How To Find Cheap Flights - Amazon Web Services

How to find cheap flightsA Guide to flying for less than you thought possible!26 March, 2015

How to find cheap flights 2Executive SummaryHow does a trip to Europe and back for 1,000 sound? Or a trip to New Zealand for 150?How about a flight to the Gold Coast for 35? Or if you’re really lucky, a flight to Melbournefor just 9?Even though the price of airfares in Australia has increased dramatically over the past year,there are still some exceptional deals out there. The key is to know where to look, andwhen to buy.To celebrate the launch of AFF Flight Finder, our new flight search tool, we have puttogether a guide to finding the cheapest possible airfares.What’s in an airfare? Where do you look for the cheapest fares? What routings and airlinesoffer the best value? When’s the best time to book a trip? And how do you avoid thosepesky credit card fees?As well as answering all of the questions above, this Guide will analyse the savings to be hadby flying low-cost, explain how you can book a “price beat” ticket and offer a number ofuseful strategies that you can use right now to save money on your next flight, whetheryou want to fly interstate or to the other side of the world! For example, an “almost toogood to share” strategy covered in the Guide, shows how to get a multi-city fare on a fullservice airline from Singapore to Europe, with the return flights all the way back to Australiafor around AUD 723. Then add a one-way flight to Singapore for under 300 on a discountcarrier, and the entire trip to Europe will cost just over 1,000!With the help of this Guide, and the AFF Flight Finder, you should be able to save a lot ofmoney on your next holiday. Sound good? Read on!Note that any prices quoted in this Guide were correct at the time of publication. But, dueto the very nature of airfares (as we will investigate in this Guide), prices are likely tofluctuate over time. The Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved.March, 2015

How to find cheap flights 3ContentsExecutive Summary. 2Contents . 3How airfare prices are determined. 4How to search for cheap flights . 5When to book . 9When to fly. 10Low cost vs full service airlines . 10Will you save money by flying a low-cost airline? . 11Airline sales . 12Don’t pay credit card fees! . 14Qantas . 14Virgin Australia . 14Jetstar . 15Tigerair . 15Jetstar’s Price Beat Guarantee . 15How to book . 18Virgin Australia discount codes. 18Using market pricing to your advantage . 19The “Australia Tax” . 20What to do if airfares are ridiculously expensive . 22One-way pricing . 22Obscure cheap codeshare flights . 23Possible strategies to get cheaper flights by route . 25Australia – New Zealand . 25Australia – Asia. 25Australia – USA. 26Australia – Europe . 27Australia – South America. 29Australia – South Africa . 29Trans-Atlantic . 29Add on two free domestic flights to your next overseas trip! . 30Conclusion . 31 The Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved.March, 2015

How to find cheap flights 4How airfare prices are determinedBefore we get started, let’s look briefly at the “science” of what goes into an airfare. Haveyou ever wondered why a flight from Sydney to Dubai costs more than a flight from Sydneyto Paris via Dubai? Or why a flight from Sydney to Lord Howe Island can cost more than aflight to Hong Kong? And why are airfares double the price during Christmas or schoolholidays?It all comes down to the way airfares are priced. Airfares have surprisingly little to do withthe distance you actually fly; instead they have a lot to do with supply and demand. Airlineswill generally charge whatever they can get away with it, and as long as they are passengersprepared to pay, they will keep doing that. On routes where there is high demand, little orno competition, and/or during peak travel times (such as Christmas), airfares tend to be veryhigh. But it works both ways – airlines often reduce ticket prices if there is a lot ofcompetition and/or demand for seats is sluggish.“Yield management” is used by airlines to determine airfares. Yield management’s role isessentially to adjust ticket prices – raising prices when there is high demand, and vice versa– so that the airline can make as much profit as possible. When airline tickets first go on saleto the public (generally around a year out), they are generally put on sale at a standard predetermined price. As more and more seats are sold, the price will generally increase astickets in the cheaper fare buckets sell out. In the weeks and days before the flight, and/oras fewer seats become available to sell, the price will probably be considerably higher forthis reason. However, if ticket sales are not meeting expectations, the price may bereduced, or the route may be put on sale in an attempt to sell more seats and fill planes thatmay otherwise fly empty. This explains the first principle of cheap airfares: they’ll almostalways be cheaper off-peak, when less people want to fly.However the time you travel is only half of the story. Another major factor in determiningthe price of an airfare is the route itself. The fact is, airfares are priced differentlydepending on the route and the market. There are numerous factors at play here thatdetermine prices on a route: Competition – competition almost always means lower prices, e.g. prices are loweron the Melbourne to Brisbane route (served by 4 airlines) than, say, the Melbourneto Alice Springs route (served by online 1 airline).This principle doesn’t just apply to direct routes but also, for example, flights toEurope. There are dozens of airlines flying between Australia and Europe, but only asmall handful flying directly to the Middle East. This is why, for example, Qantasflights to Europe (via Dubai) are usually the same price or cheaper than flights toDubai itself – Qantas has to compete much more strongly on price to Europe due toall the competition flying through Asia or elsewhere. Isolated destinations – the more isolated a destination is, the more likely thatairfares will be expensive. If the only way to get somewhere is to fly there, then the The Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved.March, 2015

