WHEN it comes to booking holidays, there are lots of secret tricks you could use to save yourself hundreds of pounds.
And they’re easy enough to try yourself too.
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So before you do the research for your next holiday, make sure you know these rules off by heart.
Don’t book hotels and flights at the same time
It might be cheaper to book a package holiday, as travel agents often have access to better deals than you can find yourself, but if you’re organising your own holiday, make sure you book the flights and hotels separately.
According to Sam Shank, CEO of hotel booking platform HotelTonight, prices of hotels often drop if you’re booking them at the last minute.
Flights are the opposite – you want to book them as soon as you can.
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He told Forbes: “With airline tickets, prices shoot up a lot if you wait too long.”
Sam added that flights should be booked “six to seven weeks” ahead of travelling while hotels can be much closer before the holiday date.
Book flights for one person at a time
Families and friends booking flights together should compare prices quoted for group bookings and individual bookings before deciding on how to book.
This is because airlines usually release a select number of seats at the lowest price and when these sell out, the next highest price will be shown.
But the rules change when you book for more than one person.
George Hobica for Los Angeles Times explained: “If there’s only one seat at the lowest price, the airline will price both seats at the next highest fare.”
This means that if the next price level is significantly higher, it could be cheaper overall to buy the two flights separately – one paying the lower price and one paying the higher price.
Track your flights
Tools like Google Flights and Kayak allow you to set price trackers for any flight in a specific range of dates, and they’re even getting smarter.
They’ll let you know when prices go up, drop or are soon to change based on historical data.
If you combine this with a knowledge of what a “good” price is, you’ll be first in line when the good deals pop up to ensure you get in.
The key is to have firm dates because many of the best deals, like a recent fare from Amsterdam to Tokyo in five-star Qatar Airways flat-bed business class for £540 return, only last a few hours.
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Booking on an international website
If your bank no longer charges foreign transaction fees, then you can often save money by changing the “location” or currency of the ticket you buy.
Norwegian Airlines is a perfect example.
Anyone would naturally just go to their local Norwegian.com site, in their native language – but by doing so they could end up overpaying.
Norwegian prices flights out cheaper in Norwegian krone, their home currency, so a Brit buying a plane ticket from Gatwick to JFK on Norwegian would do better to tick the “location: Norway, language: Norwegian” box for savings of at least £18.
Since Google Chrome has built in translation, that’s pretty easy to navigate.
Free twin-centre holiday
Many flights allow stopovers of up to 24 hours, and some even offer ones more than 24 hours for free.
For example, when buying a ticket from London to Cape Town, you may be entitled to stop somewhere on the way, turning the connection into a mini holiday.
If you were flying Emirates, the fare may allow you to have two days in Dubai on the way back for the same exact price.
To find these, search using the multi city tool on your favourite search engine.
Experts also claim you should book hotels on a Friday night to get the biggest bargain.
Avoid Sundays as that is when prices jump, according to the 2019 Travel Pricing Outlook.
Still looking for cheap flights? Comparison website Momondo came out on top for the best bargains.
