Low Cost Airline Tickets

Section 4 Policies and 3 Instruments for the Purchase of Cheap Tickets

This past week-end I spend some of my spare tire to buy the first airline tickets for our voyage around the globe, and I have to say that I am quite satisfied with the results. By now I have been able to make 10 bookings for our 4-person familiy - a grand total of 40 tickets - for 3533 CAD (2838 USD), only 883.

This is our route for the first 5 month of our journey with the price we payed for each flight: Spending 8 hrs to find 40 tickets for $3533 shows how the $100 per hrs target is attainable, as I think I've spared much more than $800 during my 8 hrs of research.

Use low -cost carriers; Easy travelling; Flexibility in place of origin and destination; Flexibility in trip data. There is a good explanation why certain carriers are considered "low-cost": they provide lower fares than conventional carriers. Be careful, low-cost doesn't mean no-serve. In fact, this means that any extra services have a cost that could potentially raise the cost of your flights.

In order to be commercially viable, these carriers invent brilliant ways to reduce cost and can thus provide very low fares. Aircraft have more seating capacity; there is less leg room; you are operating at an airport outside the inner cities; you are operating for less than desired operating time; the basic fare only gives you the right to one seating place; only a "small" item of baggage is covered; the booking and registering process is automated and without operator interference; extra service is provided at extra cost such as :

Reserve a seating place in anticipation; additional baggage; make changes to the original booking; any manual intrusion. Non-stop flight; delay is not reimbursable; there is a directive that does not provide for refund. With other words, if you like to travel comfortably, it is best to take the incumbent carriers. It is very likely that you will end up having to pay more by simply add all the additional benefits normally provided "free" by conventional carriers.

This is the low -cost airline schedule. Traveling with baggage that has to go into the freight compartment makes your tickets considerably more costly. We plan in our case to go with lightweight baggage, as we will take some air tickets and we don't want to pay any additional charges for our baggage, we wouldn't disturb it either, without the hassle of possibly wasting it!

We also plan to launder our clothing once a week, which I can endure considering the thousand of dollar I've spared on baggage surcharges. One Osprey Farpoint 40 litre backpack, one Osprey Fairview 40 litre backpack (the women's Farpoint) and two small Away Travel Carry-On cases.

This bag's benefit is that it fits within the permitted size of most budget carriers without having to cover additional charges for checked in baggage. Specially developed for travellers who want to reduce additional cost of carrying equipment, they are long-lasting and convenient. Both Osprey and Away Travel will fix or fully restore the exterior without question if the exterior tears, tears, punctures, or if a bike shatters or no longer rolls smooth.

With some of the best guarantees in the business, these two businesses have decided to use these cases to avoid having to buy a suitcase for the remainder of our life - in the hopes that these businesses will continue to operate after our kids retire.

Of the 10 trips I purchased, I pay only for checked baggage with Wow Air, as their size for cabins is more stringent. Familiarise yourself with the limitations of each airline's own carbags. Your case must be able to pass the test to show that it is within the limits allowed by the airline you are using.

An initial hypothesis that air travel is expensive is that Canadian carriers are paying high fees, which they then share with their clients. We have a large number of tourist attractions where board and lodging cost almost nothing in comparison to what we would be paying in the West.

For example, a trip to Turkey, India or the Philippines could cost just $300 a trip a whole week, without the airfare, without compromising your convenience - well, maybe I'm overdoing it. If we are on the topic of airline tickets right now to contradict the second hypothesis, I can say that the choice of an destination close to those you imagine can also help saving time.

If, for example, you know that low cost carriers are operating all over Europe and buy the lowest priced tickets to anywhere in Europe, then you are saving yourself a second cheap fare from that town to your ultimate destinations. It is important, however, to have enough free space between the two trips, as if you were missing the second trip to not get your cash back.

In fact, I suggest that you stay a whole full or two days between your trips as you can go to a new town that is a win-win situation! A further advantage is to get the round-trip ticket from another airline, e.g. a Montreal-Paris round-trip ticket with a Brussels-Montreal round-trip ticket with another airline could potentially cut dollar costs in comparison to a single Montreal-Paris round-trip ticket.

After all, do not forget that it does not cost much to go within Europe. Within one single and the same time, the same fare can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled etc. in fare. You wonder how I got to get such ludicrously lowfares? I' ll be explaining how to use these 3 gadgets to find low-cost flights:

Kayaking Explore, because of your destination versatility; Google Flights, because of your scheduling versatility; Wikipedia, to find an airport used by low-cost-carriers. Using Kayak Explore, I can find cheaper targets from a particular town. I notice it and my adrenalin begins to pump until I notice that it's just a piece of inexpensive, worthless jewelry.

You can see from the screenshots below that a fare from London to Bremen, Germany costs $11, to Lourdes in the Pyrenees costs $23 or to Malta costs $57. I use Google Flights to find cheaper flights between two sites. Then the system will offer you the best possible offer in a 3-dimensional array (x = place of origin, y = place of destination, zip = date of travel).

What I find interesting when looking for low -cost airline tickets is that Wikipedia can tell you which low-cost carriers are operating there by entering the name of an airline. As I was looking for planes from Greece to Israel, I saw that there was a low cost kayak from Cyprus to Tel Aviv (Thank you Kayak Explore!).

Then I went to the page of Wikipedia about Paphos, Cyprus (see monitor below) to see if there was a plane from Greece to Paphos. This is how I found Chania, a city on the Crete Isle in Greece. And then we go to Cyprus to stay only 4 nights - 3 or 5 would have been much more costly (thanks Google Flights!).

Briefly, because we were agile with our schedules and departure/arrival points, I was able to get from Greece to Israel for a less expensive one than a one-way ticket, and as a reward we visited the Crete and Cyprus Isles, two places I didn't originally want to go, but which have now spurred my fantasy.

It is important not to be trapped in order to reach a cul-de-sac by making too hasty a reservation if you think you have found the best deal of the year. If you have to come back to yourself in your one-way route, you could end up having to pay more because cheap tickets are not eligible for refunds.

When I flew from Basel, Switzerland, for example, I was looking for an intermediate stop that would allow me to explore the surrounding area of Prague, Czech Republic (within a 500 km radius), before going to another intermediate town before Greece. Therefore I used my research tool, which gave me great rates for Prague or Dresden, Germany (Thanks Kayak Explore!) for my preferred date (Thanks Google Flights!).

However, I expected to rent a vehicle to make a drive in the area, and since it is less expensive to give the vehicle back to the same place, I had to select a place that enabled us to drive less. Sadly, neither Prague nor Dresden provided a good range of flight options under these circumstances.

I had to make compromises and chose Berlin (1st move), which gave me a good prize for Sofia in Bulgaria (2nd move), which we will use as a basis for a Balkan outing. In this context, we also booked Sofia to Athens for $64 for 4 persons.

My original intention was to go to Turkey and Greece. However, I realized that a flight from Athens-Istanbul was much more expensive than that from Istanbul-Athens for the dates I was looking for, and so I decided to go to Istanbul first (third move), since we could take from Sofia a coach or a sleeping car under the starry skies, and get up early in the morning in Istanbul, singing birdsongs and bewitched by the spicy flavours of the east markets....... you know.

Briefly, we will go to Turkey before we fly from Istanbul to Athens (4th move). At the end and to summarize my hikes I was able to get from Basel to Athens via Berlin and Sofia through Turkey instead of going to Greece. However, I am optimistic that this approach could help you find some very competitive offers.

Just don't spend more of your free hours just saving a few additional pence. I would like to point out that this route is valid for the first 5 month of our journey around the globe and I have not yet purchased the tickets for the next part.