Travel tips to bag discounted airfares

The peak summer travel season is almost upon us, and if you‎ have spent countless weekend hours to bag that bargain airfare to no avail, then it's time to change that booking strategy.

Travel experts and industry insiders have long used these nifty methods to beat the system, even as stragglers struggle to fly high with fares that are easy on the wallet.

Emirates 24|7 digs deep to ensure you fly high this season with rock bottom pricing.‎ Here's how:

When to book

According to holiday booking sites such as Travelzoo, airlines usually tend to launch their sales on Tuesdays and end them on Thursdays, so don’t limit your searches to the weekends. ‎

Fly mid-week

Don't be limited in booking your travel just on the weekends.

Laws of demand and supply apply: planes are least full during the middle of the week than Thursdays and Fridays here.

Change your location

If you are looking to purchase domestic flights in another country or perhaps even book an international flight originating in another country, then try this sneaky method of faking your location or point of sale country.

Travel bloggers state this has more to do with currency fluctuations, but regardless, booking a ticket from a different location can bag you a deal.

Abha Kumar shares: "I was booking a return ticket for my mother who was traveling to Dubai from Mumbai.

"The airfare quoted to me was Dh1600. When I changed my country location to 'India' while purchasing the ticket, the fare dropped by Dh200."

Fly on holidays

Changing your departure or return date by one day can help save you big bucks.

Travel experts say, some of the biggest savings typically come with flying on the actual holiday, rather than a day earlier.

Yes, flying on Christmas Day, Diwali or the first day of Eid may seem unfair, but it can rack up the savings.

Take a break

Even though a nonstop flight is usually everyone's preferred way to travel medium to long-haul, you can sometimes save Dh350 to Dh1,000 on sectors if you are willing to break that journey and stretch your legs at another airport.

Some airlines, like Royal Brunei Airlines and Icelandair, also offer free stopovers — meaning you can extend your stay in the layover city and make it part of your vacation.

One-way fares

While some airlines charge extra for a one-way fare, it can save some bucks to compare.

Flight booking engines such as CheapAir or Musafir features a “Mix & Match” category that lets you combine two one way fares that may or may not be on the same airline, to form a round trip.

Break-up the booking

Booking portal Travelzoo says in its blog that it's rarely true that airlines give “group discounts”, which usually are few and far between.

Because airlines will typically limit the number of seats per flight they sell at their lowest rate, sometimes you can actually price yourself right out of a good deal simply by having too many passengers.

For example, a flight from Dubai to London may have two seats remaining at Dh2,000, while the rest are being sold at Dh2,500 and higher.

If you are booking from four passengers together, the airline will quote you the higher airfares due to the availability as a group booking.

But if you search for two seats at a time you can buy two for Dh2,000 and only have to pay the extra Dh500 for the second two.

Book weeks in advance

Emirates states, passengers need to book flights at least seven weeks in advance before travelling in order to avail of the cheapest fares.

The airline’s ‘Emirates Early Savers’ fares are available to those who book at least 45 days before they fly.

After this time threshold prices can shoot up.

Try alternate airports

‎Airports in high demand usually have airfares priced higher compared to smaller ones, which may perhaps be located further from the city centre.

Even in UAE, a flight out of Dubai World Central or even Sharjah may prove cheaper than flying to your destination of choice from Dubai International.

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