Make your travel cash go further
Seven top tips to help you land the best budget flights.
AFTER many months spent wandering around strange foreign lands, I’ll be jetting back to New Zealand’s fair shores in March.
The principles of Budget Busting transcend petty geographic boundaries, so naturally I’ve done my OE on the smell of an oily rag. Last year my total spending was $15,264, including every last bowl of ramen, rickshaw ride, and pesky insurance premium along the way.
As I pack my bag for home, this seems like a good time to share the money-saving travel tactics I’ve used to keep my spending in check.
First up: How can you fly internationally as cheaply as possible, especially if you live on a tiny island at the arse-end of the world?
1. BE OPEN-MINDED
On flight aggregation sites like Google Flights or Skyscanner, it’s fun to leave the destination box blank and see which countries are going cheap. This is sort of like a frugal version of the old ‘‘spin the globe and put your finger down’’ strategy. For example: If I plug in the rough time period I’m planning to leave Auckland later in the year, I could head to Vietnam for $291, the USA for $568, or the Netherlands for $684. Intriguing!
2. FLEXIBLE TIMING
Even if you have a specific destination in mind, flexibility is still your biggest asset. Taking a monthly overview of flights to California, fares vary from less than $600 to more than $2000, all within a single month. If you have some wiggle room on the timing of your trip, you stand to save a small fortune.
3. PLAN AHEAD
Being flexible with location and timing doesn’t mean winging it at the last minute. There’s a myth that you can breeze in and snap up a bargain-priced flight as airlines scramble to fill seats, but usually you’ll just get an eyewatering spanking. For longhaul flights, the sweet spot in pricing is usually about two to four months out, but there are no hard and fast rules. Search early, search often, and snap up a great fare if you see one.
4. TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE
My homecoming voyage will involve five hours sitting around in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, but it’s saving me $150 compared to a direct flight. It helps to flip the numbers around here: Would you accept a tax-free payment of $30 an hour to lounge around at a coffee shop reading a book or catching up on email? I sure would.
5. BOOK LEGS SEPARATELY
It can be cheaper to book each leg of a multi-stage journey individually, especially if you’re willing to kill some time between stages (maybe you don’t mind spending a day checking out Sydney or Singapore). It’s also worth playing around with setting one of these sort of busy hubs as your destination, then scouting out a cheap connecting flight to wherever you actually want to go.
6. DON’T BE SNOBBISH ABOUT LOW-COST CARRIERS
Is it really worth paying an extra $200 for a tray of airline food, a tiny movie screen, and a couple of free beers that will make you feel like death? No matter how they dress it up, you’re still stuck on a cramped aluminium tube.
7. BE WARY OF FREQUENT FLYER PROGRAMS
Chasing air miles often sends all logic out the window. Buying a fare that’s $100 more than the rival company to earn $50 worth of points makes no sense, as does booking a completely unnecessary flight just to get ‘‘Elite’’ status.
These tips ought to see you hit the tarmac with a lot more cash to splash around. Stay tuned for next week’s column, when we’ll explore some strategies for scoring cheap accommodation once you’re on the ground. Got a burning money question? Email Budget Buster at richard.meadows@thedeepdish.org, or hit him up on Facebook, where you can also find links to previous Budget Busters.