When I’m not travelling I’m fantasising about my next trip instead, which has meant I’ve developed a certain knack for finding the cheapest flights out there. I want to keep ‘listicle’ posts to a minimum as this kind of content is really not what this blog is supposed to be about… But I was in Dubai when I first drafted this, so it was only fitting I take a commercial turn!
I want to make clear from the onset that this is about real budget travel from A to B. If you’re after tips on getting the best deals on premium airlines, there are better resources out there for you. I’m a bit tired of finding so much ‘budget’ travel guidance that reckon a day’s spend in any particular place is more than double what I’d ever end up spending though. I therefore think it’s worth documenting some of the ways I save money as I go round the world.
1. Kiwi.com is the best search tool out there
Kiwi.com (widget below) is by far and away the most easy to use, versatile site out there for finding cheap flights. It comes with the ability to search for flights out from various nearby airports at the same time with a handy map view and, most importantly at all, it will patch together absurd flight connections to find you the cheapest deal. It will also allow you more flexibility on date selection than any other flight tool available.
Ultimately, jetting around the world as cheap as possible means stringing together smaller budget flights and this is what Kiwi does best. It’s how I made it from London to Dubai for just £28. If you’re truly committed to minimising costs, it may very well be that a gruelling 3 legged journey to Istanbul via Milan and then Sofia is the cheapest option for you. Obviously, it’s for each individual to decide how much of a masochist they are when it comes to their own itinerary.
2. Book flights directly from the airline
Though Kiwi is a great place to actually find flights, it’s can often be slightly cheaper to pop over to the airline’s own webpage and book the flights directly, even though you’ve actually identified them elsewhere. Potential extras like baggage can also often cost more if you’re not booking things direct. You will have to balance that cost saving vs. kiwi’s offered protection on missing connecting flights however.
Though kiwi.com has a good track record, there can also be small issues that crop up when booking with third parties. You run the risk of flight changes not being reported to you reliably and if anything goes wrong it’s usually much easier to be chasing the airline directly for compensation rather than some peculiar third party that you can never get hold of.
Now there is the odd time some travel agents are showing flights cheaper than the airline itself. Such instances have come up from time to time for me on Skyscanner which is the search tool I expect most of you are already familiar with. I would advise caution here though. Often these agents have shocking Trustpilot reviews and can be a bit of a nightmare to deal with. I used one such agent to get great flights to Vietnam once and all went smoothly for me but the company went belly-up only a few months later causing problems for others, so I got lucky!
3. Try and beat the search engines
Once you’ve used Kiwi and SkyScanner to find some good flight prices, you can start having a bit of a play independently of what they’ve put together, using what you’ve learnt from some of your searches.
For instance, by playing around with different searches to Dubai I learnt that Wizzair operates cheap points of entry into the UAE through regular budget flights from Athens, Sofia and Bucharest. With this knowledge in hand, searching for flights to these places and then onto the UAE independently I was able to construct a trip even cheaper than Kiwi showed me. I identified that one flight in particular from Sofia to Dubai was going for £8 and then found a way to Sofia for £20 from London allowing me to connect to that flight.
In this instance I had no significant layover but sometimes the cheapest way is simply to completely add another destination to your trip. Obviously it should be a place you’re interested in exploring, but it may be significantly cheaper in terms of flights to stop in for 2-3 days somewhere before continuing on to your main target destination.
Ultimately if you start playing around regularly you start to realise certain patterns coming up again and again. For instance, so many European trips can be made cheaper if you travel via Milan as it’s such a major Ryanair travel hub!
4. Search ‘everywhere’
Now it may be that you are set on a particular destination and other suggestions here can assist with such ambitions. However, whilst there are certain places I have my heart set on, I’m pretty keen to drop in and see what the crack is in most countries. It’s not only economical to keep your options open, it can also be pretty thrilling decide you’re going to Morocco on a whim just because you’ve found a decent deal.
Again, once you’ve discovered some flight to the Baltic states for £10, you can go right ahead and see if you can go further by searching for cheap flights from there. Experimentation like this is the real key to success.
5. Baggage tactics
As it can often transpire that the cheapest way to my destination involves taking a couple of flights, it’s important I’m not making my cost saving efforts redundant by having to fork out lots of dough for additional baggage.
My advice would always be to pack as small as possible and I think in most instances anyone can easily get by shelling out for just an additional larger cabin bag, which usually doesn’t add much to the cost of the flight.
It depends on the trip I’m doing but I will often aim to pack small enough that I don’t even need the additional cabin bag. This limits you to something pretty small though, with Ryanair’s stated dimensions for this included bag being just 40 x 25 x 20. Quite honestly I’m usually skirting the edge of what could land me a £50 additional baggage charge but I have some sneaky strategies that ensure that I’m less likely to be questioned about my bag. I’ve overthought this enough over the years that it could justify an entire post in and of itself!
Tips when buying additional baggage
It’s usually cheaper to book additional baggage when you’re first booking the flight, rather than adding it on as an extra later down the line.
With Wizzair / Ryanair it will cost you less to acquire the additional bag by selecting ‘priority’ boarding, also giving you access to an entirely redundant faster queue (so you have the advantage of being cramped up on the plane for longer or something…?).
Decant your regular sized toiletries into 100ml bottles so you’re not having to buy extra small bottles before you fly.
Double check baggage size restrictions every time. Not all airlines are the same.
