Sunday, September 4, 2011

Quick Tips for Cheap Flight Bookings

By Lisa Stienway


In a tight economy like the one we have today, it always helps to save a dollar or two wherever you can. If you happen to be an avid traveller, tourist, nomad, or if you travel just for business and family vacations, you have quite ample opportunities to make some substantial savings every time you fly. Listed below are some of my quick tips that will help you do smarter searches for airfares and book those cheap flights you'd never thought you'd get.

- Smart Google queries: If you are reading this article, you must be familiar with Google. To start off, you enter a few search queries and get a bunch of options to choose from. However, the trick is to make your search specific to what you're looking for; the more specific your search query is, the more narrowed-down your search results are. For example, instead of "cheap flights Canada" or "airline tickets", you can search for more specific keywords like "Cheap Flight to Vancouver" or "Flights from Vancouver to Las Vegas".

- Be super early or super late: You can easily strike the best deals on cheap flights if you book well ahead of your departure date. Most airlines start offering discounts as early as 3-4 months before the flight date. These prices increase substantially 2 weeks before the departure date but if you're lucky, you will still be able to get a great deal by booking at the very last minute. At this point, airlines are keen to get rid of all their unsold tickets and offer quite a few last-minute discounts. One way to be sure of not missing on these deals is by signing up for newsletters from booking websites. - Book from a trusted travel agent: A travel agent could be online, offline, or both. Like FlightNetwork, which provides booking services on its website as well as through a call center where the travel desk executives help you find custom solutions. Another benefit of booking through travel agents is that they can help you find the best deal among various airlines and route options. This is especially true when you're looking for vacation packages, as the scope to save increases exponentially with flights, hotels, rental cars, tours, and whatever else you opt to do on your holiday.

- Discount Airlines: Finding discount airlines may be quite a task but it's totally worth it. In recent times, it has becomes easier to locate them with the help of aggregators and booking websites.

- Fare tracking and refunds: If you happen to live around Vancouver, you have probably come across Flightnetwork's hoardings about a service called "Price Drop Protection". It is simply a fare tracking and refund program, wherein you are guaranteed the cheapest airfare available, and just in case the fare drops after you book the flight, you get credited the difference which you can then put to use when booking another flight.

- Baggage Fee: If you have baggage to be checked, there is sometimes an additional fee that you have to pay, especially if you've booked a discount fare. Most times, this announcement is made at the airport check-in counter and takes you completely by surprise. Luckily, Flightnetwork.com has a tool that allows you to find the fee for your baggage, making it a handy tool if you want to save on baggage fees and the money towards something else.

Other than the tips listed above, there are few more things you can do to save further on your flight bookings, like being flexible about your travel dates, using Flier Miles you've accumulated on previous trips, or using an Air Pass wherever possible. In fact, following your favorite airlines and booking sites on Twitter can also help you track cheap flights along with many other travel goodies.




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