Booking flight tickets was so easy in the olden days. All you had to do was to approach your travel agent or go to the nearest airline booking center. Fill up a couple of forms, submit them at the counter, pay your money and get your tickets. You did not have much of a choice in your flight tickets. Today, the competition has become extremely tough with a lot of travel agency networks vying with each other to offer cheap international flight tickets. In addition, you have many airline companies offering cheap international flights all around. You have the internet that enables you to search online as well.
This is tough competition, but great news for the buyer. He is able to take advantage of this situation and book international flight tickets at seriously cheap rates. Let us look at some tips that can help you master this aspect.
Learn to search incognito Keep your searches secret
People who have searched for air tickets online would have found out that searches at different times gave different results. Why does this happen? The reason has nothing to do with the demand in the sector or anything of that sort. The rates change because of your searching patterns. You have cookies on your browsers. Based on your searches, the fight prices tend to increase thereby trying to scare you into believing that the demand is very high. What is the way out from such a situation? You can search in the incognito mode. Doing so resets the cookies every time you open the incognito window. You thereby get the best deal in cheap international flights every time.
Use a variety of flight search engines
There are innumerable flight search engines on the internet. It is not necessary that the most commonly used or popular search engines are the best. As mentioned above, do incognito searches on various flight search engines to land the cheapest international flight tickets. Do your research well and become familiar with their working.
Some days can be very cheap to fly:
The normal trend is that weekends are very expensive days to fly. They have their reasons. Usually, you find the mid-week days like Tuesdays and Wednesdays as comparatively cheaper to the others. However, it is better to plan early. Hence, you can save a lot of money in booking the cheap international tickets. The flight search engines help you by providing the range of fares for you.
Check out the budget airlines:
If you do a careful research of the flight ticket structure, you will understand that budget airlines offer cheaper rates as compared to their full-service counterparts. There are chances you might have to compromise a bit on your comfort such as less legroom, no free catering services in flights, and less free luggage allowance, etc.
You can plan your trip in such a way that you travel the shorter distances in these budget airlines and the longer flights on the regular services.
Break long-haul flights into smaller ones:
In case you wish to travel from Toronto to Melbourne, you will get direct flights that have stopovers at places like LA, London or Kuala Lumpur, etc. Consider booking the shorter hauls individually. You will still reach your destination on time but cut on the costs as well. Adding another destination in between could be a great idea as well. You can spend a day or two more thereby making your trip more interesting.
Seek the advice of a good travel agent:
Travel agents have links with these airlines companies. Booking your tickets through them can reduce your expenditure a great deal. They have their quota of discounts and rebates. Seek the services of a good travel agent. They can be of great help to you in getting a good deal.
Buy Early and get attractive discounts:
Holidays are peak periods. The rates during this period are higher than the other days. If you are in a position to plan properly, you should try to book early and avail the discounts. Booking three to six months in advance
Buying late tickets can help as well:
It can happen that some flights might not experience full bookings. Under such circumstances, you can land last minute bookings at very low rates. Nevertheless, you cannot plan your trips properly in case you depend on this tactic for your booking. If you have a flexible itinerary, you can use this technique.
Have a flexible schedule:
Explore the options for booking your flight tickets from different airports in case you have more than one in your city. You could end up with some cheap international flights. Flexibility in your schedules can help you book tickets in advance and thus allow you to save on international flight tickets.
Frequent Flier Miles can also help:
Many airlines have frequent flier programs. They are in fact points given to you when you use their services. In case you are a frequent flier, you stand to gain a lot of points. This can help you get attractive discounts on your future bookings. Some credit cards also have these frequent flier discounts. As you have to make the payments anyway, use them to build up your miles.
Keep track of the fares:
There are airlines that give refunds when the fares reduce subsequent to your booking. Not all airlines have these practices, but it is always advisable to check out the rates even after you book your tickets. You might end up with a refund in case you alert and make a request at the right time.
Final thoughts:
You spend a lot on your international tours. However, it does make economic sense to check out for cheap international flights. You need to do a bit of research and proper homework. You can end up with some really cheap international flight tickets. Awareness of the situation is important. Be ready to have some flexibility in your schedules as well.
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