Tips to get the best fare when booking flights

Looking to purchase your flight for summer holidays? Planning for a city break in few weeks but not sure if you should wait a little bit longer hoping for a price decrease?

Booking a flight ticket at the lowest fare could look like a little gamble for some travellers. Part of flight ticket prices depends effectively on the competition, fuel price, distance of the flight and other elements that you cannot really change. However, there are still some tricks that could help you to get the best fare for your flight.

Book your flight in advance

Recent studies show that booking in advance remain the best way to get cheap fares for your flight. It is suggested to book at least 2 months in advance for domestic and European destinations from UK and around 6 months in advance for other international destinations (USA for example). There are some exceptions when last minute deals can enable you to get very interesting fares but it is usually risky to wait the last weeks to book.

Choose the right day to book and to fly

Statistics show that Tuesday appears to be the best day of the week to get the cheapest fare when booking at least 3 weeks in advance. If the day to book your flight can just save you few pounds, choose the right day to fly could have a significant impact on the price of your ticket: be flexible if you can.

It is not a surprise: flight tickets depend mainly on the season you want to fly. The demand will be at its highest point for warm destinations during summer holidays and for snowy destinations during winter holidays. As a consequence, you should avoid, if you can, to travel during school holidays.

Most passengers are looking to travel during weekends, for example leaving on the Friday and coming back on the following Saturday. Before booking your flight, check different dates to find the cheapest fare!

Competition to get the best fare

You know that you’re not the only one looking for this ticket so play the game and win it!

Don’t miss flight deals, discounts and special offers of airlines. Following their news and social networks could allow you to be the first to benefit from reduced fares. Following Gopili news and social networks will allow you to see all of them.

When looking at your flight ticket, check the number of seats remaining. If there are just few left, you might want to be fast and book your ticket if it’s your last chance.

Compare, Compare, Compare

Don’t focus on only one airport. It is quite often that an additional hour drive to another airport can enable you to get a cheaper flight.

You should also compare the prices of the different airlines operating on the routes you are looking for. Low cost airlines that you are not aware of may offer cheap flight tickets for your destination. An easy way of doing so is to use our travel search engine, providing you in one search all of the different options.

You have already tried all these tips but the flight ticket is still above your budget? There are other transport alternatives that could meet your requirements for your journey: find cheap tickets for UK and European journeys on Gopili.

Source: Expedia: Preparing for takeoff: air travel trends 2015, Skyscanner: Best time to book