If you’ve used a travel search engine to compare flight options or prices, you’ll know that the possibilities for your route vary widely, as do prices. You could buy return or single tickets, fly direct or stop over, book with different airlines, or fly into one city and out though another.
“Research all possible fares for your specific route, as pricing strategies vary widely from airline to airline,” says Antoinette Turner, general manager, Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa. “There may be agreements between airlines, and commercial and low-cost airlines, which cater to different markets,” she explains. “The more flexible you are, the more options you have, which can help bring down the airfare.”
The country’s “hub city” (generally the capital) has more flight options due to higher frequency of flights, and direct flights are generally more expensive as they are more convenient. “Some stopover routes involve lower-demand cities – as a strategy to encourage inbound tourism – which makes them less expensive,” says Turner.
But indirect flights come with risks, including delays, missed connections, lost, stolen or damaged baggage, and lengthy in-airport layovers. “What you save on the ticket price you generally spend in the airport on data, gifts, meals and shopping,” cautions Turner. “Also, you lose time in your destination. I ask customers: ‘Are you time or cost conscious?’”
If you accept those risks, layover flights are worth considering in the following cases, says Turner: when direct options are costly due to limited availability; when a reasonable layover (of two to four hours) results in massive cost savings; or when you would like to break up a long-haul flight and recover during the layover.
Another option is an “open jaw” booking – flying into one city and returning from another. Is this cheaper? “Sometimes,” says Turner. “Also, it can be seen as a value-added offering as you experience more than one destination.”
If you need to book more than one flight, you could buy two flights with different airlines as mixing airlines can be cheaper. But Turner says this is risky, especially when booking separate tickets. “The biggest issue is that if your first flight is delayed and you miss the second, you’ll likely have to buy a new ticket and be out of pocket without reimbursement. Avoid where possible!”
Other potential scenarios could cause you to miss your flight, so it is crucial to check your departure time right up to departure, Turner says:
• Airlines change departure times – even on the day of departure – due to weather, crew availability, or operational issues.
• Airports reassign boarding gates all the time, and if you don’t check, you might be waiting at the wrong one.
• Early departures are rare, but possible.
• If you’re using a foreign SIM, have poor signal, or the airline’s message gets filtered as spam, you won’t get the update.
• If your flight is cancelled just hours before departure, you need to know as soon as possible in order to rebook and not be marked as a no show.
One of the advantages of booking with a travel expert is that they have access to notifications managed on an internal flight queues system, which is not available to travellers, explains Turner.
On that note, there are several other advantages to using a travel agent instead of booking directly with the airline. “Travel experts work in line with requirements for stopover and end destination, and assist with travel insurance. Any errors can be managed confidently due to back-end support teams,” says Turner. “Having a person to contact is priceless in the event of unforeseen circumstances. A relationship with a travel expert makes for streamlined, stress-free travel.”
And for first and business class travel, agents have negotiated contracts that are unmatched even when booking directly with the airline, Turner explains. In addition, she highly recommends using a travel expert for complex itineraries such as open-jaw, or around-the-world tickets: “An experienced agent can often find better fares and connections than you’d get yourself.”