How to find cheap flights 5airline/s have a monopoly and know people will buy their tickets at any cost (as theyhave to). The city or country of departure – you may be surprised to learn that booking areturn flight from another country to Australia (or onwards to a third country) mightcost much less than booking a flight from Australia to the same country. Sometimesin “poorer” markets, ticket prices are lowered so that the airline can be competitivein that particular market. We will have a look at some examples in this Guide. On thesame token, the prices of flights departing Australia may intentionally be increasedin some cases. Convenience – sometimes airlines charge more just because the flight they areoffering is more convenient than what competitors are offering. This may bebecause they offer a direct flight, a better departure time, or even just a flight thatlands at an airport closer to the city centre. It works both ways though – indirect orpoorly-timed flights, or flights that land in secondary airports (e.g. Avalon, GoldCoast) are likely to be cheaper.In this guide we will have a look at some real-life examples, and how you can use thisknowledge of airfare pricing to your advantage!How to search for cheap flightsRegardless of where you want to travel, the AFF Flight Finder is a great place to startsearching! The flight search tool, which is powered by Skyscanner, allows you to search forthe cheapest flights on any airline route in the world. AFF Flight Finder is designedespecially for frequent flyers as it makes it possible not only to search for the cheapestflights, but also the flights that will earn you frequent flyer points through the “search byalliance” feature.Features of the AFF Flight Finder include: Get an instant online comparison of cheap flights on any airline route in the world Search by airline alliance (oneworld, Star Alliance or Skyteam) to ensure you get thebest deal both in terms of price and points & status credits earned. Search by class of travel – the tool compares not just cheap economy, but premiumeconomy, business and first class tickets Compare prices over a whole month, in order to find the absolute cheapest price Easy to use Easily include/exclude airlines in your search Book directly on the airline’s/agent’s website Set up price alerts NO fees The Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved.March, 2015

How to find cheap flights 6Using the Flight Finder is simple. Let’s look briefly at a demonstration of the features. In thisdemonstration we’ll search for fares between Melbourne and Paris.When you click the link at the top ofthe AFF home page, you will see thispage. You can do a simple searchstraight away, or click the link at thebottom of the text for more advancedsearch options. For the purposes ofthis demonstration, we’ll clickthrough for more options.On this page you can begin yoursearch by selecting the departure city,destination, number of passengers,dates and class of travel.The Flight Finder will then present youwith all available options from a widerange of airlines and online travelagents. They will automatically besorted by price, however you can clickon “Sort” to change the order to“duration”.In this example, the cheapest optionfrom Melbourne to Paris return iswith Jet Airways for 1250.If we click on “Details”, we can see allrequired stopovers for the routing. Inthis example, each leg requires two,mostly very long stopovers. So, thisrouting may not be ideal. The Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved.March, 2015

How to find cheap flights 7If we have a look at the next option,we can see that there is only onestopover in each direction.We could continue looking for betterconnections, but let’s just say that weare happy with this routing for 1,376with Qatar Airways and want to bookit.Clicking the blue box containing theprice will redirect you directly to theagent’s website where you cancomplete the booking. If you wouldlike to see quotes on a range ofwebsites, these can also be foundunderneath the routing in “Details”(as shown to the right).Before you are redirected to theagent’s/airline’s website, the pricewill be double-checked to ensure it isstill current and available to book.Clicking “continue” will then transferus to the website of the agent orairline. The booking can then becompleted directly with the agent. The Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved.March, 2015

How to find cheap flights 8In this case we have been transferredto Bestjet.com. You can thencomplete the booking and enjoy thesavings, knowing that you have foundthe best price!Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s look at some of the Flight Finder’s more advancedfeatures:Search by airline electing an airline alliance(oneworld, Star Alliance or Skyteam), orindividual airlines, only flights operated byairlines in that particular alliance will beshown. It is possible to search for more thanone alliance at once.Using this feature, it is also possible toinclude and exclude specific airlines, or evenbudget carriers in your search.Compare prices over the space of a monthto find the cheapest day/s to fly.Search by class of travelSelect economy, premium economy,business or first. This feature makes itpossible to find cheap tickets in premiumcabins.We have covered the major features. There are lots of other neat features that make it easyfor you to find that great deal. Try the Flight Finder for yourself and discover how much youcould save! The Australian Frequent Flyer, 2015. All rights reserved.March, 2015