With a vaccine being rolled out, and resorts sharing their reopening plans, many people are starting to get excited about dreaming all things travel once more. But how do you get the best deal? In my 6 years working as a travel agent, I was asked about every possible theory as to how to get the cheapest flight; from secret sites, booking on certain days of the week, to waiting until the day before the flight to get a ‘last minute deal.’ Some people swear by these strategies, but is there any truth to these theories, and are there any ways to actually get the best deal? Let me address the most common questions I would be asked.
Question 1: Is it cheapest to book your flight on a Tuesday?
My experience has been that the day of the week you choose to purchase your ticket makes no difference to the price. The price of a ticket is based on demand. If the last few days have been slow, the price may come down a bit. However, if the flight has been selling like hotcakes, you will see the price go up and up. More often than not, the longer you wait, the higher the price is likely to go. It is a myth that you are more likely to get a good deal booking on a Tuesday than any other day.
HOWEVER, it is true that often Tuesday is the cheapest day to FLY. The majority of travellers fly over the weekends. People take a week of vacation and like to travel Saturday to Saturday. People taking weekend getaways fly Friday to Sunday or Monday. People travelling for business often travel Monday to Friday. So you will find that the least popular days to travel are the middle of the week, and that is where you are likely to find a better deal.
Question 2: Can I find cheaper deals myself online than booking with a travel agent?
Generally not. It is true that many travel agents may charge a small fee when booking only airline tickets. Gone are the days when ticketing agents were paid by the airline to sell tickets, especially domestically, so they have to make money somehow. A lot of agents will waive these fees if they sell the flights as part of a package, but even with the fees, there is enormous value in having the assistance of an agent when it comes to schedule changes, weather interruptions, cancellations, issues and rebooking. (Have you ever had to work directly with the airline on this stuff? Ugh.. save yourself the trouble!)
A lot of people believe that they can find a better deal online themselves rather than working with a travel agent. However, when it comes to flights, this is a myth. Agents have access to all the same flight prices you will find directly with the airline, so the ticket itself will not cost anything more (and nine times out of ten they will find it faster than you).
Third party flight booking sites sometimes advertise a lower price, but when you go through to try and actually book them, there is often a hidden catch such as a membership fee, extra fees and charges, international transaction fee, and heaven forbid anything should happen with these tickets and you had to try and get customer service help. Stay away!
However; booking with a travel agent could actually save you a lot of money.
Question 3: Should I wait until the last minute to get a good deal?
I cannot tell you how many clients wanting to travel in a month will assure me that they are going to wait until 3 days before the flight to try and get a better deal. Sometimes this may work with accommodation or a cruise where there is leftover inventory they want to sell. This almost NEVER works with flights, it is a myth!
Generally people looking to travel last minute are doing so out of necessity – a family emergency or work trip. They are desperate and will pay whatever it takes to make it happen, and the airlines know this. Almost all flights will go up in price once you get within 14 days of travel.
Those clients wanting to book three days before? Generally the flight is no longer available, or the price has doubled from what it was a month out, and the best vacation they are taking is a camping trip to their backyard.
Hopefully this answers a few questions and debunks a few myths about how NOT to find the best deal on a flight. But if these don’t work, what are we meant to do? Well don’t despair! Check out my proven tips on how to find a great deal on a flight – keep an eye out for a follow up post coming soon!
Let me know if you have any other questions you would like me to answer, or tips you would like to share.
Happy Walkabout!
Forever on Walkabout
Thank you for these tips Brendan! I have been guilty of waiting until the last minute and learned my lesson the hard way haha