How to Find the Cheapest Flights

Flying is a great way to see the World. Getting to your destination quicker means more time to explore. With so many airlines covering the World how do you get the cheapest flights? Here is a rundown on the best practices to find that cheap discounted fare.

1- Call your travel agent. Travel agents are not restricted to the airlines they offer meaning all the possibilities are open to research. If you choose an online site you might be losing out on certain airlines and their deals as most websites will have a preferred airline alliance (ie star alliance or Oneworld) so their competitors are not listed. Travel agents have access to live inventory whereas online sites are updated infrequently. You see a price online and when you go to enter your credit card the price jumps up 30%. Avoid the surprises by getting live inventory through a travel agent.

2- Check out charter flight vs. scheduled flights. More and more destinations are getting charter flights added into the mix. These low cost, seasonal carriers are no frills flights but they get you to the destination at a fraction of the cost. Quite often the days of travel are limited with charter flights but if you are flexible you can get quite a savings.

3- Travel opposite seasons. Europe high season is the Spring and Summer so travel in Fall and Winter and save a bundle! The Caribbean high season is Fall and Winter so travel in Spring and Summer and enjoy your savings!

4- Use connecting flights vs. direct flights. Airlines offer limited number of seats at each price level. Once that limit is reached the next fare price kicks in. If you pick a direct flight, there might only be 6 seats at the lowest price. By doing connecting flights you are getting more flight possibilities and a larger inventory of the lowest priced seats. There might be 4 planes going between your take off city to the connecting city and maybe another 4 from connecting city to destination; that's 4x the number of lowest price seats.

5- Rewards miles and email loyalty. The banks all know their customers love to travel and they have partnered with airlines to offer you points/rewards for travel if you spend on the credit card. Those points can add up fast if you get into the habit of charging everything to the card. The airlines also want your loyalty and by joining their mailing list you are often rewarded with extra savings on their sale fares.

6- Pick the worst times of day to travel. Airlines are flying almost 24/7 now so use the dead times to save money. Noone likes to get up at 3am to catch a flight or to check out of a hotel at noon and then wait to catch the red eye at 11pm BUT there are flights at those times and because no one likes to travel at those times there are usually plenty of sale priced seats on those flights!

When you are ready to book your flights give Orleans Travel & Cruise centre a call and we will do all the work and book those great deals for you! 800-263-3022 or jmckay@orleanstravel.ca