It is hard being a student sometimes. Most of our money goes towards tuition and living expenses. Travelling to visit friends and family, or venturing off to explore the wonders of the world isn’t always doable on a student budget. Travelling helps shape who we are as individuals while providing different world view perspectives and life experiences that staying local cannot offer. Here are five travelling tips to fly more efficiently:
Only book one-ways
To get the most accurate prices for airline tickets, only book one way tickets. The pricing varies when round trip tickets are booked, and it’s much easier to see the lowest ticket price available when booking one-way tickets.As well return tickets on round trips are usually booked with the same airline.
Use Google flights
Google flights is a great tool to see all airlines in one spot. Forget toggling back and forth between multiple websites, use Google flights as an aggregate airline ticket pricing information dashboard. It offers the convenience to see all airlines and what prices they offer for destinations. Google flights also highlights the lowest airline ticket price green on the calendar, making it easier to book cost efficient tickets.
Book through the airline website
If you ever tried flying while COVID-19 was at the peak, flights were being canceled left and right. Sign up for an airline loyalty account and book your flights there. Signing up for a loyalty airline account lets you accumulate rewards with every flight purchase, while also making refunds or changes to flight itineraries a whole lot easier than booking flights on third party websites.
Fly on off-days
Tuessdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays are the off-peak times to fly. Not many leisure travellers fly during the week and the middle of the weekend. While this is an effective way to save money flying off-peak days, keep in mind the extra cost of paying for accommodations for those extra days. But it might be worth it if your busy school schedule permits.
Fly later in the day
Flying later in the day is usually cheaper as airlines need to taxi back to their home city. While this option makes some flights cheaper, you do lose most of your day, and some stores and restaurants might be closed by the time you arrive at your destination. The extra cost for a night of accommodation may not be worth the cost savings flying later in the evenings.
As students, our discretionary spending is limited and we have to figure out ways to stretch every dollar to make it count. Travelling to visit friends and family should not cost an arm and a leg. Use these tips to save on airline tickets the next time you plan to travel.
