How to save money when booking a holiday

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to get overseas to see friends and family or gallivant off on a relaxing getaway. With the borders open again, many are wanting to get back out there but are being a bit put off by the cost.

So we’ve pulled together some of the best tips to make sure your holiday budget isn’t all spent on just getting to your destination. ‘Cause no one wants to go on holiday with nothing left to spend while they’re there 😉

• Being prepared and booking ahead

This is a fairly standard one, but often – if you book ahead – you’ll pay less than booking closer to the time you want to travel. In general, flights should be cheaper when they’re between three to six months away. This isn’t always the case, though. Sometimes, you can also get excellent last-minute deals, you just need to watch out for them.

This tip is more for when you have a specific event in mind or a date where you have to be somewhere, like a wedding overseas or a big catch-up with your global friends in a particular spot. It’s better to lock it in early than be surprised when those prices you saw a month or so ago have doubled.

• Look at prices to pick your destination

If you’re just after a getaway rather than wanting to go somewhere specific, you can flip the script and plan backwards. Look at the cost of the flights and find something within your budget instead of focusing on a particular destination.

Many cheap flight sites will have a ‘low fares’ section, showing you the cheapest prices available. It’s a great way to find little gems you may not have considered otherwise.

• You don’t have to go direct

Depending on your destination, it may be cheaper to take an indirect route rather than going straight there. This also opens up some other possibilities, as you could have a holiday in several locations rather than one.

By spending a day or more at your stop-over location (if you want to), you could save money on flights and avoid expensive/busy periods as well as explore entirely different areas before getting to the main event. You could also fly back via a different stop-over, getting three holidays in one.

• Use technology to your advantage

You may or may not know that websites can track what you’ve been searching for with cookies. If you keep coming back to something, they may start jacking up the price. So, if you’re searching for flights, you should use the ‘private’ function, like incognito on Chrome.

This will help prevent the website from knowing what you’re looking at, so you’ll get the ‘true’ price rather than the increased one.

Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) app can also provide you with deals you might not have seen otherwise. By connecting to a lower-income country’s VPN, you might find better deals.

And don’t just stick to one site – there are plenty of cheap flight sites out there, so compare what they’re offering. You might end up finding the same flight for cheaper, or a better deal entirely.

• Use the flexible date search

Again, assuming you don’t need to be anywhere in a hurry, using the flexible date option on a search site can help you avoid the pricey flights and find ones that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Usually, travelling outside of ‘commuter days’ like Friday, Sunday and Monday, can provide some decent savings.

• Talk to a travel agent

A bit of a blast from the past, but travel agents have been making a comeback recently. They can get deals that aren’t being advertised and sometimes have access to discounted flights.

Plus, they’ll do all the hard work for you, so you can sit back and let someone else do the heavy lifting. And if there are any issues with flights or bookings, it’s their job to fix it, as it’s part of the service.

• Find a loyalty programme with flight rewards

There are a lot of airlines that offer loyalty programmes you can join, earning points or miles or money. But don’t forget about other rewards programmes, like those on a credit card.

Some cards have flight rewards you can earn by spending on that card. You could quickly rack up a bunch of points by moving all your daily spending and shopping onto one of these cards. Just make sure you have the money needed to pay the card off each month in full, otherwise you might get caught out by the interest. And no one wants that.

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