How To: Fly for less when your dates are flexible

The "Bargain Hunter" from www.travelsupermarket.com is another great tool for finding cheap flights.


In this example I have selected Birmingham as my preferred departure point, but note the tick box next to this which I have ticked to show nearby airports as well. Then I have selected Spain and June, and said I want to go for a week, but left everything else open.



Back come the results and we are looking good, with the cheapest price coming in at £28.59 return, including tax. These prices are not "real" because travel supermarket haven't gone out to the airlines yet, but they have a good chance of being real because they show the last results that came back from the airline. You can see under the price it says this was obtained 1 day and 5 hours ago.

So the next task is to make sure it's still true, by clicking on the "Get Updated Quote" button.

And there it is, confirmed! When you follow the site link it was one of Ryanair's famous 1p flights each way, the bulk of the price was tax. So here is a great way to find those travel bargains. Now don't forget to avois Ryanair's priority boarding charge - see http://realtravelagent.blogspot.com/2007/03/priority-boarding-on-ryanair-you-dont.html

How To: Save money on Train Fares

Having mentioned that singles are often cheaper than returns I thought I should do a demo to show how this works.

For a journey from Birmingham to Glasgow Thetrainline.com produced the following fares:
The cheapest possible fare is an Apex return at £48, while a saver return is £92.50 and a first class return £273.

If we now click through to the single fares page, we see the following options:


So if we team up the two cheapest singles, as highlighted, we get a return fare of £42, saving £6. But if you look lower down the list at the "Value Advance 1st Single C" line we see £35 each way to travel in first class, saving over £200, and only £22 more than the cheapest return on the previous page.

Bear in mind that in First Class you we will be getting food and drink included, and it's a no-brainer for me. One last check to make is that the cheap fares are not restricted to services with lots of changes, then it's out with the credit card and a day later the tickets arrive in the post.

There is an added benefit that if you travel regularly on Virgin in 1st class you qualify for their "frequent flyer" club, which gives you free travel for two, from Friday to Monday lunch-time (it's a brilliant deal) and even these deep discount tickets qualify.

How To: Fly for Less (when your dates are fixed)

There are lots of circumstances where we look for a cheap flight. In this "how to" I am looking at the situation where you have a week off work, you want to get away, but you don't have a lot of cash. If this sounds familiar - read on.

This is a worked example, with screenshots to show how it can be done. I have a week's holiday in June, so I start by putting the dates into Skyscanner.net


My priority at this time is to find something cheap, so I am not going to specify either a departure airport or a destination, so as to give me the maximum no. of possibilities. Back come the results for a week from June 9th (top right of the screen) and they are looking encouraging:



Ireland is the cheapest option, but I want to go further afield with more promise of sunshine. I decide Spain looks my favourite on this list and click on it to see my choices. That gives me a screen like this:


Madrid is the cheapest option, but I was looking for a bit of sea and sun, so I scan down the list. I choose Murcia as an airport that is convenient for a beach holiday and not too expensive
The next screen takes me to the flight and airline options:

OK, Stansted is not the nmost convenient airport for me, but since it is over £50 cheaper than the next option I am willing to drive there. Clicking "next" will show me the flights:


The first thing to notice is the line near the top of the screen that these prices include taxes and charges. Bet you were expecting they would be additional.

So I can go off on my jollies in June, to a hot seaside in Spain, for a total cost of £52.33. Pretty good eh?

Now by the time you read this prices will have changed, of course. But if you go through the whole process you should be able to find something equally appealing.