The need for a business meet or vacation can make you travel overseas. Travelling to international destinations is done essentially by the air travel mode, unless there are waterways, roadways and railways mode of transportation between the countries. International flights are classified as short, medium and long haul on the basis of flight distance. The prices of the tickets are also a reflection of the distance being traveled. More is the distance, more is the fuel consumption and more will be the prices. In international travel, you might get the direct or connecting flights, depending on which airlines you prefer to travel with and whether it provides end-to-end connectivity on its own or in partnership with the other airlines. You can save good sum of money on the international travel and reduce the burden of expenses using some of these tips.
It is better to look for a direct flight which might not necessarily be a non-stop one. The reason for this is that you are saved of the hassles involved in taking the connecting flights. Normally, the direct international flights cost less than the connecting or via ones but these are rare to find.
Planning and booking in advance while maintaining a flexible schedule of travel is one tip which everyone would give. Since airlines would want to get their seats filled earlier than their competitors, the prices of the tickets are kept low so that the occupancy levels increase. And, as the occupancy increases, the tickets get dearer.
You can also consider catching the off-peak time cheap international flights. This could be the late night flights when the people do not usually do not prefer to fly and the rates of tickets come cheaper than the peak time travel.
You can also make use of the rewards accumulated by frequent travelling. These can be redeemed for free miles of travel which can lead to a significant reduction of the prices of air tickets.
If your international travel requires you to board the connecting flights, you shall make a check on whether some alliance partner will be providing the connecting flight or not. Alliance partners usually provide better rates than the other carriers and this could even reduce your hassles on checking-in baggage on connecting flights.
You can take other usual measures such as broadening the scope of your search for the inventory of online travel agency websites as well as airline websites to check which ones are offering better rates.
Nguyen An Tra My
Martin Wynn
