When is the best time to buy air tickets? When there are air ticket sales - tricks and subtleties. Search for abnormal prices

The hot season is coming. Be prepared not to be deceived.

This summer, many of us will stay in Russia. Realities are like that. Let's go to the South, and extreme people - to the North. Thanks to the sanctions, interest in the native country has appeared, everything has its advantages.

Let's take on board 10 tricky life hacks for saving on tickets that professionals advised us.

1. Visiting the site several times, the price rises

Automatic algorithms constantly monitor your activities on the Internet in order to get the most money from you. For example, prices automatically increase if you look at tickets on several sites in a row.

Many are beginning to think that tickets are going up in price right now, breaking down, buying at an increased price.

2. Ticket prices are higher on Mac and iPhone than on PC

Mac and iPhone owners are said to be seeing increased ticket prices. We are richer than Windows users. We may also be shown more often that there are (supposedly) few seats left on the plane. The list of tricks is huge, we will write a separate article about this.

How to avoid: initially choose a service that sells tickets, and does not collect offers from dozens of sites and is not responsible for the further fate of the passenger when buying a ticket. The fewer intermediate links, the better.

3. Tickets must be taken 3-4 weeks in advance

Some say that you have to wait, while others - what to take in advance. If you look at the general price statistics for Russian destinations, you will never expect low prices a couple of days before departure.

Example:

Moscow - Adler - Moscow: June 10 from 7,000 rubles.
Moscow - Adler - Moscow: August 10 from 9,000 rubles.

Check it yourself: find out how much a ticket costs now Moscow-Adler, What are the options:

4. Watch out for charter flights - they can be cheaper

Many online services do not show offers for charter flights. And in vain, because the price of many charters is often lower than for regular airline flights.

Most importantly, tickets for charter flights just get cheaper as the departure date approaches. Such planes need to be filled to capacity, so the price tends to go down with a drop in demand.

This is a foreign version, but very interesting. Check out the charter flight Moscow – Burgas:

Charter flights can be viewed in the Aviakassa app for iOS in a special tab.

5. Not about Russia. The best deals appear from Tuesday to Wednesday

These days the exchange rate in the booking system changes. You will have to buy quickly, because there are a lot of the same "smart" ones on the Internet. Remember that the price may also increase at this point. This is the roulette wheel.

6. Plan your flight before or after the hot season

By the way, their application put Apple on the main page in the top position - that is, it received official"approve".

P.S. people, if you know more life hacks or tricks that work inside Russia and in general, share in the comments. And write where you are going to fly (or go) this summer. Maybe you know a good place, a hotel where you can relax in a European way?

Time is money. Is it really worth buying the cheapest ticket right away? Or is it better to wait a couple of weeks and save?

First, let's look at the average cost of a flight in Russia from Moscow, depending on the time before departure in 2014 and 2015:

As we can see, buying tickets more than six months in advance is extremely unprofitable, over time they become half the price. If in 2014 it still made sense to book tickets a few months before departure in order to save up to a quarter of their cost, then this year the main thing is not to go to extremes. Do not buy a ticket for a year and do not leave this decision to the last day.

Well, in the case of Russia, it may not be worth planning trips a year in advance, but you definitely need to go to Asia in the summer. The answer is ambiguous.

If you look at the cost of a flight to Asia in 2015, then indeed, tickets purchased more than six months in advance are 40% cheaper. But do not forget that 2015 is just beginning and the tickets bought in half a year are tickets for the summer months, that is, for the low season in Asia. In 2014, two weeks before departure, you could find a ticket 2-3% cheaper than six months before. It is worth noting that last year the average check for flights to Asia did not vary much depending on the time before departure. Of course, with the current unstable exchange rate, you should not count on the same picture, but you don’t need to cancel your trip because you didn’t manage to buy tickets six months in advance. You will overpay only 5-6% of the cost of the flight.

But with travel to Europe, the situation is completely different.

By buying a ticket well in advance, you can save more than 40%: the closer to the departure date, the more expensive the ticket will cost. Tellingly, the picture did not change much in 2015. So if you are going to Europe and accidentally stumbled upon a profitable offer, it is better to use it right away.

