GETTING THE CHEAPEST FARE

You can lower your ticket price by following simple recommendations:

Book your trip in advance

Most of special fares have deadline for ticket purchase (check Types of Fares). Therefore postponing ticket purchase till the last moment, you might not be able to buy the cheapest ticket.

Define dates of your travel in advance

Ask your agent about the rules of the lowest fare (minimum and maximum stay, ticketing deadline, etc. – check Types of Fares). It could happen that in case you move your travel date one day earlier or later, you might significantly decrease a ticket price. For example: The price of Air France ticket Paris-Kiev from Tuesday to Sunday of the same week is USD399 plus airport taxes, but from Tuesday to Thursday – USD799 plus taxes. Obviously, it is cheaper either to change travel date, or pay for additional night in a hotel (check Types of Fares).

Try to use one airline for the whole routing

All confidential fares with a rare exception are valid for the flights of one air carrier only (check Types of Fares). Therefore you can save money by changing a flight. For example: You fly to Paris with Air France and plan to come back via Vienna with Ukraine Intl Airlines, then the ticket will cost you USD1485 plus airport taxes. But if you fly back with Air France direct flight next day, you can buy a ticket at USD399 plus taxes.

The simpler your routing, the cheaper your ticket

If you need to fly via a few points, try to plan you route as much straight as possible. For example: Business Class ticket on the routing Kiev- Madrid- Paris-Lisbon-Kiev costs USD4164 plus taxes. If we change flight sequence to Kiev-Paris-Madrid-Lisbon-Kiev (Paris and Madrid are en route to Lisbon), then Business Class ticket will cost USD2560 plus taxes (check Price calculation).

Avoid “gaps” in itinerary

With a rare exception almost all special fares don’t allow international “gaps” in itinerary. For example: the cheapest ticket for Moscow-Zurich and then from Prague to Moscow costs USD850. If you add (even fictitiously) flight Zurich-Prague, the price can be reduced to USD450.

Try to avoid stops en route

Planning a complicated routing, try (if possible) to avoid stops longer than 24hrs (check Price calculation). Previous example Moscow-Zurich-Prague-Moscow is calculated on the basis that you spend in Prague less than 24hrs. If you stop in Prague for more than 24hrs (stopover), the price will raise up to USD725.

Ask please

Ask your agent what can be done to decrease ticket price. Ask what the lowest options and on which dates are on your route according to agent’s experience.