Best Ways to Find Discounts on Flights Near the Holidays
TAM Airbus A330-200 in the former livery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The holidays are both an expensive and hectic time of year to travel. People who are traveling near the holidays often face sticker shock when they look at their tickets. Fortunately, traveling near the holidays doesn’t have to be that expensive. Here are a few things that you can do to lower the cost.
Compare Rates Carefully
You will want to look at all rates for your returning and departure dates. Most airlines and travel planning tools have options for you to search for the lowest price for tickets on any given day. Unfortunately, they don’t usually have tools for you to compare flight costs on different days across the time you are considering traveling.
You will need to spend some time looking at different days to determine when the cheapest time to travel is. The problem is that it would take a long time to compare every single day you are considering traveling and you would have to keep records on the different prices. Here are a couple things that you can do to look for the cheapest travel days:
- Try to avoid traveling a few days before and after Christmas and New Year. These tend to be the times when tickets are most costly.
- Consider flying on Christmas day itself. This is actually the day when fewest people want to travel so you can usually get some great deals.
- Try to travel on a Tuesday or Wednesday. These are the days when tickets tend to be the cheapest. You will miss all the people traveling for recreational purposes on the weekend and the early week rush for business travelers.
- Use a tool like Smartfares to compare rates online.
These travel tips can help you save a lot of money on your trip. Make sure that you look for your tickets carefully.
Make Some Sacrifices
There are actually a lot of ways to reduce the cost of flying if you are willing to make some sacrifices. Here are some things that you can do:
- Consider taking a red eye flight. Some travelers have been able to shave up to 60% off the cost of their ticket by flying late at night.
- Be willing to have a layover.
- Don’t be picky about where you want to sit. Many airlines charge customers more to sit in window seats and sections near the back of the plane. You may want to avoid paying a premium for these seats unless you have children or a medical condition that makes it necessary.
You will need to be flexible when flying. Airlines are a service industry and they charge customers more money for convenience. You can save a lot of money if you are willing to forego some conveniences when traveling.
Book Right Away
It is already close to the holiday season, but flights will cost more closer to Christmas. You will want to book as early as possible.
If you know when you will be traveling next year then it may be good to start looking for flights shortly after the New Year. Airlines are legally allowed to book flights up to 330 days ahead of time. Many will actually be selling tickets near the holidays for 2014.
About the author: Adam travels from California to New Hampshire for the holidays every year. He has learned how to cut costs on his trip using tools, which he encourages others to use as well.
Category: Travel
