peak season, you are more likely to get a cheaper ticket if you book the ticket well in advance. Most airlines start to increase prices as the travel dates come closer.
In case of off-peak season, however, it is often useful to buy tickets last minute. This is a useful strategy if you don’t mind not having confirmed travel dates and are open to a flexible travel schedule. All you have to do is go to the airport a few hours before your flight and try to get hold of a ticket. The most obvious downside to this tactic is that you might be stuck at the airport for hours without a flight, but this might be offset by obtaining a really cheap flight. Many airlines slash prices a few hours before the flight if they have not sold enough tickets.
Some airlines do not price according to date, but they have fixed prices for different groups of seats. For instance, the first ten people to book an economy ticket might get the lowest price. Once ten tickets have been sold, the airline will increase prices on the next ten seats, and further on the next ten. This should serve as an additional incentive to book your seat as early as possible so that you can get on those first few discounted seats.
If you are looking to save money on airfares, it is also important that you are willing to put in time to make sure you are getting the best deal. If you’re looking to save money, this is an absolute must. Since there are countless airlines out there, most people avoid manually checking each airline to see what their fare is. It’s really not that difficult anymore, thanks to the countless websites that compare the fares of different airlines all with the click on a single button.
Airline rewards are a great way to get discounted tickets. If you travel a lot, you should sign up for a frequent flier program so that once you have earned enough miles, you can get discounts on your tickets, or even free tickets! Besides this, you should also check if your credit cards offer you discounts on any particular airline. Sometimes airlines also offer discounts on particular days of the week. Friday and Sunday flights are generally more expensive than weekday flights so you should be careful when you are picking what day you are travelling on.
