Travel is never cheap, especially when airlines are involved. Many airlines nowadays put quite the price tag on roundtrip flights, whether within the U.S. or abroad; but there are some tricks that can help you save on those tickets. The Wall Street Journal’s Scott McCartney provides some great tips to consider when making your travel plans, especially if you are a frequent flyer:
- When purchasing for a group traveling together, consider buying the tickets individually. When you are looking for three or four tickets you need to be careful how you use the airline computer system because most systems do not average the cost of multiple tickets. Airline computers only give you the highest possible cost for all the tickets you are purchasing. However, when you buy separately, you might find individual tickets at lower prices. Afterwards, you can call the airline and have all the flight reservations linked. This way you can still get seated together with your travel partners.
- Always explore an airline’s partner brands, because they may have different rates for the same flight. Code-sharing allows partner airlines to sell seats on each other’s flights, which lets them price those seats individually. The prices you can find on some roundtrip flights can be much cheaper when buying through code-sharing partners, especially if tickets to your destination are not in particularly high demand.
- Buying one-way tickets separately to make your own custom round trip can also help you to save big. There are flights you can get through certain cities (McCartney uses the example of Dallas in his article) that you can get cheaper flights to and from, so consider making a roundtrip with a layover in one of these cities. You can find a cheap one-way flight to a city like Dallas, and then buy another ticket from the Dallas to your destination. This is an excellent method to use when you are traveling alone, and it can help you save hundreds!
The next time you’re planning a trip or vacation, consider one of these tricks. Your wallet will thank you!