Tips for Booking Cheap Flights
As some 50,000miles fans will know my wife and I are off on our annual jaunt to Italy in mid June. We’ve decided to go to the Italian Rivera this year, somewhere new, somewhere exclusive!So as usual the hunt began for a budget airlines solution, made more difficult this year by moving away from easy travelling distance of Stansted, the home of the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair. Manchester Airport is owned by the city council and to keep council tax down landing charges at Ringway, as it used to be known, are very high so none of the usual suspect fly to the sun cheaply from there……
... but now we have Jet2! This budget carrier have recently began to fly a number of routes from Manchester at knockdown prices. Weehay!
The rules for budget airline bliss are the same wherever or whoever you fly with / from though…..
1. Book early – but not too early! 50,000miles has found from experience that the best deals can usually about 6 weeks before you want to leave. Too much earlier than this the airline still offers good fares but are not their best.
2. Be flexible on dates – the airlines know that most of us want to fly, at or near to, the weekend and bump prices up accordingly. Most carriers offer the option to see flights for the day before and the day after. Keep clicking and think about how about how important it is you’re their by a particular date. Jet2 have a great feature called the low fare finder which lets you see the prices for a whole month at a glance, very handy. I wish they all did this.
3. Be flexible on destination – yes okay so some of the airports the cheapos fly too are a little out of the way, and are, well putting it nicely, shoeboxes, but for an entrepreneur the likes of Ryanair landing at your local airstrip is like striking gold.
At every little airport I’ve been to there are usually plenty of taxis and most will have dedicated shuttle buses to the real destination which are timed for the arrival of the flights and are (usually) very reasonable.
Take Milan for example. There is a dedicated airbus service direct to Milano Centrale for 12 euro, which is probably quicker and cheaper than flying to one of the city’s 2 big airports. Great stuff!
4. Be creative – get a map out and have a look at the options of where you can fly to. On our next trip we’re flying in to Nice (from Manchester) and out of Pisa (to Liverpool), and saving a fortune! Have a play and see what you can come up with, you might even see something extra by getting to see an different city.
Also, by doing it this way you get to pay in euros to come home and, as per usual for rip off Britain, you’ll save pounds. Hopefully the EU will make sure that this unfair practice doesn’t last too long.
5. Sign up! – Each of the budgets has an email newsletter letting you find out about the best deals without lifting a finger. I’d also recommend signing up to the CheapFlights newsletter which sort of grabs these all together into a weekly brief
6. And lastly – but by no means leastly (if that’s a word), book it when you see it! The cheapest seats are limited so if you see a great price (single figures or under) book it!! Watch out for the cut off points for specials too as you may see an unbelievable price one evening, go to bed, decide to book it in the morning, and then you think you must have dreamt it because the price has rocketed. Trust experience on this one!
The result Mrs 50,000miles and I are flying to the Riviera, in sunny June for £63! No that’s not each, that’s the total including tax!
So what are you waiting for? Check out the links below and don’t forget to send me a postcard!
www.jet2.com
www.ryanair.com
www.easyjet.com
www.cheapflights.co.uk
posted by MrB @ 12:12 PM
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