Tips when winging it with only a 'small' cabin bag
Use a backpack. They don’t get a good look at it necessarily if it’s on your back and they are less suspicious of backpacks as a rule when compared to any hard case / sports bag.
Carry your backpack over one shoulder at the gate. Even if you’re carrying those ridiculous dumbbells you insist on dragging around with you to every beach holiday, giving off the impression that what you’re carrying is quite light and manageable can only be a plus.
Wear as much as you can! This works better in winter, but I have a coat with multiple pockets I’ve managed to fit a fair bit of clothing into on occasion. It felt exceedingly clever until I was searched upon entry to Milan cathedral on my layover and had to show the Italian Security guard my pink elephant underwear...
Carrying a couple of books, laptop onto the plane in arm rather than having them bulk up your bag can ensure your bag looks smaller.
The most important tip here I think though is that I always aim to be one of the last people on the plane. It seems that the closer it gets to the end of boarding then the more the priorities of the airline staff shift from questioning baggage to simply just getting everybody on the damn plane on time before take-off!
Of course if you are being a bit cheeky and you are caught out, always be polite about it! Nothing will be gained by being rude or negative to airline staff.
6. Consider flying to the town next door
Flight prices to cities next door to each other can often vary significantly. Whether it be a result of higher taxes and fees to operate in larger airports or simply supply and demand factors, flying into say Eindhoven rather than Amsterdam could save you a lot of money. Many countries will still run regular bus and train connections to their capital / largest cities from regional airports anyway. Just be sure the additional cost of internal travel doesn’t invalidate your cost saving on the flight!
7. Don’t book too early
It’s great that you’ve got all your travel plans ironed out for next year but though it may be tempting to lock it all in now it probably won’t do you any favours cost wise. With regards to budget flights anyway, you’re often looking at a period 2 months in advance being the most reasonable time to book, though of course further in advance for peak holiday periods would be advised. It’s a difficult thing to make the right call on and I’ve recently witnessed a flight to Georgia I’d already booked fall from £45 to £30 in the run up to departure. Skyscanner now actually has a ‘best time to book’ tool which is definitely worth a look.
8. Pay in the local currency with a credit card
This is a minor cost saving point, but when booking flights that originate abroad airlines will often give you the option to pay in pounds or, in the case of Ryanair, sneakily convert it to pounds for you automatically at checkout. This always entails a worse exchange rate than you’d get on any typical credit card. Usually you can save £1-£5 by ensuring you don’t let the airline perform any currency conversions on your behalf. Of course, I can’t guarantee this is the case for every card provider but it is for most! As an aside, at the time of writing anyway, the best credit card to use travelling is the Barclaycard Reward Card. Repay it in full via direct debit and you’ll pay no fees on using it abroad on purchases OR cash machine withdrawals. As with most things in finance, moneysavingexpert is your best port of call for finding the latest deals.
9. Sign up to Jack’s Flight Club
I must admit, I’m not completely blown away by Jack and his flight club enterprise. I feel like using the tools and methods detailed above you can often find better deals than he does each week. After all, by his own admission he basically just searches online himself with the tools available to anybody else to find the best air fares to include in his emails.
Still, there is a definite practicality to having a weekly email sent out with some decent holiday ideas that don’t break the bank. Additionally he’s often good at focusing his efforts on how to make the most of a long weekend etc. for those after a flurry of smaller trips.
Sign up is free, with him offering a subscription for further emails which I’m really not sure is worth it but make your own mind up about the free email first!
10. Join Wizzair’s Discount Club
Wizzair has always seemed slightly nicer than Ryanair in my books. I’m not sure if there’s anything too concrete underlying this view but I’ve never had any issues jetting around the continent with them and they seem a little less rigorous on enforcing baggage policy and the like to the letter. If you plan on flying a lot with them in a particular year it’s definitely worth it to get Wizzair’s Discount Club membership. You pay £26 to save about £9 a flight, so it pays for itself as soon as you make 3 journeys. It could even pay for itself in 1 holiday.
It’s worth noting here too that a new collaboration with Booking.com can score you Wizzair credit from your accommodation bookings. In my experience though, this hasn’t applied to any budget travel accommodation and there’s little sense in distorting your usual choices simply to acquire flight credit.
11. Consider alternative transportation
In my planning for this trip pre-COVID-19 I had been making a conscious effort to do as little flying as possible across my year of travels because, as we all know, it’s not the most ethical way to get around. Frustratingly, various restrictions now mean that even when countries are next door to each other though I may have to fly between them as airports are the only permitted points of entry for tourists!
Putting my endless digressions to one side however, it is also fairly obvious that there are many options other than planes for getting around the world. Busses, trains, and probably most economical of all – ride sharing, via sites such as blablacar.
Hitchiking is also a fine solution, with sites like hitchwiki providing a huge amount of advice of various routes and for those really daring you can even sometimes score passage on yachts in exchange for helping out on the boat at findacrew.
Phew! I actually went and did a whole proper ‘travel blog’ blog post! I’m both proud and disgusted with myself. As I’m sure you clocked, I’ve even played around with a kiwi.com advert on this post. Troubling developments indeed.
If you do have any questions about flights I didn’t cover here, feel free to fire away in the comments and I’ll help if I can.
In the meantime, here’s a song that mentions my name and a plane in the very first line…
Song of the Post
I'll aim to follow each of my posts with an associated song. It might be something which fits my current writing or perhaps it's simply something nice I've heard recently.