If you are interested in more distant travels, for example, America or Australia and New Zealand, where the difference of 2-3% in ticket prices plays a much larger role, you should also start planning your trip as early as possible.

The cost of flights from Moscow to America

The cost of flights from Moscow to Australia and New Zealand

Tickets to the country of kangaroos are getting more expensive by 7-10 thousand a week, and given the cost of living in Australia, these 10 thousand will definitely come in handy. So the earlier you buy tickets, the more budget you will have for the trip itself. With America, the situation is not so catastrophic. In 2015, for example, our users were already able to find tickets 2 weeks before departure, much cheaper than tickets purchased in advance. However, it is definitely not worth postponing the purchase for the last few days.

As you can see, it is impossible to give unequivocal advice when it is better to buy plane tickets, and the difference in prices can be from 5 to 50 thousand rubles. If you are planning a trip to Europe or Australia, it is better to buy a ticket as early as possible, but if you want to relax on the beach of Thailand or Bali, you can decide which country is more interesting to you until the last weeks. However, in any case, we advise you to simply subscribe to the destination you are interested in, because no one knows what promotions and discounts the airline can offer, otherwise you will definitely not miss them.

How to buy air tickets cheaper and save a lot on it, even if you are an experienced traveler. We have collected in one article 12 tricks, methods and tools that have accumulated over 10 years of travel, so that you can significantly reduce the price of air tickets on your next trip. Destination doesn't matter: these tips are good for planning trips anywhere.

Perhaps you already know some of these tricks, others you can try out for the first time. I recommend reading to the end, because we have structured the information from more popular ways to less used ones or save it to your social network to read later. Just click one of the icons below so you don't lose the article.

1. Search for tickets through metasearch engines

Oddly enough, until now, few people understand the difference between the price of a ticket in a metasearch engine and, say, an agency or an airline. And it's pretty significant. For example, an agency receives prices from airlines and / or booking systems, adds something on top and sells to us. Each market participant sets margins as he likes.

Agencies sell a lot of tickets for airlines and their conditions are often even more pleasant than those of the carriers themselves. Therefore, buying on the airline's website, as the primary source of prices, does not always make sense.

There are many ways to buy a plane ticket cheaper than on the airline's website.

The metasearch engine, on the other hand, is engaged in the fact that it receives data from everyone (agencies, airlines and booking systems), compares them and gives results with links to sources.

Thus, one of the most popular Runet metasearch engines, Aviasales, searches for and finds the cheapest air tickets in 728 airlines, 200 ticket offices and 5 booking systems. By default, the cheapest offer comes first in the search results.

This process was described in detail in his free video course“How to buy air tickets 2 times cheaper” Alexander Filev, the hero of the Miracle Technology program on NTV, made a round-the-world air trip in 2013 for 44 thousand rubles (at that time about 1.5 thousand dollars). Download Filev's free course.

Well, in order to clearly see the “spread” in prices between agencies, here, for example, are the search results for the query “Moscow-Rome” for an arbitrary date. The price for the same flight in different agencies differs by more than 10%.

2. Use the Low Price Calendar

A convenient and very popular feature of Aviasales. It helps, knowing the right direction, to quickly find dates with the most attractive prices. If you don't know the direction, you can leave the default phrase "Any country" in the search form and click "show prices" - the system will display the cheapest offer available in the database.

In addition, there is:

• The point of departure or arrival can be set as a city or country
• You can set the duration of the trip
• You can mark both specific dates of the trip, and set the search immediately by month

3. Be the first to know about price changes

I manage to fly mega-cheap also because I know exactly the dates when airlines in my favorite destinations hold sales. So, for example, for many years I have been subscribed to the Greek Aegean Airlines, and during this time a whole history of the dates of their promotions has been formed. By the way, the timing of their holding almost does not change from year to year.

But it is easier to keep track of low prices for the desired destinations. To do this, Aviasales has a price change subscription. Simply enter your intended travel information and the system will notify you as soon as ticket prices change.

