| Flying these days can be a frustrating experience. Of course, the actual flying itself can be irritating, with all the queues, delays and lack of legroom, but even worse than all of that can be finding the best price on the flight to begin with. It can feel like a process that never ends, and it seems like you can never be sure that you got the best deal. Below are some tips to make that arduous process just a little bit easier, so you can fly off on your holiday feeling confident that you got the best deal possible. |
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| 1. Use at least two travel comparison sites |
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| Most travel comparison sites trawl many airline and holiday websites to find the numerous prices and deals that they then present to the user. They do not data capture the same websites, however, so you should use at least two to make sure you are getting a more comprehensive assessment of ticket prices. |
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| For example, prices on travel comparison sites for Mexico holidays can vary from around £644 per person for seven nights to £1,289. Whilst the star rating of the hotels and the time of the flight can account for much of the price differences, small criteria can make a huge difference in price. |
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| 2. Beat budget airlines' extra costs |
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| There are many tips and tricks for beating the extra costs of budget airlines. Most people know the trick of wearing jackets and trousers with many large pockets. That way, you can pack more things into your jacket and trousers, freeing up space in the small hand luggage bag that you are allowed to bring for free. |
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| You can also beat charges applied to credit or debit cards transactions by using a Visa Electron card to make your booking. Because so few people use them to pay for tickets, most budget airlines will waive a fee with this particular card. Ryanair is the exception: you need to use a prepaid MasterCard to avoid their charges. |
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| 3. Take package holiday deals for classic holiday destinations |
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| If you want to take a fairly long holiday to traditional holiday destinations, package deals where everything is included can save you a lot of money. Holidays to Dubai for example, are often long, as there is much to do in the city. As Dubai is also one of the most popular holiday destinations in the world, companies have the connections and demand to drive prices down. |
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| 4. Get cheap travel insurance |
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| The best way to get cheap travel insurance is to get it for a year. You can pay as little as £15 per person or £32 for a family for insurance that covers you for a whole year, which is usually less expensive than the insurance that your airline will try to sell to you for individual trips. |
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| Also, be sure to check whether or not the airline you're buying tickets from automatically adds insurance to the price of your flight. You can usually untick a box to take the insurance charges off. |
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| 5. Niche travel agents can have the best deals |
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| There are many advantages to the UK's multicultural community makeup, and one of these is specialist travel agents who help people who live in communities with ties to other countries to get there cheaply and easily. If you are looking at holidays to Thailand, you may want to look at travel agents in Brighton. Brighton has the largest population of Thais in Britain, and the travel agents there may have access to the best deals. |
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| Use all of these tips, and you can know that you are getting a great deal on your flight. There are many resources online too, so do your research to make sure you get the very best prices. |
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