While there are many eternal questions in the world, one thing that’s absolutely certain is airlines are making the economy experience as basic (ok, horrible) as possible. This makes your choices very clear: complain endlessly about over paying for horrible service; or get smart and learn the booking techniques which help you fly in better cabins for less…
It’s Sometimes Cheaper To Buy A Premium Economy Ticket From Another City, Buy Travel To That City, Than It Is To Fly Economy From Your Home…
Especially in Europe, and often in the US, certain cities are a fraction of the cost of others. You can currently fly British Airways Premium Economy from Sweden or Germany to Los Angeles or San Francisco for far less than an economy ticket direct from London. You’ll even end up on the same flight when your connection from Europe arrives in London and departs to the US. In the US, the cheapest trick is often to fly to Canada, where their dwindling dollar has led to extremely low fares. Remember, if you have miles you can get to another city for free…
Hidden City Ticketing Can Lead To Crazy Savings, But Be Smart And Learn The Rules…
Let’s start with an important distinction: hidden city ticketing only works one way, so you’d need to buy two one way tickets to do it round trip and you CANNOT check a bag. As soon as you miss a segment of your flight, the rest will cancel, full stop. Hidden city ticketing is a trick where you book travel to a city you won’t actually visit, because travel to the city you want to visit is the stop en route. The trick is to find a city which is a cheaper destination than the one you intend to visit. For example, booking a ticket from New York to Los Angeles costs $1200 one way in business class today. Booking a ticket from New York to San Jose, California, with a stop in Los Angeles on the way is $700. I’ll get off in Los Angeles with my carry on.
Find Upgrade Space Before You Book Your Flight And Then Confirm The Upgrade Instantly Using Miles…
Don’t be one of those people begging the nice check in folks for a cheeky upgrade. Be the person that sees the future, locks it in and then relaxes through the airport. Many airlines make it easy to find upgrade space on your own, and for those that don’t, there are powerful tools to do it for you. Before I book any ticket I look for flights on my dates with upgrade space. If any are available, I’ll book and call in immediately to upgrade with miles. Tips on earning miles here. If no space is available, I’ll use ExpertFlyer.com to create a notification for me when seats become available. Airlines will tinker with upgrades up until the hours before departure, so never give up and always be prepared…
Play With Paying In Different Currencies, It Can Create Huge Savings…
There really are “locals” discounts with airline tickets. Simply clicking the location bit on the corner of a website and changing the currency you pay in can make for massive fluctuations in price. If you have a card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees you can seriously benefit. For example, the Norwegian Airlines website regularly prices out tickets cheaper in Norwegian Kroner than in US Dollars, British Pounds or Euros. Just this last week I saved $200 on a ticket by paying in NOK rather than USD through the US website. I just clicked Norway as my location and booked as usual. The $200 savings meant I could book a refundable ticket, or upgrade to their Premium cabin for the same price I would’ve paid in non refundable economy had I booked without thinking about currency….
