This holiday season, it’s not unusual to want/need to take an aeroplane somewhere to be reunited with your friends and family.
And boy, do the airlines know it.
Flights are dearer than your precious grandma Sue-Anne at this time of the year. If you’re absolutely fanging to see your loved ones, it’s a price you may happily pay. If you effing hate your family, it’s a bitter, bitter pill to swallow.
approaching the qantas flight desk like
Thankfully, a ‘cheap flight expert’ by the name of Jack Sheldon has taken to Reddit to give the punters some sage advice about finding the most cost-effective flights this Christmas and beyond.
“I am a professional flight hacker,” begins Sheldon. “Here to answer any questions and help you find cheap fares wherever you want to travel.”
“Over the last 3 years, I’ve been able to visit over 40 countries (currently at 42) by finding mistake fares and wildly cheap deals and on international, mostly round-trip long-haul flights.”
gimme it
Because we’re all cheapskates, the thread went off like a Big M in the sun, attracting 2196 comments at time of publishing. The travel thread copped 20k likes as well, ’cause Sheldon’s tips were straight fire.
HOW LONG BEFORE YOUR TRIP SHOULD YOU BOOK FLIGHTS?
Last minute deals aren’t going to be very common as airlines try their best to take advantage of business travellers and hike up their last minute rates.
Six to 12 week in advance is the sweet spot, but it varies greatly. For peak and holiday seasons, I recommend looking just as the flights start showing up (typically 11-12 months in advance).
Sheldon reckons setting up price alerts is the best way to keep abreast of good deals. Skyscanner is a goodun.
BE AWARE OF AIRFARE SITES TRACKING YOUR VISITS & UPPING THE PRICES
This is just one of the savage techniques travel sites use to extract the optimum amount of cash out of your wallet.
One used in the thread suggested going incognito, while another added that these shifty techniques used by the companies “forever destroyed [their] trust in ticket pricing.”
“Clearing your browser cookies is a must. I only had to see the ticket price increase once after a visit. Then it dropped when cookies were cleared,” outlined another user.
destroy them
IF YOU WANNA GO SOMEWHERE CHEAP, PICK SRI LANKA
“It’s gone through a terrible 30 year civil war less than a decade ago, so its tourist industry is just starting to boom … It’s also one of the most beautiful countries I have visited,” he wrote.
CAPITALIZE ON AIRFARE WEBSITE ERRORS
People make mistakes. So do airline websites.
Sheldon told the Redditers of the best deal he ever got through picking up on an airline’s error – a $30AUD return flight from the UK to Central America.
“Some airlines are forced to by local laws, some try not to upset customers. It’s about 50-50 with those fares, but worth trying nonetheless!” he wrote.
“Airlines are getting better at preventing error fares, but the truth is their systems are so complex (and often outdated) that they can’t fix them all — which is where I get to take advantage.”
And that, my friends, is your first class ticket to flying through the sky so fancy free.
Source: Reddit.
