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The magical power of the discounted flight

Well, well, well... What do we have here? Yes it is not news, but it is definitely new. A new offer on a discount flight and you get it "delivered" as a pop-up screen to your email page. It is right in your face. Try to not notice it. You will definitely fail. And why is that? Because the prices you see over there for a flight to a country you want to visit for a long time is almost ridiculous.

A lot of websites try to attract us with their prices. The world needs a healthy competition; the market is full of adverts and agencies that are willing to fight for their clients. And you know well how traveling agencies and websites win people over ... Of course, they give good discounts.

Sometimes you can even feel the pressure. This is one of the reasons we advice you to use internet. At times, we decide to talk to traveling agents and make a mistake. As they have a great power of making you go for their deal without your will. They will give you millions of reasons to use their company even when you don't even consider it. Of course, some of us need a push. But not all of us do. Majority of people would like to be left alone to analyze and come to a good well-thought decision.

But let's get back to the major point. That is the flight. The flight can be truly considered the trip holder. Without a good flight nothing is a pleasure. Online booking is not difficult at all. It can only take a few minutes before you are ready to back your bags.

But let us share some of the secrets about online booking with you. At night, airline tickets tend to cost less than usual. You can get cheap airfare by booking for your airline tickets at midnight when airlines will be selling unused seats at a much cheaper rate. You can stumble on some good airline deals by browsing for them in the wee hours of the morning.

If you have any airline preferences you should not hesitate to call them and ask them if they have any discounts at the moment. If you are their constant costumer, they might have a discount card for you or something that will attach you to their services even more.

It is not a secret that everyone is looking forward to every slightest opportunity to save money on airfare. Flying can be terribly expensive and you might not want to think of the huge amount of money spent on it during your vacation or long-awaited trip. You also might not want to leave the bills unpaid before you go overseas. This isn't the right way to do it. Air cheap flights are usually attractive because people would rather spend money on souvenirs than on a seat in the front row. Cheap flight is not a reason to go abroad, but it is an extra reason to go on holiday. Keep that in mind.

What to look for in a package deal

To avoid most of the more extreme conditions, it is better to find a consolidator. These businesses buy air tickets in bulk and so get substantial discounts. They act as wholesalers and prefer dealing with the trade rather than customers direct. However, some will sell scheduled tickets direct at big discounts on more liberal terms. As always, do not deal blindly with firms you find over the internet. These are big ticket purchases so you should get some independent verification that the business has been around for a reasonable period of time and appears to be solvent before dealing with it. Now you are looking to put together a package. The components in play are the plane ticket, the hotel room, a car rental and travel insurance. The theory says that the more business to give in one deal, the greater the overall savings you get. But you need to test the market before you do the deal. Get guideline prices for rentals and insurance before you start. When you contact the consolidator, find out which hotels they offer and what room rates they quote. Then take a break and call the hotels to confirm their room rates. If they have a better price, you can mention this when you come back to the consolidator. Never be aggressive. Always be pleasant and calm when pressing for a good deal. Goodwill on both sides gets the best price.

Summing up, the trick is not to see cheap airline tickets on their own. See them as part of a package. If you went to the agent for the airline ticket, the insurance company for a policy, a rental agency for the car and the hotel for a room, you have four chances to lose out on the deal. Putting them together gives you the best chance of a maximum discount so long as you know what the guideline prices are to improve on. Cheap airline tickets are available without too many restrictions if you play the negotiating game well.

Some useful tips on cheap airfares

Buy tickets early

When having to travel during the peak season you can up paying a much higher price if you buy your ticket late. Airline ticket prices are usually adjusted in 21 days, 14 days, 7 days and 3 days prior to the flight and they are evidently raised. So if you want to get a good price try to manage before these checkpoints. Especially, when having a planned travel you might consider making reservations even earlier, up to six months in advance - you may get very good discounts. However, in some cases buying late can also be advantageous.

