Booking Flights
There are various ways of booking flights nowadays. In the past the easiest way to book a flight was to go to a high street travel agent and to book it through them. Nowadays, however, there are a lot of other ways to do this most of which will involve online booking. Popular options here include:
- Internet flight centres - there are many online sites that you can use to find and book flights via a computer. These sites will hold flight details from various airlines which can make it easier to find the cheapest option quickly.
- Airline/airport sites and call centres - you can use airline or airport sites direct to book flights if you know who you want to fly with. You can also book flights here via phone call centres if you prefer.
- Holiday sites - there are a lot of sites out there that will help you book an entire holiday, from flight to hotel and you can also use these sites to simply book a flight if you prefer.
- Online travel agents - most travel agencies will also allow you to book flights online. You can also use call centres here and can still visit a shop in a high street to book in person if you prefer.
The cost of flights will vary widely from airline to airline and will also depend on where you want to fly to and when you want to fly. If you are looking to find budget flights then try to:
- Book early - many airlines (especially budget airlines) will increase their costs closer to the flight dates.
- Be flexible - if you can be flexible about the days and times that you travel then you can often find cheaper flights.
- Be inflexible - on the other hand taking a flight that gives more inflexible conditions (such as flights that you cannot change or transfer) will be more cost effective than flexible tickets!
- Avoid peak periods - flights, as with holidays, will increase in cost during busy times such as school holidays and peak summer months.
- Avoid going direct - some airlines will charge you less if the flight you take has a stopover or change, rather than going direct.
- Shop around - look at flight costs on online flight search sites. Many airlines will give discounted flights to partner companies so you could save some money here.