I rarely pay more than £500 each for a holiday, that’s because I’m a savvy flight shopper and I often create my own holidays. My friends know that I love to travel, I don’t go far and have never been outside europe, but I (nearly) always get a bargain! Here I’ll let you in on some of my tips, on how to find cheap holidays, the first part of which is…
How to find cheap flights
Be flexible
It may be obvious, but if you are restricted to set dates for your holiday then you are less likely to be able to find cheap flights. That said, you can still find a cheap flight by utilising one of my other top tips. Sorry but this is much harder if you’ve got school age kids, but not impossible…
Book on the day the flights are released
Easyjet and Ryanair publish their release dates in advance, so if you want to find the best flight prices then set your alarm clock as the prices go up very quickly. Bearing in mind of course that most airlines adopt a dynamic pricing strategy, that means that their prices go up and down according to demand. So if everyone uses this advice and gets up at 6am to book their flight then by 8am the prices would have shot up. Case in point, I booked cheap return flights to Turkey on their release date at 6.30 for £90, but by 7.15am the exact same flights had gone up to £134! Having said that, the exact same flights 2 months later were £188, so still a great saving. So as I said, prices go up and down, if Easyjet still have a lot of seats left over about 2 months before they fly then price will drop again. Same goes for Ryanair as well. I don’t have much personal experience of other airlines, so please let get in touch if you are able to add any insight.
Be flexible on your departure airport
Now, if you under no constraints with your budget then by all means book the nearest airport to you. There are lots of advantages to this, you may be able to get a lift to the airport or a taxi won’t cost you too much, you’ll also have the peace of mind to know that your return travel leg will be that much shorter. However, savvy travellers can save hundreds of pounds by being flexible on their departure airport. Just do the maths! A flight from Exeter to Malaga is £370 but from Stansted its on £219, then the saving for a family of four is over £600! That’s a really big chunk of cash to put towards your next holiday! I know, I hear you saying, what about the extra fuel, you may need to stay overnight and you’ll probably have to pay more for parking. This may add up to £200 or so to the cost, but still a huge saving when looking at a family holiday.
Fly to different airports
One of the best bargain breaks we had was when we travelled to Southern Spain using 2 different Spanish airports. We travelled with Ryanair to Castellon Airport had a few days in Peniscola ( I remember this easily because my 9 year old daughter giggled at the name!) and went on to Salou and flew back to Bristol from Reus. The flights for both legs were mega cheap, I can’t remember exactly but under £20 each way and it was May half term. We caught the first flight of the season back from Reus and Castellon was a new and unheard of airport at the time. Unfortunately Ryanair are not flying to either of these airports from Bristol at the moment, although they do fly from Stansted. But the principle remains the same. If you are flexible, and are willing to travel on public transport the options for a cheap 2 centre holiday are endless.
Don’t just look at 7 day holidays
Research is key to finding cheap flights. If you are just looking for the bog standard then you are less likely to find them. My most recent bargain cheap flight was booked through Ryanair and covered most of October half term. What made it cheaper, other than it being out of the main season was the fact that it was 8 days. Airlines often change their flight times and days with the seasons, so in this case we flew out on the Sunday and the next flight back was the Monday. So these flights were booked about 2 months in advance for an absolute bargain, Crete for around £110 each was about £200 less than other 7 night flights with other airlines. The reason why they were such cheap flights was because being 8 nights meant the search option was not even on the table for many people or holiday and flight search sites. Who puts into On The Beach that they are looking for an 8 day holiday? Not many. So it’s going back to the dynamic pricing, supply and demand factor.
Flexible destination
So everyone’s heard of Malaga, Alicante and Faro airport but have you heard of Castellon Airport?
The more obscure the airport, the more likely you are to get a bargain mainly because most people default to what they know. Personally I much prefer the smaller airports, there’s usually much less walking to do and I’m not so keen on the hustle and bustle. Chania in Crete is a great example, although it used to be virtually just a large shed, now it’s got everything you need, shops, restaurants but all on a small scale with just a few gates and so much nicer than Heraklion. Plus it’s usually cheaper.
Check out Different Airlines and Grab a Cheap Flight
As part of your research it is worth checking out if you might get a better deal if you use a different airline for your return flights. Websites like On The Beach are really good for your research here, they will mix and match airlines, just be very careful that they are not giving you options to return to a different airport, this could be very expensive – or if it means you are getting a really good bargain it could just mean that it’s something else you have to plan for. It may not be a problem if you are planning on using public transport to get to and from your departure airport. Another thing to watch out for when booking more than one airline per trip, is the baggage allowances and sizes as every one is different.
