Cheap flights and the Internet have completely changed the way of buying trips, trips and holiday stays. Traditional travel agencies have to compete with online travel agencies, which means lower prices and a wider range of offers for the customer. Shopping on the Internet, always understood as a cheaper alternative, can be … even cheaper! Just follow some simple tips.
Cheap flights – when to book airline tickets?
Low cost airlines have revolutionized the holiday travel market. They made many travelers start planning their vacation on their own. Therefore, instead of buying a holiday package at a travel agency, we are increasingly willing to buy a cheap flight separately and stay in a hotel by ourselves.
When to start searching for the cheapest flight? In the case of cheap airlines, the most interesting prices can be found about a month and a half before the planned departure date. If you want to plan your vacation well in advance, you can also find interesting suggestions at the very beginning of the season. Holiday months are heavy air traffic, as seen by Flyradar, but also higher air ticket prices. We strongly advise against searching for “last minute” offers for Wizzair, Ryanair or easyJet. These lines are a completely different business mechanism, so last-minute offers at low prices in cheap lines will simply not be found. So let’s remember the six-week rule is before departure – this is the period when we can expect the lowest prices.
Cheap flights – pros and cons
Cheap flights – Advantages:
- you can often find airline tickets for a dozen zlotys
- dense network of air connections
- high frequency of flights
- free online check-in
- free hand luggage
Cheap flights – Disadvantages:
- cheap flight tickets need to be searched well in advance, it is not possible to buy a cheap ticket a few days before departure
- paid extra luggage – the price of luggage may exceed the ticket price
- paid, additional services such as seat selection, earlier check-in, seat reservation next to each other
- no meals included
- seats on the plane without adjustment
- overbooking, i.e. more sold tickets for passengers than seats on an airplane (rarely happens). In this case, several passengers must resign from the flight, in return they will receive compensation for the flight
Search for places on a Street View map
Only a dozen or so years ago, wanting to get acquainted with the offer, we were doomed to browse colorful folders in stationary travel agencies. It remained for us to trust attractive photos and believe that our hotel is actually located on a beautiful green grove, right on the sea shore. Fortunately, today we have the opportunity to check the holiday resort and its surroundings without leaving home. Satellite images or even so-called help us. street view, i.e. Google Street View. This gives us the opportunity to see our hotel and its immediate surroundings, and thus empathize with the role of a tourist before leaving home. Just check the exact name and location of “our” offer and search for it on online maps.
Do flight and vacation prices rise as I search?
Sometimes you get the opinion that the more often we search for a cheap flight or holiday offer, the greater the likelihood that its price will increase. Is this really the case?
A group of researchers checked this issue by analyzing the pages of several of the most popular holiday websites. It turns out that the search results may or may not affect the price of the most frequently viewed offers. If the price after multiple searches increases, it is rather the “fault” of the algorithms. Looking at a given offer many times, we increase the number of its impressions, which the page algorithm interprets as a great interest in the offer. And more interest, or more demand – means a higher price.
However, let us not go crazy. There is no one on the other side of the computer who analyzes what we are looking for, only to artificially inflate the price of our favorite offer! If the price suddenly increased, wait a few days and check the offer again. Don’t buy on the spur of the moment – it’s more important than analyzing small price changes.
Compare flight prices and holiday offers, also from abroad
If you decide to purchase an offer in a travel agency, it is worth checking whether your office is the only one that offers a stay in a given hotel. Search for the name of the expected location and hotel, checking whether it is also available in the offers of other tour operators. Did not find any offer in your country? Nothing lost! Check how much a similar offer costs at a foreign travel agency. Converting a foreign price and comparing it with the offer of a Polish travel agency can give you an idea of the real attractiveness of a given trip.