So, it’s been a while since I last posted on the blog because I was traveling to Bali and Dubai. In fact, today, I am at my host family’s place in Berlin where I am taking advantage of this free time to write a bit on the blog.
In this article, I am going to talk to you about my last four trips (Beijing and Japan, Berlin, Bali and Dubai, Berlin) and especially about the price of the tickets. The ticket price is often one third of the travel expenses or even often half.
My recent trips
- First of all, I will tell you about my two stays in Berlin.
My first stay was during the period from 12/23/2013 to 01/06/2013. My second was from 05/26 to 06/02.
- For the first stay, I paid 240 euros with Air France.
- For the second flight, I paid 290 euros with Lufthansa.
You could say that in both cases, I paid quite an expensive ticket!!
Fortunately, the ticket is reimbursed by my company which funds my language stay in Berlin.
- My plane ticket for Bali and Dubai.
I left from 05/02 to 05/21 and paid 770 euros with Etihad Airways with a 4-day stopover in Dubai.
I think I did pretty well for the price of this ticket.
- My ticket for Japan with Beijing as a stopover.
For this trip, I arrived in Beijing from Paris and made a 6-day stopover in Beijing before heading to Tokyo. This trip took place in August. I paid 935 euros for this plane ticket. My brother who went with me paid 920 euros because he booked the ticket before me. The airline I took was Air China.
I think I did less well with this plane ticket and that I could have gotten it for 800 euros or less.
Mistakes not to make when buying your plane ticket.
- Always check a flight comparison site to get the cheapest tickets possible.
- If you want to make stopovers for your flight, choose the appropriate airlines. For example, with Etihad you can stopover in Abu Dhabi, Emirates in Dubai, Air China in Shanghai or Beijing, etc. You usually get cheaper flights when making a stopover instead of a direct flight, so you might as well take advantage of the stopover.
- For plane tickets where stopovers are not possible or less beneficial, it is often better to book in advance to avoid paying a quite expensive ticket like in my case for Berlin. It is often cheaper to travel by bus for destinations in Europe, but the travel time is increased by at least 3 times sometimes.
- Certain times of the year are favorable for discounts on plane ticket prices. For example, the flight I took with Etihad was a special offer; the ticket price was lower because it was neither high season nor low season. The months from March to May and September to November often have good ticket prices.
- Depart and return during the week. Leaving or returning on a Tuesday or Thursday is often cheaper than leaving on a Friday or returning on a Sunday. The crowd is lower during the week, which explains the lower ticket prices.
Most of the time, I don’t try to maximize the discount on the plane ticket but just to save several tens or a hundred euros when I can, or even to make stopovers during my trip even if it means paying a little more.
I hope these tips will be useful to you.
And you, what is your technique for lowering the price of a ticket?
