Best holiday deals: Top 25 tips used by travellers
As the summer season approaches, there’s only one thing on our mind: holidays. Yet, with the cost of living crisis tightening our purse strings, it can be hard to plan a holiday on a budget.
Luckily, a new study has revealed the tips and tricks used by travellers to find the best holiday deals – including flying overnight to reduce costs and booking a trip six to eight weeks in advance.
The survey of 1,500 travellers from FlightsFinder.com found that nearly 65% of people attempt “hacks” for cheaper travel every time to go abroad, while 16% wake up early to take advantage of sales from holiday companies and airlines.
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Other top tips included setting flight price tracking alerts, clearing their web cookies and signing up for air fare newsletters.
A quarter of respondents (24%) also said they always check whether two single flights are cheaper than one return, while 23% use incognito mode for browsing to hide previous flight searches.
A further 15% said they search for "hidden city" or multi-city tickets with long stopovers to allow for an extra day of sightseeing in the stopover location.
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The data found that most adults start planning a holiday overseas an average of five months and one week before they go, with a third (31%) saying they aren’t very spontaneous when it comes to booking a vacation.
Top priorities for travellers include accommodation (49%) and what the weather will be like in their chosen destination (31%).
"There is still a huge demand for travel even though we are living through a cost-of-living crisis," a spokesperson for FlightsFinder.com said.
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"Now, more than ever, it is essential that consumers educate themselves about the best money saving tactics when looking for their next trip abroad to save their hard-earned cash."
Top 25 tips for finding the best holiday deals
Compare different travel dates to see if it’s cheaper
Search for flights departing on a particular day to see if it’s cheaper
Pay for flights with a credit card
Book a hotel directly rather than through a third-party site
Pack as lightly as possible to avoid baggage charges
Search for flights six-eight weeks in advance of the trip
Buy a package deal to make the entire trip less costly
Compare multiple flight comparison websites
Compare multiple airline websites directly
Book flights in the off season of where you’re travelling to
Look up when school holidays are as to travel outside of these times
Clear cookies from your browser when resuming a search for flights or hotels
Compare two, one-way flights instead of a return flight, to see if that’s cheaper
Compare multiple travel agents directly
Use "private" or "incognito" mode on your browser so they can’t tell you’ve already looked at flights
Book a flight into a less busy airport
Fly overnight to reduce costs
Set up price alerts to be notified of price drops
Sign up to air mile or frequent flyer programmes
Sign up to airline flight deal newsletters
Consider different layover options to lower the price of your overall trip
Wake up early to take advantage of the cheaper tickets on sale at the start of the day
Compare flights in other currencies to see if you can save money
Search for hidden city tickets (when you buy a ticket with the intention of leaving the plane at a stopover, rather than the final destination)
Use throw away ticketing (where a round trip flight is cheaper than your desired one way flight so you purchase the round trip flight and throw away the return ticket)
Additional reporting by SWNS.
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