How do you find the right discount international airfare when you need to travel? How do you go about it and which approach is best to take? Let's take a closer look.
To be honest, finding a discount international airfare takes a LOT of work. You kind of need to commit to browsing online regularly checking for cheap international flights and flight specials that might be available.
But there's definitely some ways to get it happening for you. Here's how we do it.
Check Your Daily Newspaper
First and foremost make sure to check through your daily newspaper, and specifically, the flights or travel section.
Look for the ads that catch your eye showing great prices. These are the ones you're after. Just make sure you get the full details of the international flight including any extra taxes or surcharges you might be lumped with. Ask them to email you the details to be sure.
Subscribe To Airline SMS Alerts
Secondly you can subscribe to red alerts, airline mailing lists or SMS alerts. You'll be in the know way before the general public even wakes up which means you'll have first pickings of any discount international airfare!
Sometimes it costs a bit extra to join their email list or preferred subscribers (loyalty club) but the knowledge is worth it – because you get to save heaps on your ticket price!
Visit Flight Fairs And Expos
Another way is to take yourself along to tourism, travel and flight fairs and expos. These are places that the airlines go to sell tickets – usually months in advance too.
So, if you see a great cheap international flight or a queue of people at one particular flight booth they're probably there for a good reason. Most likely to snap up a really good cheap air flight or two!
You can also PLAN your trip months ahead. This has a lot of cool benefits. Firstly it forces you to plan ahead, it gives you an adventure to look forward to (and dream about), and by booking months ahead you often get to save heaps on the airfare.
The airlines are happy too in the knowledge that they have bookings for their flights months in advance.
Look For One Week Specials
Another thing you can do is look at some of the airlines that promote one day or one week special cheap flights. You'll find these promoted online and in your local media.
These one week (or one time) specials are the sort of thing that get snapped up really fast, and sometimes it's even hard to get through on the telephone. (Try booking online!) If you do come across a discounted international airfare at one third of the cost, grab it fast!
Daily Flight Tips For Effective Travel
Book your tickets online. Most low cost carriers sell their lowest cost fares exclusively through their own websites, so it's really better to do your searching online rather than phoning them up (which may result in a surcharge or higher fares). The catch is that most discount carriers lack search engine presence and are often difficult to find in search engines. Try searching for carrier name + "home" to find their websites!