4. Get yourself a mobile app [very important!]

Keeping track of the best prices is even more convenient when you have the Aviasales mobile app installed. By the way, according to the search engine, it is installed on every 8th smartphone in Russia. And if you still don’t have it, then perhaps this is the reason why all cheap air tickets “fly” by.

But there is one more trick, which for the most part even active users of the application do not know about. To find the best price, after installing the application, try to search in the desired direction. In the meantime, the system is looking for, click "Add to Favorites".

After that, you will receive notifications on your phone for the desired route every time the price changes. Thus, you will be among the first to know about the new sale, and you will be able to redeem the ticket for the cheapest price. Watch the video to see how it works:

Download the app now, because it's one of the most effective ways to save money:

5. Use the Low Airfare Card

Map search works well if you can be flexible in planning your trip and are not particularly tied to dates or places. Such a useful feature.

With its help, you can understand in a matter of seconds where you can fly cheaply and quickly. There are a number of filters to make your search easier:

• Departure city
• Budget
• Visa or visa-free direction
• Travel dates
• Etc.

If you have not tried to search for low prices on the map before - try it right now .

6. Fly for miles, not for money

If you are a frequent flyer, then it makes sense to get an airline loyalty card for yourself in order to accumulate miles from each flight and exchange them later for tickets at reduced prices. Such programs are available in the arsenal of most major airlines.

But it's a long way. You can significantly speed up the process of accumulating miles using joint cards of airlines and banks. This will allow you to earn miles on every purchase you make. For example, the author of this article accumulated 30,000 miles in a year. Of these, about 15,000 accumulated after three flights to China, another 15,000 - over 3 months of using the card.

In Russia, one of the most popular cards for accumulating miles is the All Airlines card of Tinkoff Bank. With its help, you can fly for free at least once a year even with very modest spending, and miles can be exchanged for flights any airlines. For all the details on how to earn miles and how to exchange them for air tickets, see the video below.

For Ukraine, UIA and Alfa Bank have a similar project. The card is called Alfa Sky Pass.

7. Plan your trip ahead of time

On flights, there is often a rule: the earlier you buy a ticket, the cheaper it will cost you. If your planning horizon is less than a month before departure, be prepared for the fact that your ticket will cost more. The best prices are the easiest to find a few months before travel.

Low-cost airlines are far from the only solution for cheap air travel.

The appearance of Azair leaves much to be desired, but it presents a fairly good list of low-cost carriers.

Just in case, we recall that when traveling by low-cost carriers, in addition to pluses, there are also minuses: baggage restrictions, less convenient flight schedules, often second-class airports. But if the main task is to buy the cheapest plane ticket, then, as they say, they don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

9. Travel light

Previously, this was a trend only among low-cost airlines, but in recent years it has become increasingly common with traditional airlines: separate fares for traveling light and with luggage. In the first case, it is assumed that the traveler boards the plane exclusively with hand luggage and can use a lower fare.

Of course, if at the last moment the “luggage carrier” has a bag with him, then the airline will already win back.

10. Know about all promotions

We have already mentioned above that you can follow the prices in certain directions and be the first to know about their changes. This is exactly the way that I fly often and cheaply. This works great if you know exactly where you want to fly to.

But you can go further and at any time "In one fell swoop" check all current promotions. At least those of them that are in the Aviasales database. This is well suited for spontaneous travel, when you want to fly cheaper, and where - depends on the availability of offers.

Regularly updated information about special offers located at this link. And the hottest of them are presented below.

11. Check nearby dates and cities

Did you know that the cheapest tickets are usually found between Tuesday and Thursday, while at the beginning and end of the week, on the contrary, flights are usually more expensive. Therefore, when performing a search, it always makes sense to check neighboring dates as well. The difference can be very significant. For example, below is a screenshot of the first available flight from the Aviasales calendar. .

Another trick is to look not only at the "home" city of departure, but also neighboring ones: the difference in airfare can justify buying a train ticket to get to a cheaper departure point. So, for example, on average, tickets from Moscow are cheaper than from St. Petersburg, although getting from one city to another is easy.

