A Kulula.com Boeing 737-800 at Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg. Photo: Dennis Delport
With the March holidays fast approaching for students and holidaymakers, airlines are feasting on the idea of potentially ripping clients off with ticket fares.
MatieMedia investigated how to get the best deal for your next trip, whether it is to set-off home or to jet set to your next holiday destination.
Here are a few top tips to help you find the cheapest flights:
- Keep your searches secret or get spied on
Yes, you read that right. Airlines make use of cookies in your browser to determine how many times you search a particular route and increase the price accordingly. By making use of this method, airlines make the increasing fare a stress factor for customers and try to force them to cash-in.
The solution would thus be to always search for flights in the incognito or private browsing modes to see the lowest prices.
- Identify the more unpopular days to fly out
Rumour has it that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the cheapest days to fly out. Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays are seen as the expensive days. This is not always the case. The best way to identify these days would be to select the ‘low fare finder’ option on airline websites. Once this search is completed, the website will automatically show the cheapest price of every day of the month.
- Fly cheaper with points
Various South African and international airlines offer great discounts in partnership with other businesses. For example, Kulula gives discounts to Discovery Vitality members. These members save almost 40% on flights. Mango also makes use of this option and offers Edgars Thank U Card-holders up to 15% discount on flights. The best option is thus to go and look at which partners your preferred airline has and join them, if not already a member.
- When flying locally, make use of budget airlines
It is well known that Kulula, Mango and FlySafair are much cheaper than airlines such as British Airways and South African Airways.
Thus, when flying locally, make use of the so-called budget airlines as they would offer the best deals.
- Subscribe to airline newsletters and follow on social media
By subscribing to airline newsletters and giving following them on social media, you will receive notifications on days that they run specials. This way you will also get notified first of any potential deals and have access to them first.
Sources: Kulula.com, Fly Mango, Thriftynomads.