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Top tips to get the cheapest flights

With air travel, you get what you pay for. If you are willing to put up with limited leg room, restrictive weight limits for luggage and limited flexibility, you will be able to save some money.

Here are some tips on how to get the cheapest flights:

• Book your flight early in advance if you have a specific date/time requirement, or leave it to the last minute for a late deal if you are flexible.
• Be flexible with dates and times – putting up with early morning or late flights can save you £££’s!
• Look out for price wars between competing airlines – if you are flexible on where you want to go, be influenced by the cheapest deals.
• Sign up to receive emails from airlines that are relevant to you, and look out for their sales. BA, Opodo, KLM and American Airlines all have good sales with significant discounts.
• Travel midweek – weekends are a more popular time to travel, so they usually cost more
• Avoid travelling in the school holidays if you can. Prices usually go up.
• Avoid travelling around the time when there are special holidays – Christmas, Easter, and during the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
• Travel on special days – flights on Xmas or New Years Day. No one else wants to travel then, so you could get some great deals, and what better Xmas present to yourself than heading off on your fantastic trip!
• Off season tickets cost less – but beware the tickets cost less for a reason - you don’t want to travel to a country for hurricane or monsoon season.
• Book online for the best deals – and you won’t be charged admin fees
• Bid for tickets online with Sky Auction – a flight auction site similar to eBay

Watch out for hidden costs

Always check the Terms & Conditions of your airline in case they have some hidden charges. Some of the budget airlines charge huge amounts per kilo that your hold luggage is over the weight limit, and have a really low weight limit so it is quite likely that you will exceed it. If you can’t pack less, you could get round this by finding out what the hand luggage weight limit is and packing heavy items in your hand luggage instead. Some airlines may even be so sneaky as to allow a higher weight limit on the outward flight than on the return – its worth checking.

Buying single tickets

It is very cheap to travel from the UK, so the cost of a single ticket will be much lower than a return. You may be tempted to just buy a single ticket – especially if you are planning to work abroad. Be realistic about this – it could be a lot harder to save for your ticket while you are away than staying at home (living rent free with your parents? Not being tempted by bungee jumping opportunities every day!). It could get tough if you want to come home, but haven’t managed to save up. And you will end up spending more on your ticket than you would if you bought a return from the UK.

Be warned that some countries won’t let you enter without proof that you intend to leave again, ie. your return or onward travel ticket. You may even get turned back by Immigration and have to come home again!

If you will be stopping in a few countries, a round the world ticket really does offer great value – definitely worth waiting to save up for in our opinion.

If you don’t know when you are planning on coming back, you will probably be able to change your return date quite easily – check with your airline.

If you really can’t afford a return flight and don’t want to spend the time saving up, why not buy an airline ticket out and investigate alternative forms of transport home. Come back overland by rail or even bus – a great way to see the countryside. Look into ferries and boats – very easy from Europe to the UK. Did you know the ferry from Tangier in Spain, to Morrocco only takes 35 minutes! It’s easy to forget how close Africa is from mainland Europe.

Further afield – long haul flights

Until recently, budget airlines such as Easyjet have only flown within Europe, but they are starting to fly further afield. It’s worth doing a bit of research to check which airlines fly to where you want to go and comparing prices. Oasis Airlines have recently sold return flights between Gatwick and Hong Kong from £150 plus tax, and you can fly return from Heathrow to Delhi from £265 plus tax. Check out Canadian airline Zoom if you want to fly to Canada – or use this as an indirect route to get into America.

Many brokers, eg Expedia.co.uk and Travelocity, secure deals with the airlines for long haul flights, so make sure you check them out.

Did you know - Screenscraper v FlightChecker

Enter your date and destination into a screenscraper site such as Skyscanner & Kelkoo, and they do a quick shop around for you – instantly searching through lots of budget airlines and flight broker websites with the requirements you have entered and returning the best prices. Flightcheckers constantly trawl through sites grabbing information which they use to build up a massive database of ticket & prices information which is updated regularly. Your query is answered using this database, rather than live information.

While screenscrapers and flightcheckers are very useful for European flights, they are not so good for long haul flights.

For the few lucky ones... the courier service with BA

BA operate a courier service for freight and documents. Couriers are required to carry the package onto the plane, hand it over to the airline staff for storage during the flight, and then collect it and deliver it to staff within the destination airport on arrival. If you dress smartly and are willing to take a flight at short notice and are flexible on your dates and destination, you could act as their courier and pay very little for the flight. You would usually need to return within two weeks though – so not much good for longer stays. Call British Airways Travel Shop for more details 00 44 (0)870 606 1133 and to find out what couriers are currently needed.