In the same way, it is far from always profitable for Ukrainians to plan a flight from the capital: it is often much cheaper to fly from Kharkiv and Dnipro to Turkey, and from airports in Western Ukraine to Poland.

12. Save up to 30% on compound (difficult) routes

it very powerful theme for saving or vice versa, to make your trip much richer, and Aviasales also has such a function. But she needs to be dealt with a little.

First, let's understand the terms:

• Example of a simple route: Moscow-Paris-Moscow

• An example of a complex (compound) route: Moscow-Paris, Paris-Barcelona, ​​Barcelona-Moscow

Option A: Buy a cheaper flight:

You probably noticed that a flight with a transfer is often cheaper than a direct one. And you can save a lot on this. Moreover, savings of 30% are not at all uncommon. To make it clear "how" - let's do it with an example.

Let's say we need to get from Moscow to Paris. We choose the date randomly (in our case, October 15, 2016). We enter the data, as usual, on the main page of Aviasales and get the following result - a direct flight by Air France will cost 322 Euro.

Now, let's think about where planes should fly from Paris very often. In my case, Barcelona came to mind.

We switch to the “Compose a complex route” tab and enter 2 flights on the same date: Moscow-Paris and Paris-Barcelona. It turns out that we seem to be flying from Moscow to Barcelona with a transfer in Paris.

A few seconds for the search system and the result: From Moscow to Barcelona via Paris in the same way Air France– 238 Euro.

But we don't need to go to Barcelona. We were initially interested only in Paris, where we will get off during the transfer.

Out of the blue, we saved almost 30%, and at the same time we fly on the same plane as other passengers who bought tickets more expensive. And the flight for us is the most direct.

Important:

• If you fly like this check in baggage not to the final destination, but to the place of transfer. In our case, for the Moscow-Paris-Barcelona flight, this is Paris. Otherwise, you will leave, and the luggage will fly further. To do this, at the check-in desk you will need a reason why your luggage needs to be removed from the plane in Paris, although your tickets are to Barcelona. For example, you are carrying a transfer or a thing you need in your bag - but you never know.
• Remember that if you miss any segment of the flight, the return ticket will be cancelled. In our case, if you bought Moscow-Paris-Barcelona and Barcelona-Paris-Moscow tickets, but left in Paris, then you will not fly back with this ticket, because you did not fly to Barcelona initially. To avoid confusion - just buy tickets separately, as if in 1 way.

With the challenging itinerary option, you can go even further and expand your trip by seeing more for the same money. For example, we need to get from Moscow to Rome, but we also want to visit Paris.

By analogy with the method described above, we find tickets with a transfer in Paris. Only now we have another task - to spend a free day in the French capital. This can be done by playing with the time of departure and transfers.

Finally

All the methods mentioned in the article are tested and working to find and buy the cheapest plane ticket. Add it to your bookmarks and save with these little tricks already on your next trip, or try to check out the methods mentioned right now - on fresh tracks.

Subscribe to airline notifications

Don't forget to monitor carrier websites. Usually sales are arranged in February - March and October - November. During such periods, servers may lie down. But with a little patience, you'll have a cheap ticket in your pocket. And some airlines offer to send messages if the price drops. Agree to have time to buy the right ticket.

Subscribe to Telegram channels

Use Telegram channels to search for profitable offers. Information about discounts comes in the form of a personal notification. It is better to subscribe to several at once and monitor them by comparing prices. Here are three useful channels with cheap flights: Samokatus, Travelradar and PassOnBoard.

And of course, use cheap flight aggregators such as Aviasales, Skyscanner, Momondo, OneTwoTrip. They are not tied to a specific airline, but compare prices from different sites and give you the best option. And in these search engines there are convenient charts and price calendars. With their help, you can shift the date of the trip and save a significant amount.

Most of these search engines have mobile applications.