Buy tickets at the last moment

In contrast to the first tip, there are also situations when it's cost-wise to wait until the last minute. Airlines can offer a very low price for tickets on the flights which are not fully booked, and they will evidently do it in a few minutes before departure. So if you can deal with stress or aren't in a very strict schedule you might consider this option, because the deals are often great and you can manage to travel quite cheap to popular destinations.

Consider your options

You may be attracted by the first offer you see but don't rush to go with it. Quite often you can get even better prices when you shop around a little. Check with the most popular online air ticket providers and aggregators to check airfares to your destination. Sometimes you won't find a suitable price but you can sign up for e-mail notifications at most sites to get alerts whenever the prices drop to the desired level. Sometimes it is worth waiting a bit to get a more advantageous offer, unless you're in a hurry.

Flexibility is key to success

In case you are in an area with more than one airport near you might consider checking airfares at all of them. Sometimes the price will be lower in one airport than another. Also try shifting your departure dates: adjusting it even by a few days can result in a significant price drop. You may find the best days for departure are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, though this may vary from country to country.

Ask for a refund if the prices drop

Some companies will offer refunds in case you purchase a ticket and the price goes down after that. Although you won't find this in advertisements, so you'll have to ask the airline representatives about possible refunds. Not all companies offer such options, but it never hurts to simply ask.

Air passes

With the scope of promoting tourism and travel activities within the region authorities in some countries offer travel passes, which provide great prices to tourists. In case you're planning an extensive travel within one country or a region you might want to check whether there are air passes available there. For example when traveling to Australia you may use the Aussie AirPass, while there are similar offers for traveling throughout the Asia. You can even get great offers in case your trips are even bigger with around-the-world solutions from different companies.

Check for discount flights

You might also check for discount flights and special offers in case you're traveling with children, students or senior citizens. Different companies have different policies regarding discount flights, however there are numerous sites on the web where you can find great discount travel solutions. Just take some time to look through the offers and you might find exactly what you need.

Footloose and fancy-free

In days long ago, when we were footloose and fancy-free, we would all travel at the drop of a hat. Come the weekend or a holiday break, we would get in the car and drive somewhere different. When the cost of air travel dropped, flying somewhere warmer for a weekend break was normal. Airline routes crossed the world. Nowhere was too far away. One of the first mass market discounts was the so-called stand-by ticket. Because airlines can be left with seats unsold on the day of flight, they would sell the tickets at a reduced price to anyone who happened to be there.

Some money collected on an empty seat was better than no money. When word of this system spread, the young with a few dollars in their pockets would go and queue at airports, taking whatever flights were on offer just for the fun. For a while, this was under control and not too disruptive. But, as with anything involving money, it soon fell victim to a scam. People would buy full price open tickets for a particular route, nominating one date but able to change without penalty. On the day, they would queue early for a stand-by seat if they were in a good position in the queue, they would cancel their prebooked seats and, almost always, buy the seat at a discounted price. Later they would surrender the full-price tickets for cash. Because of this, stand-by tickets and the overbooking problems have disappeared.

So what are the foot loose to do today? The answer lies in number of online agencies that specialize in last-minute deals. There are two separate systems. One is left to the customer to react when time suddenly becomes available. The day's offers are continuously refreshed and, depending on what time you hit the site, you may find some good offers left for the same or next day. The other system operates on a "club" system. When you sign up for membership, you get regular newsletters and special offers. Sometimes, the sale of charter tickets on a particular package have not gone well and the operator wants to fill places at discounted prices. Sometimes, a big group change their booking leaving multiple seats to be filled at short notice. However the opportunities arise, they offer great value opportunities.

If you are adventurous and enjoy travel to different places, often with a resort hotel at the other end, this is the thing for you. The cheap airfare tickets get you there, the rooms have been block-booked so you get a good rate on those too. So long as you have your passport, any necessary immunizations are up-to-date and you have the money, the world is yours. In fact, during the winter months, pensioners often spend a little of their cash on deals just like this when the weather is coldest. But, young or old, rich or poor, if you shop around, you are bound to find cheap airfare tickets available.

