Booking international airfares can be tricky unless you know a couple of secrets. Here are a few tips that are definitely worth sharing.
Professor Steve Solosky is known as “The Traveling Professor”. Since 2010 he has been running small group tours to exciting destinations in Europe, South America, and Canada.
He has over 2,500,000 miles flying and arranges air itineraries for hundreds of clients each year.
Here are his top 5 tips for booking international airfares:
Buy Directly from the Airline
Avoid using websites like Orbitz, Expedia, or any other third-party booking sites to buy airline tickets. When booking international airfares, buying direct from the airline is your best bet for lots of reasons.
When there is a problem (canceled flights, overbooking, time changes, delays), those purchasing from third-party sites are taken care of last, if at all.
When there are problems with a flight, the airline will often tell flyers to go back to the site where they bought the ticket from – and good luck when trying to resolve a problem through one of those online booking sites.
Do you already have a specific flight number and would like to view the flight schedule? Check out www.flight.info , where you can type in any flight number and see the scheduled flights with data such as aircraft, onboard entertainment, if the flight has meals, etc.
Go Indirect When Booking International Airfares
Whoever can figure out the logic an airline uses when figuring out ticketing prices should be nominated for some type of prize.
In any case, look at connecting through a city to get to a destination to find significantly lower fares. For instance, I have a choice of flying out of New York, Boston, Hartford or Albany.
I priced a direct R/T flight between JFK and Paris CDG at over $1,000. However, if I initiated my flight in Boston, which connected with the same $1,000 flight at JFK, it was hundreds of dollars less.
Buy the Middle Seat
Tired of traveling to Europe or South America crammed into a seat like a sardine, especially in a 3-across configuration?
Do what I did on my recent trip to Europe. I bought the middle seat. My travel partner took the window seat and I took the aisle leaving the middle seat empty.
Plenty of room and much cheaper than buying a Premium Economy or Business Class ticket.
Why does this work? Let’s do the math. Two round-trip economy seats between New York and Madrid on American Airlines are $485 each. That’s $970 for 2 seats.
Each Premium Economy seat is $987 on the same flight. That’s $1974. Now purchase three economy seats for a total of $1455.
But wait – it is usually less to purchase an unoccupied seat since fewer taxes are applied on an unoccupied seat. And even better, on my last trip, I redeemed my middle seat with award miles.
It’s Not When you Buy, it’s When you Fly.
Buy a cheaper ticket on a Tuesday or Thursday? Don’t listen to this. It’s not true. What is true is that if you purchase a ticket for a flight on a Tuesday or Thursday, it can be cheaper because there is less competition on those days.
It is also true that the best time to purchase international airfare tends to be about 3 months before departure.
One-Way Fares Can Be More Expensive than Round-Trip Fares
A one-way coach fare on American Airlines from New York‘s JFK to Paris CDG on flight #44 on June 4 last year was $3358.70. Add a non-stop return leg on June 11 and the fare is $732.33.
This sometimes does not apply to discount airlines, but in almost all cases, it applies to legacy carriers like American, Delta, British Airways and United.
For more information, visit The Traveling Professor website.
Want more tips on flying cheap? Check out these valuable guidebooks.
Do you have any cool tips for booking international airfares to share? Let us know in the comments.
BTW, if you are getting ready for your trip, make sure to take advantage of these useful, money-saving links to book your trip:
- Research and book your flight with Skyscanner. I have found them to be the best because they list all airlines including the budget ones. You are always sure of having researched all options.
- For car rental around the world, Discover Cars has flexible pickup and drop-off options, I recommend Discover Cars.
- Book your accommodation with Booking.com. I find they have a wide selection and a nice, user-friendly, transparent website.
- Protect your trip and, more importantly, protect yourself with travel insurance. I use Travelinsurance.com and have been very happy with them.
- Looking for a small group tour to unforgettable destinations with top professionals? Intrepid Travel is your choice.
- For more general tours to any destination or attraction, book with Viator. Check them out.
- Need a visa? Get your visa for all countries with Passport Visa Express.
- Looking for a cool walking tour to explore a city? My favorite walking tours are offered by Take Walks.
- Food and drink tours are the best way to enjoy a city. And Devour Tours are my favorite.
- Looking for a good VPN to protect your security, privacy and freedom online while traveling? Nordvpn is your best option.
- The best and most economical way to stay connected while traveling is with an Airalo eSIM.
I personally use, and can recommend, all the companies listed here and elsewhere on my blog. By booking through these sites, the small commission we earn – at no cost to you – helps us maintain this site so we can continue to offer our readers valuable travel tips and advice.
