Flight Expert Shares 5 Tricks To Instantly Save £1000s On Air Fare
- Flight Expert Tom Church reveals tricks to save £1000s on flights
- Shows how split ticketing can save £309 instantly
- Reveals how layovers can save a whopping £2080 in seconds
- Shares the best newsletters to pick up regular flight hacks
Here in the UK, we’re lucky to have Europe on our doorstep - but flights can easily get pricey if we only look into booking at the last minute. What’s more, if we want to go further afield we’re looking at spending the best part of £1000 at the very least. But what if you could save £1000s on your airfare with just a few simple tricks?
Flight Expert Tom Church has revealed how you can save eye-watering amounts of money by tapping into little known resources online. The co-founder of money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk said: ‘It’s easy to look up a flight online and presume the first price you find is the best.
‘However, by making just a few tweaks to search results and doing your research, you can save literally thousands of pounds on your travel. From split ticketing to layover hacks, here are my top 5 tips.’
Save With Split Ticketing And Pocket £309
Not many people consider ‘split ticketing’ when they are looking up a flight. Some search engines such as SkyScanner can search for these, or you can do it manually yourself using Google Flights - although this might take you a bit more time.
The premise is simple - sometimes it can be cheaper to buy multiple reservations in a connecting city. Let’s take an example - what if you wanted to fly to Honolulu in Hawaii on holiday, but you were looking to cut costs where possible?
If you were set on taking a week-long holiday from 14th to 20th August, you might look up the options to go from a London airport to Honolulu. When I did this, I found a flight path from Gatwick Airport to LAX in Los Angeles, then LAX over to Daniel K Inoyue airport in Honolulu. This journey would cost me £1,271 for a round trip.
However, I then looked into split tickets. I searched for flights from London airports to LAX. The best option included a layover in Phoenix, Arizona and would cost £582. I then looked up LA to Honolulu and found a direct route for £380. The total cost with split ticketing would be £962 - saving me £309!
Splits are a great way to save money if you’re travelling with only hand luggage, as you would need to recheck any baggage. Also, as you’re making two reservations, you need to consider that connection time would not be protected in the event of a delay. This means that the onward carrier would not rebook you if you missed the connection.
Don’t Rule Out Layovers As You Could Save £2080
It’s easy to be repelled by the idea of flights with layovers, particularly if they’re lengthy or even overnight. Travelling can be stressful enough without waiting around to catch your next flight. However, the savings you can make are well worth it.
For example, let’s say you want to travel from London to Vancouver. A non-stop flight departing on 14th August would cost £4600 minimum. However, if you chose a flight with a layover in JFK, you’d only pay £2520. You’re saving £2080!
Planning is key if you’re taking a flight with a layover. Ensure you have activities to keep you occupied, such as catching up on work, watching movies, reading a book or meeting up with friends who live nearby. Whatever you do, view the layover as a chance to do something fun or productive as part of your trip.
Hold The Fare - The Fee Might Be Worth It
Before booking, some airlines allow you to hold the fare if you pay a small fee.
For example, Aegean Air will let you reserve your flight through their Hold my Booking service. They will keep it on hold at the current available price for 4 days for domestic flights (3 EUR), and 6 days for international flights (6 EUR).
Select American Airlines flights will also allow for a 24 hour hold - you will know if your flight is eligible once you are on the Review and Pay page. You can hold your reservation for up to 24 hours for free if you book 7 or more days before departing.
The benefit of holding the fare is in circumstances where you’ve seen there’s a sale coming through - flight tips newsletters will often have this information - and you don’t want to pay full price for the ticket.
Other airlines which allow for flight reservations include:
That being said, a lot of US airlines - and BA - offer free 24 hour cancellation as well. Plus, if you booked a flight in the main cabin with a US airline, they will often allow you to make changes - and if the new price is lower, they will give you a future flight credit.
Book Flights And Hotels Separately To Save £100s
I recommend buying flights and hotels separately. Hotels have greater room for flexibility, so it’s easier to cancel and change if needed to in order to move towards lower prices.
It can be worth paying a little extra for a refundable hotel booking, as you can check prices nearer the time, potentially book a cheaper option and get your original booking refunded. Just be sure to make a note of the cutoff point for requesting a refund!
While package holidays can often come with good deals because travel agents have access to discounts that you don’t, it can often pay off to time your bookings right. The general rule is that you should book flights in advance as much as possible.
If I wanted to book a last-minute flight to Paris for the weekend of 22nd July, I would easily be paying £178. However, if I booked ahead for 14th August, it would be half price at £94.
What’s more, if I waited until September, I could depart on the 19th and return on the 20th for £53 - more than a quarter of that last-minute price.
Sign Up To These Newsletters And Save £100s With Flight Errors
There are some great newsletters out there which will easily save you £100s on your flights.
SecretFlying is an established newsletter for pricing errors. For example, they recently posted about a pricing error for flights from Oslo, Norway to Nairobi, Kenya. Due to a suspected OTA glitch - which is when an online travel agency system neglects to add the fuel surcharge - flights in February and March 2024 were showing for 205 EUR, or £176.
Now that the deal has disappeared, the usual prices for this timeframe and journey are around £386 - which is over £200 more!
Jack’s Flight Club is another great website for those who don’t have the time to search for travel or would just want inspiration. Their newsletter sends deals on a range of flights.
Some recent deals they’ve given to members include London to Tokyo for £248 and Manchester to Manila for £272. You’ll usually be paying at least £600 for these trips - often as much as £1,000 - so you’re only paying a fifth of the price!
The LatestDeals.co.uk Co-Founder concluded: ‘These tricks will easily help you to save huge sums of money on your travel plans. Even if you only sign up to a newsletter or think about split ticketing for your next trip away, I bet you’ll be surprised at the savings you end up making.’
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