2. Clear your cookies and cache

If you have already searched for cheap flights, the aggregator or airline website remembered both the country of departure and the approximate cost of the journey. As a result, you may see the old price, even if the tickets have fallen in price. In addition, the site will rush you and assure you that there are almost no seats left on the plane. Even if it's not true at all.

5. Buy tickets in advance

It's better to buy tickets in advance. Typically, airlines open a sale 330 days in advance. But, as practice shows, the most optimal booking time is 50–60 days before departure.

The fact is that at the start of sales, the program focuses on last year's prices, and then demand forms the cost and, as a rule, it decreases. A couple of months before departure, there are not so many bookings. And the more empty seats on the plane, the lower the price.

When buying a ticket, you should also take into account the time of day. Most buy tickets in the middle of the day. So book your flight late at night or early in the morning. There are not so many visitors on aggregators, demand is falling, prices are starting to creep down.

6. Keep documents close at hand

Keep your passport information with you at all times. It is not necessary to carry a passport with you. It is enough to take a photo of the necessary pages or write out the data in notes. Special offers usually come at the most inopportune moment. And cheap tickets, most likely, will not survive until the evening. So when planning a trip, be ready to book tickets at any time. And, of course, do not forget about the money on the bank card.

The ticket price directly depends on the flow of tourists. On holidays, school holidays and the high season, the cost of the flight usually increases. So be sure to check prices for other dates. Sometimes a flight with a difference of a couple of weeks is several times cheaper.

So, a ticket to Asian countries with a departure at the end of December is almost twice as expensive as at the beginning of the month.

And do not hesitate to travel in the off-season. First, it's much cheaper. Secondly, there are no crowds of tourists and queues at museums. In Europe, for example, everyone goes for the New Year holidays. It is much more profitable to fly there in early autumn.

8. Buy round-trip tickets

Buy tickets immediately in both directions, do not postpone for later. Firstly, when buying round-trip tickets, you save about 20%. Secondly, remember: the closer the departure, the more expensive the ticket. For example, tickets Moscow - Paris and back cost 14,000 rubles, and if you take them separately, you will have to overpay more than 2,000 rubles.

9. Go beyond the capital

If you want to get, for example, to France, it is not necessary to fly directly to Paris. Look at tickets to neighboring cities: sometimes you can get there much cheaper than in the capital.

Then you can travel by trains, trains, buses or planes. Just remember: abroad it is better to book tickets for intercity trains and buses in advance, at least a couple of weeks in advance. That will be cheaper. In Europe, this can be done online, through the websites of carriers.

Can vary significantly, even for the same flight. Almost certainly, many of the passengers flying on the same plane bought their tickets at different prices. It is obvious that airlines want to maximize profits by balancing between the occupancy of their own flights and the prices of competitors. The ability to buy cheap air tickets comes with experience, but still there is general information that is useful for every traveler to know.

Thus, the article will help you find answers to such questions:

• How to find the cheapest flight ticket?
• What are promo tickets?
• What you need to know to start looking for a cheap ticket?
• When to look for a cheap air ticket?
• What days are plane tickets cheaper?

Ticket types

The main factor affecting the price of a ticket is its type or category. Everyone knows three classes of air tickets: economy, business and first. In addition, air tickets belong to a certain category that imposes certain restrictions. Of course, the fewer restrictions, the more expensive the ticket. The cheapest category includes economy class flights with a full restriction on exchanges or refunds. Some airlines call this category `promo`. The main disadvantage of this category is the inability to return or even exchange the ticket. However, if you are sure about the dates and the possibility of a trip, this is not a problem. Information about restrictions should be studied before purchasing a ticket or before paying for an air ticket on the Internet.

Flight types

Flights can be conditionally divided into regular, budget and charter flights. The last two types almost always win in price, but have their drawbacks.

Charter flight routes are usually limited to popular tourist destinations, and there are no guarantees for purchasing tickets. Charter flight seats are usually allocated by major tour operators and, in some cases, several seats are put up for sale. As a rule, the level of service on charter flights is inferior to the level of service on regular flights.