Travel light – advice on cabin baggage
Now, I know that Ryanair have a poor reputation, quite often their name is mud, but together with Easyjet thay have revolutionised budget travel and for that I’m thankful! But they do have a way of adding on unexpected charges, and as a savvy traveller, you have got to work with all their foibles. Bags is a biggy here – if you like to travel with the kitchen sink in tow, then you may well find that a package holiday or larger airline like British airways is better for you. The trouble is that all the airlines seem to keep changing their bag policies, with Ryanair (in my opinion) being the worst offender. To get a truly cheap flight you need to not check in any bags. That means cabin cases usually of less than 10 kilos and also of varying sizes. So as they keep changing their policies I’ve included a few links to the main budget airlines.
Remember, if you are planning on using two different airlines then they will most likely have different baggage policies so be prepared and plan your baggage carefully. If you get to the airport and need to check in extra bags it will be expensive!
Go out outside school holidays – if you can
So, we already know that airlines use a dynamic pricing policy which means that prices go up and down according to demand. Therefore if you don’t have school age kids or you are not a school teacher, do not go on holiday when the kids are off school. It may seem obvious but this is a big no no… you’d be a fool to pay those high prices if you don’t need to. So if you are looking for a summer holiday in Europe stick to June, early July and September for the best prices.
Take a chance on the weather and go in Spring, Autumn or Winter
The vast majority of our holidays have not been taken during the summer mainly due to my budget and partly due to both me and my husband both working in the holiday industry. So we’ve taken most of our holidays in May, October or November and we’ve been very lucky with the weather, besides this, I don’t like it too hot. Anyway, just as an example of price differences a week for a family of 4 flying to Chania from Bristol on 26th July is currently £2950 but only £1424 for the same flights on 7th October. Add onto this the cost of the hotel, which is typically at least half the price out of season and also the hire car and airport parking, then you’re talking of saving thousands
Or… Book at the last minute!
If you have a flexible lifestyle, perhaps you’re happily retired, or maybe you can work from home (or abroad!) then keeping an eye out for last minute bargains is a fun pastime. I find the best place to look for a last minute bargain is the Tui Last Minute Holidays & Late Deals web page. We’ve had some great deals through Tui, including an all-inclusive holiday in Turkey in August for less than £450 and an all-inclusive Marella Cruise for under £650 each. Both of these holidays were flying from our closest regional airport, Exeter, so were even better value for us. The Tui deals pages are excellent, as you can filter to get just what you’re looking for, or browse through and find a holiday that unexpectedly takes your fancy.
Useful Research Tools When Looking For Cheap Flights
When researching flights there are a few websites, apps and tools you can use. As starting point for me is quite often On The Beach Holiday Finder.
Remember, for this search we’re looking for the cheapest flights, so we’re being super flexible, therefore, my starting point is usually to change the “Where To” to Anywhere. Then I select the airports I’d like to fly from (try not to be to specific here). In the “Departure Date” click on the date icon and change to “Whole Month”. Don’t worry if you’re not able to travel the whole month, you can filter the dates down later. Then tick the “Flexible?” box. Put in the numbers in your party and click “Search”.
This will then bring up lots of results that you can filter to suit you requirements – but make sure you change the “Sort By” on the left hand side to “Lowest Price”. It’s worth remembering that nearly all travel search sites get paid a commission for everything they sell, so their “Recommended” filter will be for the businesses that are paying the most commission, not because they are actually recommending them!
On The Beach has lots of useful filters – the ones I tend to use is the Tripadvisor filter, date filter and flight time filter. I’m not keen on flying in the middle of the night, so this is really handy!
So after you’ve done all your filtering and found a cheap holiday, you could go ahead and book it right there on On The Beach… But beware – the flight prices here are often out of date. So what may be a bargain on their site may not be what it seems. I have booked with them before and had a phone call the next day asking me to pay more money because the flight price has gone up. So now I tend to book everything separately and avoid surprises. Plus, I like to take my time on researching the area and hotel I want to go to.
So, now you’ve found a cheap holiday you’ll need to click on “Edit flight, date and board here” on the right hand side and then it will show you the flights.
So you’ve found dates for your flights that might be cheap, next you need to go onto the airline website, in this case Ryanair…
So, scrolling through the Ryanair prices, I actually found it cheaper on slightly different dates. In the example above the flight times are very good (returning the day before was cheaper but flights at the crack of dawn – no thanks!). So here we’ve found some really good bargain flights for the summer 2020 school holidays! Lets go for it!
Just remember though, unless you are prepared to travel light there will be extra costs for baggage.
If you know where you want to go for your holiday, then you could use Google Flights or Skyscanner to research. Both are very useful, Google seems to show live prices and you can also book direct from the Google platform.
One last word of advice… When booking flights and hotels separately you will not be covered by ABTA. Therefore, it’s very important that you pay by credit card, that then gives you protection if the airline go out of business etc. But it will not give you the same peace of mind as going for a traditional package holiday would. You’ll not get the reps to help you on resort and you’ll need to sort out your own transfers.
Also, if you’re looking at a last minute holiday, then you will probably find that the best bargains are to be found on traditional package holiday sites like Tui.
