Since December 2013 Ryanair, welcoming the numerous protests of customers, improves its services and becomes a little more permissive and less bad in punishing those who do not check in online, those who carry more than a bag or hand luggage and in disturbing those flies with repeated sweepstakes and sale offers during evening and morning flights. Furthermore, it is also possible, within 24 hours, to modify and correct booking errors (once I threw 100 Euros for wrong date and I was really sick).
Low Cost airlines, including Ryanair is the number one, can be criticized as much as you want for the quality of flights, accessory services, but they have really opened the doors of Europe to everyone, especially to young people who in a shrewd way and being in front of the computer more often, they often manage to get air tickets at bargain prices for many destinations.
In this article we see the 5 golden rules for flying at lower prices, to always keep in mind before looking for a low cost flight ticket.
1) Choose the right time to buy the ticket
Everyone knows that the prices of low cost flights are variable; what is difficult to know is how, why and when they vary.
It is not possible to know the exact rule of thumb for the change in the price of air flights as the sector adapts to changes in demand, but there are certainly two factors that must always be considered:
Never buy too late, never buy too early.
If you have to fly next week and you have not yet taken a ticket, it is almost convenient to contact normal airlines because the low cost price will not be found.
In this regard, you can try, but risking a lot, to get the ticket the day before or the same day, trying with a last minute offer.
Ryanair never makes last minute offers, but it may be that other companies such as Alitalia, rather than holding a vacancy, sell at discounted prices at the last minute.
Some more anxious people are convinced that the earlier you buy a plane ticket, the less you pay for it.
Anxiety in commerce never pays and booking travel is no exception.
Low cost flights always have a high price if the departure date is more than 3 or 4 months away.
As a rule, the optimal time to buy a ticket is between 3 and 12 weeks before the flight .
In this regard, I would like to remind you of the two tricks to book a low cost air flight at the lowest possible price where it is recommended to book the air flights on Tuesday or, better yet, on Wednesday.
2) Choose the right time to fly
Obviously, if you fly on New Year's or Christmas, there is little to do, the flight price will always be high.
If you choose a time when everyone goes on vacation, it is normal for nothing to be found at low prices.
During the year, there are five "dead zones", ie periods where air flights are more empty and people travel less.
These "dead zones" are:
- January, after 7.
- All February, excluding Valentine's Day
- All September
- First two weeks of November .
- First two weeks of December .
Flying on the days in the middle of the week is cheaper and less and if you have to fly on the weekend you must definitely go on the Friday or, better still, the return on Monday trying not to fly on Saturday and Sunday.
Tuesday and Wednesday, on the other hand, tend to be the least expensive days.
The prices of the flights at 6 in the morning are obviously lower, but be careful to consider in the cost also the possible Taxi to get to the airport, which in cities like Rome, with the nightly surcharge, can also cost 50 Euros.
3) Always compare prices
There are many sites that, in an aggregate way, try to find the lowest prices of flights from one city to another by scanning the tariffs of low cost airlines.
you can use the sites to find the cheapest flight, including Bing Viaggi, which tries to predict, with a good success percentage, the change in flight prices.
When comparing prices, always use the browser in private browsing mode to prevent history from affecting searches.
In the search for the best price, also pay attention to the airports available in the same city and check which one is cheaper (and also check how far it is from the city center).
Check also all available routes: direct flights are fast, but you could also find a lower flight price by making a stopover.
4) Divide the groups
If you are traveling in a group, never look for prices by putting the whole number of people.
Let's say that a particular flight has 3 seats available for 100 Euros and I am looking for an air flight for my family of 5.
If I am looking for a flight for 5, I will never see the offer for 100 Euros because the airlines, in general, show the tickets available to the whole group, which maybe cost 150 per person.
On the same flight, then, different seats often have different costs.
For example, the rear seats near the airplane's engine, which are more uncomfortable and noisy, can cost less.
To avoid being fooled, it is better to look for the price for a person and compare it with what is proposed for the group.
If it is different, it is worth dividing the group and booking at lower prices first, only to divide the difference between the various people.
5) Beware of taxes and additional charges
Most airfares do not include all taxes and ticket price charges.
Maybe there is an offer for a flight at 10 Euros, then with the taxes the cost becomes 100.
However, if taxes cannot be avoided (unless there is a " No Tax " offer), there are other expensive services that can be removed from the travel package.
Personally I would avoid: paying for insurance, paying for snacks, paying for the confirmation SMS, paying for the choice of seats or for priority boarding.
If you intend to pay for these benefits, then perhaps it would be the case not to fly low cost and look if the price of a ticket of normal airlines like Alitalia is equivalent or lower.
Conclusion
As with any type of shopping, there is always a component of luck in flying at lower prices, but experience also matters a lot.
Sometimes it's about flexibility in the travel destination and the themes, to click on the right links, to search for the right terms or to choose the right times to sift the web, but the 5 golden rules above are definitely a base from which to start .