How to save money

Let's start of with a few basics. All the airlines publish their fares. So, if you go to them directly, you know exactly how much you are going to be asked to pay. That said, there are "high" and "low" seasons where the volume of traffic rises and falls. Airlines do offer "sale" prices to maintain passenger volumes during the low seasons. Some increase their prices at the peak periods. Then you have the budget carriers. These offer basic carriage at a basic price. All this information is usually freely available and gives you the base price to work from. Then we come to the "special offers". These are prices advertised in the local press or through the internet, promoting particular airlines or online ticket agents. They often invite you to use a code or keyword from the advert to "prove" your entitlement to the special price. The other source to identify are the "consolidators". These businesses buy tickets in bulk from the airlines and so get discounts that allow them to pass on savings to their customers. In the US, consolidators tend to specialize in the international market. In Europe, consolidators sell tickets for all flights both domestic and international.

Most people who are looking to travel are either on business or going on holiday. That means they will be in the market for a place to stay, a car rental and other elements that could make up a package. This gives you considerable freedom to negotiate. Start off with a hotel. Most sites that sell accommodation can be a little vague about pricing rooms. The best strategy is to get a quote, then telephone the hotel direct and find out what their best price is. If a hotel is your best option, you now have a choice. But if you want flexibility to come and go, or to entertain, you might do better to take a managed or serviced apartment. Depending on the number of people traveling together, you might find a better deal in a two, three or four room apartment on a daily or weekly rate. For those on holiday, there are package deals and all-inclusive resorts. In the right climate, camping may be a good option, or you could try one of the home swap/exchange plans. And, for the sake of completeness, there are still one or two companies that use "ordinary travelers" as couriers. It's hard to get on the lists but, if you like more random travel, this can be a cheap option.

So when you're looking for cheap flight, particularly for international cheap flights, look beyond the price of the seat at all the other options for accommodation, car rental, travel insurance, and so on. You are looking for the best deal on the whole package. Identify the consolidators and start with them. They are most likely to have the cheap air flights advertised. Then it's just a case of exploring how to pull everything together to save the most money. In fact, in it's own right, it's fun and, when you get to enjoy the end result, all the more satisfying.

Last minute travel saves your money

Let's say you're the adventurous type with some spare money and the time to spend, what are your options? Well, the news is that airlines love and hate you. Airlines have these expensive planes and they like to see their seats sold as far in advance as possible. That way, they have the cash before they pay for the fuel to fly you where you want to go. Hopefully, they know they have covered their costs and made a profit on each flight. More importantly, they can calculate the amount of fuel to load before collecting the passengers. But not everyone does buy well in advance so airlines have this temptation to sell off seats more cheaply at the last minute. Empty seats earn no money. Even a little money is an improvement on no money. So they discount seats through special offers and approved travel agents.

But not everyone has good news. Some receive an emergency call - family or friends have been injured in an accident, have fallen sick or died. Now the need is to get on an airplane and go there as quickly as possible. You now run up against a standard response. Under the IATA rules for international flights and many domestic systems where airlines are still regulated, airlines are not supposed to discount fares directly to passengers. You will therefore be asked for the full fare. So, the first step is to check online for the specialist last minute agents. If there are still seats left, you can save some money. If the flights are fully booked, you are now waiting for cancellations. Telephone the airlines directly, explain the situation and ask whether they can help.

So whether the journey is on a whim or a response to an emergency, you're looking for cheap air tickets. With the economy not doing well, everyone is more careful about what they do with their disposable income. You all want more air miles for your dollars. That means learning about what's available online. There are specialist last minute agents. If you're the kind of person prepared to see a deal and be in the air twenty-four hours later, this is for you. However, one word of caution - always make sure you know what the air ticket price includes. Cheap airline tickets can mean you get on the plane but have to pay for everything else. Read the small print before you buy.

When isn't a goldfish gold?

Goldfish lose their color if they are kept in a dim light or they are placed in a body of running water, such as a stream. They remain gold when kept in a pond or in a bowl with adequate illumination.