How Do I Get the Best Discounts on Airline Tickets?

Who on this earth won't like to have a discount while making a booking for a flight ticket? Flight tickets can be very expensive and may at times can force you to cancel the trip if they exceed your travel budget. A discount, may be little or big, is always beneficial and goes a long way in making a successful trip happen. If your budget is tight and your destination can only be reached if travelling by air, then getting Cheap Flight Tickets is just like getting a feeling of heaven. All the time before we begin to search the flight tickets for our destination we are thinking about the fact 'Why do the airfares to a destination always fluctuate?" and 'How do the airlines set the airfare for a destination?'

Airlines have been using 'Dynamic pricing model' to price the Plane Tickets and this has nothing to do with costs or travel distance but more to do with customer's demand for a particular route, probability of selling the tickets in future, previous bookings and flight capacities. The airlines make use of Airlines Revenue Management system to price the Airline Tickets to maximize their profit as much as possible without losing many customers. Airlines also separate their customers into business and leisure category and will start pricing their holiday destinations higher in advance as people who are going on vacation will book in advance and later look to lower prices to fill capacity. On the other hand, business destinations' fares will rise steeply just before a week to take advantage of business travellers as they are willing to pay almost 60 percent higher on an average to secure a seat.

Being Flexible with Travel Dates and Flight Times

Air fares are different on separate days of the week, time of the year, and approaching celebration time such as Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July. People look to go for vacation at distinct locations all around the globe in particular months and everyone looks to go somewhere warm in winter and travel when the kids are looking to have summer vacation. In short if we can say, if we're going to fly when everyone is flying, then due to higher demand you won't be able to get Cheap Airline Tickets.

Try to make adjustments with your travelling times as some locations like Paris will always be expensive in the months from June to August but instead plan in later months when fewer people visit and airfare are comparatively cheaper. To get discounts on airline tickets is to fly off-season. Look for alternative dates so that you can capitalize on the discounts offered on the Flight Tickets.

Timings of the flight can help you land on big discounts as no body prefers to take the Red-Eye flights and they generally go at very less capacity. Airlines offer great discounts for them rather than morning flights because that's when most business-travellers fly. Same framework goes for flying in the middle of the week than on a weekend because most people travel on the weekends and airlines hike their prices then. Make adjustments with your dates and times of the flight and you’ll save yourself some major money by getting unusual discounts.

Fly Budget Carriers

In previous decades, if anyone wanted to travel in between continents, they were mostly stuck with the traditional expensive airlines. They used to have the same flights, same destinations and even took off at same time of the day. We lacked for choices but presently that's no longer true. In more connected world, the passengers can fly most of the way around the world on a budget airline. Surely, they're not comfortable as the traditional airlines and these budget airlines may charge extra dollars for premium upgrades like checked bags and meals, but they bring the world to your doorstep without breaking the bank.

The Budget airlines have been granted permission to fly on the short and medium-haul routes, even due to smaller size aircrafts they're best-operated on short and medium-haul for optimum utilization of resources. Plenty of them exist now, for a passenger traveling on a flight route can avail great discounts in comparison to the traditional expensive airlines. The passengers need to be smart enough to look from them as some of them don't show up on Flight Booking portals as they don't enter into profit-sharing agreements.

Passengers need to vary about the fees they pay for the boarding the flight. These budget airlines are charging for almost everything ranging from checked bags, carry-ons, printing your boarding pass, using a credit card, and anything else they can get away with. Before committing to any budget airlines, add up the cost of the ticket and the fees to make sure that the price is lower than a larger carrier flying on the same route.

Another important point to cross-check is the location of the budget airline’s airport at your intended destination. Budget airlines based on the permission, often fly in and out of airports that are quite far from the actual city, with limited and expensive transportation options, and the cost of reaching the airport should also be added to the final tally.

Don’t Always look to Fly Direct

Being flexible with dates and destinations indeed helps in getting discounts, but being flexible with the flight route even is another way to get cheap airline tickets. It's possible if you're taking direct flight to London it may be very expensive at nearly $900 but taking a budget flight to Amsterdam and then taking a connecting flight can land you a deal in less than $700.

To make effective use of this technique, find out how much you need to pay for going directly to the destination. Then, open the flight aggregator site and type in that destination’s continent to look at prices to nearby airports. Once you the get the flight prices, look to see how much it is to get from the second airport to my primary destination (either by flight or train, if it’s not too far). You can make use of the same technique at the time of leaving to also and searching other airports to check if it’s cheaper to fly/drive/train there and then flying to the final destination.

It’s important while making reservations for separate flights, you at least have a buffer of three hours so as to avoid any anomaly. It can also entitle to claim travel insurance since most companies have included this clause. This technique requires much hard work and imagination as you need to figure out different routes and checking different airlines.

Checking Mail for Special Deals from Airlines

Before the traveller initiates the flight search, make sure going through the airlines websites and some newsletters. Registering for the mailing list for airlines and last-minute deal websites will give the passenger access to the absolute best deals out there.

Almost, most of them might not fit your itinerary but keeping an eye open on the deals can help you grab an amazing opportunity to get a discount on airline tickets. These mails may be part of your junk mail sometimes but often can land up deals may not be offered every time by the airlines. Most of the airline newsletters offer frequent flier bonuses which can help you save dollars and these points & miles from newsletters can add up to free flights and awesome upgrades.

Use the Reward Points and Miles

A great way to earn discounts on the airline tickets is by signing up for a travel rewards card. The rewards program is one of the best ways to earn free flights, travel perks, and even free hotel stays.

Passengers can earn flight upgrades, welcome bonuses, access to free events, access to airport lounges, and many other perks come as a part of the package. Doesn't make a difference how often you fly, make sure you're enrolled for a reward program. Some cards offer the benefit of earning miles that too without flying or spending extra money and they get added up by purchasing normal grocery items even.

The only thing to take care here is always check on the expiry of the points as they’re valuable and can help you save plenty of dollars on your dream destination trip. Ensure to utilize them before they expire or set up a target to accumulate the number of reward points or miles before going for a dream destination trip.

Make early reservations for flight tickets

Airline ticket prices keep rising as the departure date gets closer, but there is a sweet spot when the airlines begin to either lower or increase fares based on demand. The most appropriate time to book the flight is around two to three months before the departure date, or around five months before if you are going to your destination during their peak season.

You can use this technique as a guide only but don't make it as a hard and fast rule for booking the flight tickets early. Look for the flight prices for the current week showing in the calendar and make the comparison of the flight prices with the planned date of travel. You'll easily ascertain the variation in the fares you can expect when you flight date comes near.