The (almost) affordable vacation
Save money this summer with these five expert tips
The pandemic is over. Travel is back. And prices are up.
Airfare to Europe and Asia this summer is the highest it’s been in more than five years. Trips to Europe are averaging over $1,100 (U.S.) per ticket and trips to Asia average over $1,800 per ticket.
If you’re heading out of town soon, here’s some expert advice that you should consider before you book.
Watch flights early and use price monitoring
Apps and websites like Hopper, Kayak, Google Flights or Expedia can help travellers find the best deal.
“Prices are constantly changing,” Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper said. “That’s why we really encourage travellers to start planning early and use a price-monitoring tool.”
Laura Lindsay, director of consumer public relations and communications at SkyScanner, said shopping around with different airlines and airports could get travellers more bang for their buck. But it comes at the price of loyalty points or miles with your favourite airline.
Flexibility will help cut costs
If you can manage to do the majority of your trip on a weekday, it will pay off.
Thursdays and Fridays are the most popular departure dates, Berg said, especially for European trips.
“If you’re flying to Europe this summer, and you fly on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, you’re going to save an average on a peak weekend of $170 per ticket just by going early in the week,” Berg said.
The same goes for your hotel stay, she said.
Staying at a hotel on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night is significantly cheaper than staying through the weekend. Some hotels charge a 25 per cent premium to stay a Saturday night. She said some hotels in Las Vegas have an 80 per cent premium for Saturdays, and in Miami, it’s over 100 per cent.
Bring hand luggage only, if possible
Travel lightly, if you can. With how crowded the airports are during the summer travel season, checked luggage could hold you up to getting to your destination.
“We saw disasters with checked baggage last year and we are expecting disruption this year, so if you can carry everything on, it might save you a headache,” Berg said.
Shipgo estimates that passengers wait anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes after a flight just to get their bag. Be prepared for a delay if you decide to travel with multiple pieces of luggage.
During Southwest Airlines’ operational disruption in December, airports across the country became depositories for thousands of suitcases, backpacks and duffel bags.
Arrive early on peak summer days
Airports will be busy this summer.
Lindsay said to stay informed and watch social media for updates on security lines and crowded airports.
“Some airports will tell you to arrive early because of their security lines,” Lindsay said. “Some airports might tell you not to arrive early because they don’t have extra capacity to house people arriving three hours early. If everybody arrived three hours early, you’ve suddenly got extra passengers in the airport that they can’t accommodate.”
It may not matter how many times you look, what day you book
There are a few myths that people tend to believe, like booking on Tuesdays or booking in the early hours of the morning. The reality of it is, that it doesn’t matter what day or time you book, or how often you click on a certain flight.
“The reality is it’s just how volatile airfare pricing is because of the way the industry works and how airlines are doing the pricing and the way they manage pricing,” Berg said.
She said airlines, oftentimes, don’t know if a person is logged in to their loyalty account when they are searching for flights.
These systems focus on how full is the plane, how many tickets have been sold and even compare the same flight to a week or more ago. She said sometimes carriers will place airfares into pricing buckets.
“If you are searching for a trip, and you see one price, and then you come back three hours later, and you see a completely different price, sometimes it’s higher and sometimes it’s lower,” Berg said. “It can be because maybe two people booked that flight, that fare bucket closed, those prices aren’t available anymore and these new prices are available.”
And in general, Berg said, try to be the first flight out. Travellers on the first flight are less likely to get delayed or cancelled from the day’s legs of travel.