 |
| Photo by Michael Kelley, LAX Take Offs |
When Should You Travel?
Weekdays vs. Weekends
Like I said above, Friday departure - Sunday return may be the worst time to travel anywhere. This is not always the case but let's just say 85% of the time, this is the case from a budget standpoint. So if you are traveling overseas, why not try traveling Thursday night - Monday (if to Europe) or something. Basically, just do a bit of digging into the time change and see what benefits you most in terms of what days you'll be there and what is the cheapest. If flying domestically, this is a bit tougher but even a red eye to work Sunday night is better than a mid morning Monday flight where you have to take off another day of work (vacation days suck, I know). And plus, you're allowed to be sluggish at work on a Monday anyway, right?
Off Season vs. Peak Season
Even more importantly than day of the week though is time of year. We all know now (I hope) that summer sucks for flight fares. So let's consider the off peak season. For Europe, this is basically considered September 7th or so (after Labor Day normally, remember the airlines aren't dumb) until about Memorial Day or mid May of the following year. Now, luckily for all of us, this normally means that Memorial Day is included in this at least as a return date. This, personally, is why it is my favorite time to travel. You still tend to get a cheaper fare to Europe (like say $591 to Milan or $500 to Oslo) depending on when you book and still can stay over there until Memorial Day or after, allowing for only 6 days of work vacation needed and 11 days off total. Also, flights to Scandinavia tend to stay cheaper through the first week of June because well, is it ever really summer up there?
When Should You Buy?
The wisest thing I've heard in my days of traveling is if you think the price is reasonable, then buy it, but a helpful note is what really is considered "reasonable". From what I have seen from NYC (sorry to people outside the city) the below are what I consider "reasonable" but really, these are about as cheap as these fares tend to go unless an outstanding deal or price glitch happens. Because these are from my experience, please let me know if you have a different opinion! These would be round trip direct in some cases but longer flights tend to be 1 stop. If the destination is closer to you on the West Coast, maybe lower the estimates by $100 - $200 and if it is further away then increase it by $100 - $200, deal? Fantastic.
Europe Off Peak: $350 - $700
Europe Summer: $700 - $950
Asia Larger City: $600 - $900
Asia Smaller City: $900 - $1,200
Africa (Southern): $800 - $1,100
Africa (Northern): $700 - $900
Australia/NZ: $1,000 - $1,300
South America: $450 - $800 (Brazil and Argentina may be more)
Domestic: $100 - $350 (Does not include Hawaii or Alaska)
Caribbean/Central America: $250 - $450
Note: These estimates are in no way inclusive of every location in these areas, only certain cheaper markets
The whole buying on a certain day thing doesn't really hold up by the way, but let's just say that most deals come out on Tuesdays (Southwest, Jet Blue, Frontier, etc.) so check around then for big domestic deals (normally not international).
The best route to take is to continually check your dates throughout the week and to not panic (price alerts sometimes help with this). Like I said in the first post, if you do not panic, you could be rewarded as flight prices tend to fall around 2 months - 1 month before departure. This could continue all the way up to 2 weeks before the flight depending on supply and demand but very often within 2 weeks the price will spike up in order to take advantage of last minute travelers that have to be somewhere with no choice or have waited too long. Did I mention airlines are scumbags? That 2 week rule is basically Exhibit A.
To reiterate though, if you see a price that looks reasonable to you, then do not hesitate to buy as the price could easily go up the next day and never come back down. Yes, it sucks that this is the case but it is the reality of the situation as no one has a crystal ball to say when the lowest price will occur. I wish I did.
Where Should You Fly?
No, I'm not planning your next vacation for you to the "best" places in the world (yet) but I will tell you where to fly to initially to try and save some $$$. This all depends on routing maps and hub locations for airlines. For instance, Oslo is Norwegian Air's hub and prices there are pretty much dirt cheap year round for Europe. Why would you want to fly to Oslo though, right? Well, what would you say if you could get a $400 flight there (RT direct) and a $50 connecting flight to Croatia or a more desirable location? Now we're talking, right? (But really, Norway is beautiful.) The combination of hub/competitive airports to anchor your trip followed by budget airliners to get where you really want to go is a huge play for the budget traveler (cars, buses and trains also work in some cases).
Stopovers can also be used but these require a bit more planning ahead and often require you to hop on the phone with the airline unless you can use a multiple destination flight tool online. Most one stop flights connect through one of the following as well so it may be better to just go that route to your final destination than to buy an additional cheap flight on a budget airliner, it just depends.
For Europe, I would recommend checking flights to Milan (MXP), Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, or Istanbul*. London can work too depending on time of year but often is expensive.
For Asia, I would recommend Istanbul*, Dubai, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Manila, Taipei, Beijing*, Shanghai*, Seoul to start but these often have 1 stop baked into them so might be a good place to start or end for a few days then go elsewhere rather than use it simply for connecting purposes.
For South America, Lima, Bogota (Medellin/Cartagena), Sao Paulo* or Rio*.
For Africa, let's just say you're going to be connecting through Europe (or Asia) pretty much guaranteed so no dice here really.
*Visas may be necessary in Brazil, Turkey, and China (excluding Hong Kong) but may be available on arrival in some cases. Just make sure to bake this into your flight cost if needed as it may make it a less budget friendly option.
Where Should You Buy?
The biggest question of all which I somewhat answered in the first post is where to find these prices. Google Flights has the best all around flight finder in my opinion as it has a low fare calendar and a map for you to look between destinations based on dates you have entered. If you truly have no idea where you are going or want to see budget airliner prices, check Skyscanner as you can select "Everywhere" as your destination and choose "All Year" as your timeframe from your home airport. It isn't the most exact price finder but it should give a solid estimate before it actually starts scanning on actual dates for a certain place (sometimes it screws up but nothing is perfect). Southwest and some other more minor airlines may not show in these aggregated results and will need to be searched directly on their respective sites. I also tend to search aggregated airlines on their respective sites just to see if anything was missed but it is very rare that Google Flights misses a price change. Credit Card reward sites can sometimes have lower prices too but it is rare.
Anyway, I would advise against buying from faregeek or Bravofly or some other discount site because you will get hardly any customer service from them if anything goes remotely wrong. Basically, I don't think it's worth saving $10 - $40 as something could go wrong and you may need Expedia, Orbitz, or the airline itself to provide you with assistance. If prices are equal, just book with the airline directly, it is the easiest route to take by far if available and the most reliable.
How Should You Buy?
I won't go too in depth on this until we get into the Credit Card conversation but let's just say that most cards offer at least 2x or 3x on Travel purchases so anything less than that and I'll feel like I haven't done my job in educating you. CC point redemption for flights also could be a huge part of this but again, saving that for another day (maybe tomorrow who knows).
More importantly though, currency type can make a pretty decent difference on foreign airliners. Yes, you read that correctly, buying in the foreign airlines home currency can potentially yield up to $100 in savings. Check out Norwegian Air for instance and change the currency from USD to NOK (you may have to change your language to Norsk to see NOK as an option) and do the conversion on Google, then compare the converted USD to your quoted USD price on the site. So in this case you would buy in NOK and use a no foreign transaction fee card so your bank eats the fee and you get the full discount possible (up to $100 as mentioned). Sometimes this has no bearing on the price, sometimes it does, but it's always good to check because normally it only takes a couple more clicks to see what happens to the price. You can specify currency to purchase in on ITA Matrix to see before you go to the airline's site as well. In this case, you get to be the scumbag despite playing by the airline's own rules.
No comments:
Post a Comment