Here’s the best flight and accommodation booking hacks to help you save money for the upcoming holiday!
Flight tickets and hotels make up a bulk of your holiday spending, so it’s important to use the right techniques to score big discounts and reduce cost. Here are some booking hacks to help you save money as you book your next trip.
1. Plan and Book Early
When it comes to hotels and airfares, prices climb steadily as it gets closer to the departure date. Hence, it’s best to confirm your bookings early. How early is early? You’d want to book at least 30 days in advance, but even that’s cutting a little close. Ideally, 70 days in advance gives you a good buffer before prices start to increase.
Planning ahead also gives you more time to scout for the cheapest price. If you turn on alerts on price aggregator websites like Skyscanner, you’ll always be aware of the latest deal prices for your destination.
2. Book with Free Cancellation
The best hotel bookings to look out for are those with free cancellation. And these bookings are often found through 3rd party sites like Agoda instead of the actual hotel site. This way, when your price aggregator alerts pop by with a cheaper price, you’re more than ready to cancel and jump ship.
Read: Cheapest Hotels Promotion Sale (2019)
3. Avoid Booking Weekends
For both flights and hotels, the price spikes quite a bit over the weekend. If possible, try to fly out between Wednesdays to Fridays as they generally have lower prices on sale. While it might not be possible to avoid weekend bookings for a long trip, try to stay for more than a day after the weekends as that would give you a better deal for your stay.
4. Compare Flight Prices in Incognito Mode
However, you might realise that prices continue to increase even when you’re booking in advance. These price jumps happen even in between your visits to different airline websites. This happens because many airline websites use cookies to track your internet searches and will raise the prices once they realise you’re looking for certain destination airfares. When looking at these prices, go into incognito mode so prices don’t fluctuate.
Read: Cheapest Budget Airlines Promotion Fares (2019)
5. Activate Perks when Booking
No matter how much you save on flight and accommodation, they can still add up. This also means it’s the best time for you to earn miles, cash back, and any form of reward that really makes the best of the price you’re paying.
However, if you’re paying in foreign currency, always remember to use your YouTrip card instead to utilise Wholesale Exchange Rates and avoid the notorious Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) trap.
6. Book on a Tuesday or Friday
It’s also common that airlines release marketing promotions on Tuesdays and Fridays (especially budget airlines) so you might get a good deal when booking on those days.
7. Book Events Locally
If there are any attractions or events you are attending, you might often get a better deal if you bought tickets locally. However, do that only if you have a reliable channel. Otherwise, it might be better to pay a little more to an official ticketing website than to be scammed locally.
Affordable travel doesn’t mean you have to be limited to nearby South East Asian destinations. With these money saving tips and booking hacks, even further destinations can unexpectedly become economical options. So keep these tips in mind the next time you’re planning for the next big trip!
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Enjoy a worldwide fees-less travel experience!