Low-cost flights are operated by low-cost airlines (from the English. `low-cost airlines`), also called low-cost airlines. In Russia, such a marketing policy among airlines is still extremely rare, but in general, it is quite common around the world. An example of this is easyJet, airBerlin, Ryanair and others. How do budget airlines manage to sell tickets at really low prices? The answer is simple: save on everything. This, of course, does not apply to the aircraft themselves - the safety requirements are the same for everyone. However, passengers may experience savings due to inconvenient departure times, long check-in times, extra fees for baggage, more frequent flight delays and cancellations, and almost always paid drinks and meals during the flight. Usually, low-cost airlines do not operate flights longer than 4 hours.

Regular flights are definitely more comfortable than the rest. Fortunately, sometimes a ticket for a regular flight can be bought at a price close to a charter or state employee. This will be discussed further.

Promotions and discounts from airlines

It is considered a great success to purchase a ticket for a special promotion held by a certain airline. The fact is that the holding of such events is most often not publicized in advance, so it is difficult to plan the purchase of a ticket for the promotion. Most often, there are two time frames associated with the stock itself. The first is the time of its holding, during which you should buy a ticket at a reduced price. It can be either a few hours or several tens of days. On average, one special offer lasts about two weeks. The second time interval determines the flight time, i.e. there is a restriction on the date of departure and return. In some cases, there may also be additional conditions for granting discounts, such as a certain minimum or maximum period of stay at the destination and others. Each special offer of airlines includes a very limited number of tickets for each flight, and therefore air tickets at special prices tend to run out quickly enough. Some airlines organize their promotions six months before the departure date, while others sell tickets like hot cakes right in the departure season. You can see what airline promotions look like here on AviaPanda in the `Discounts` section.

Cheap flights without discounts

It is not always possible to find a ticket for a promotion, but you need to fly. What to do? There are some tips to keep the cost down. As mentioned above, there is the cheapest airfare category to hunt for. Since there are a limited number of such tickets on each flight, it makes sense to slightly change the date of departure and arrival when searching, in the hope that there are still tickets at the cheapest fare. Here on AviaPanda, as a result of displaying air tickets according to the specified parameters, there is a convenient option `Calendar of low prices`, which greatly simplifies the task of such a search. In addition, you should use the +/- 3 days checkbox when filling out the search form.

When is the cheapest time to buy plane tickets?

As they say, the one who is informed in time is armed. You should start preparing for the trip in advance, it doesn’t hurt to start studying prices six months before departure. Such early preparation is especially relevant for long-distance transatlantic or intercontinental flights. However, this strategy is not universal and in some cases the best prices for air tickets can be found a month or two before departure. In very rare cases, the airline literally gives away tickets at cost a day or two before departure, but you can’t rely on this when doing serious travel planning. This is useful to remember if an alternative option to go somewhere suddenly arises - why not check the prices?

Other factors affecting the price of an air ticket

When planning a trip, you should remember that people tend to work according to a schedule. Thus, tickets with weekend departure/arrival dates will almost always be more expensive. Based on this, the most inexpensive days of the week for air travel are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The same logic explains the increase in prices during the holidays. It is impossible not to mention that it is almost always cheaper to buy a round trip ticket at once than to buy a ticket separately for each end. Of course, it is convenient to have some freedom, leaving for later the possibility of choosing the date of the return flight, but here we are talking about buying cheap air tickets. Alternatively, consider purchasing a ticket category that allows you to change your departure date. Again, there is a chance that even in this category, a round trip ticket will outperform two separately purchased tickets without the possibility of a return and exchange one way. When purchasing an air ticket, think about the nearest airports of departure or arrival. Sometimes it turns out to save a lot by making part of the trip by land transport. Some directions of flights are characterized by a significant change in prices depending on the tourist season, which should also be paid attention to. Returning to the question of where to buy cheap air tickets, it is still more cost-effective to buy tickets on the Internet, because. they are not overgrown with an additional commission that goes to the maintenance of the office of the trans agency.

It is highly likely that you are reading this article while planning a trip. air Panda wishes you a happy journey!