How do you find affordable flights/ hotels ?
I know about webjet, but looks like they have some charges when you use them for bookings.
What sites you use, when planning a holiday ?
Lanotherone on 08/02/2013 - 08:21
Comments
Not just use search engines but subscribe to the LC airlines emails and book early.
I've flown Melb to KL, SG and HK including 15GK baggage, food and exit aisle for $660 on Air Asia. I'm going to SG from Syd on Scoot for $260 return next month. Also flew to Bali from Syd for $400 return.
All these trips were booked months in advance but once you lock it in you can do things like look for hotel deal etc and save without going deeply into debt.
Also good for holidays are sights like Flipkey and AirBnB where you can often book some great places cheaper than a hotel with your own pool etc.
We got both of us to SG and back on Scoot for $320 total ;)
Sure have. People get scammed all the time through all sorts of sites. You just need to be as careful as you can really.
thanks :)
For accomodation in asia I use www.agoda.com and for USA I have had really good experiences with www.hotwire.com. For flights the first post is on the money - check market prices with webjet then book direct. I always do all my own bookings and never buy packages personally and I save money that way but have to do a bit more work myself.
I've found http://wikitravel.org/ decent for getting an overview of a place and initial recommendations on what to see/where to stay. Best to use other sites for their reviews and ratings though.
I use Trip Advisor to get a list of 4-5 (or more) hotels in each place, then I check those hotel websites for early bird deals, in particular non-refundable rates (if you have good travel insurance) or long stay rates. I find these rates can often be much lower than what is offered by the hotel booking sites. I then book the best value - this does not necessarily mean the cheapest by the way.
Also, although some say its a myth, I am firmly of the belief that if you book direct you are likely to get a better room.
I am a little more cautious about Trip Advisor these days though…it has become over commercialised and there are reports of fake hotel reviews (by the hotel themselves) becoming much more prevalent.
I don't really worry too much about the prices of flights…only duration. I try and get shortest duration possible at reasonable price. I'll fly with Qantas even if its a couple hundred more than another since I've generally had good experiences with them. Having said that, my trips are usually quite long (6 weeks or more) - if I made shorter trips, I probably would worry about flight prices more. Aggregators I like are most are Kayak and BYOJET though like hotels I find myself often just booking direct thru airline site which seems cheaper.
Most of the time I find it cheaper to book directly for flights… use an aggregator (webjet, skyscanner, adioso etc) to find the cheap flight and then book directly
If you're <30 I found STA quite useful