2voyage Travel Portal

I am travelling to Iceland next week and am looking to do a super jeep tour around the golden circle. I am trying to find the cheapest option!!

Travelling in July.

Route is:
London -> Toronto
Toronto -> Belize
Belize -> London

Hoping there are cheap charter flights out there!
Thanks

With the economic downturn it has meant, especially this year, booking flights and holidays are a little more difficult. The last couple of summers you would just maybe have a search about to find a new place to fly to or to go for a holiday and then book it through a tour operator. However we all have to be a little more careful with our money, ensuring we budget properly in case the worst was to happen in that we lose our job. Many are saving in advance for holidays as opposed to sticking it on the credit card.

Those cheap flights can be a little more difficult to find. You never quite know when to book and where to book. It does of course depend on if you need to go to a particular location such as if you are Spanish and are returning home for the holidays. If you need to return home to a particular destination you can continue to monitor prices, using a comparison site is a great and simple way of doing this.

Fill in a simple form and you can search all the major flight operators to see who will offer the best deal at that time or the maybe the best price for the best time of day. If you are happy to travel early in the morning, normally for flights leaving around 6.30 during the week, you can normally get a better rate, plus it means you get a full day in most locations and have a kip on the plane! Perfect.

To ensure you don’t miss any newly announced prices it is worth signing up to the comparison websites newsletter if they have one so they can keep you abreast of the latest deals.

Generally booking in advance offers the cheapest price for a popular destination especially of you are travelling short distance such as from Glasgow to London, especially if it is going to be a low cost operator. As I said depends on the location so holding off may mean you are offered

cheap flights to a great value holiday location to fill up capacity and might mean you have a bit more space at the pool!

Anyone reading the press recently will have seen the many newspaper reports of the new top destination favourites for 2010. Understandably many people are going for more budget friendly locations, choosing holidays in Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt compared to previous British favourite, Spain.

Price is what is driving the increased bookings to these destinations. Since Turkey and the others are outside of the Euro zone they are much more affordable to the British. Since price is the most important factor for tourists at the moment other destinations aren’t going to get as many bookings despite many longing for a foreign holiday after foregoing or having a shortened holiday last year.

Add to this the recent below freezing temperatures 2010 is predicted to see consumers taking longer holidays to compensate as they see a holiday as a must have household expense.

The tour operators launched their summer campaigns and January sales immediately after the holidays and there are certainly bargain holidays for you to grab as they look to improve their cash flow. To get the best deals you must be willing to travel out of the peak season which if you are considering somewhere like Egypt or Turkey isn’t a problem since they have year round sunshine in all of their resorts.

If the snow is getting to you and you want to get away now then a short city break to Istanbul is the ideal solution. This kind of Turkey holiday offers a great experience, visit the Grand Bazaar to shop and haggle if you are brave enough over stunning fabrics to relaxing after in a trendy bar that you’d like find in a classy city like London.

While this is the perfect bargain holiday both for city breaks and summer holidays you can still enjoy more glamorous Turkey holidays by staying at the newly opened Mardan Palace Hotel. Reportedly to have cost £1 billion it offers a luxury five star hotel experience.

Finding cheap flights when traveling is always an adventure. I have found a couple techniques work well for me. I recently booked tickets from Calgary to Moscow and I will show you the comparison of prices using the techniques there.

I personally use Expedia, Travelocity, EasyJet (Europe), the individual airline websites, and travel agents when trying to find the cheapest arrangements. You might know of other resources to try as well.

Local Tour Agents

I usually get together a rough itinerary for a travel agent and then email a number of the tour shops around my city. They should get back to you with quotes. If they do not get back to you soon, they don’t want your business.

Go Online

Next it is time for online research. This is where I almost always find the cheapest flights. Go to one of the sites I listed above or another one you have heard of.

Type in Your Start and End Destination

This is the worst thing you can do, but it is the easiest and will show you the worst price you are looking at. For Calgary (YYC) to Moscow (SVO) on July 10 2007, the cheapest quote on Expedia was $1,837. It was for Air Canada and Aeroflot-Russian Airlines.

Why is this so expensive? Expedia is going to book you all on one ticket. I am not certain, but I think this can only be done through associated airlines. There are a couple positives to this.

If there are cancellations or other problems, they will make sure you get to your end point regardless. They airline you are on and the airline you will be connecting on will know your flight status and can sometimes even make arrangements for you before you land.

You do not have to pick up your checked luggage and re-check it in.


If you even want a bigger scare, do a round trip or multiple destination trip with your “going there flight” and your “coming home flight”. My wife and I were going Calgary, Canada to Moscow, Russia and then Beijing, China to Calgary, Calgary. The tickets are over $3,200 now and were over $5,000 when we first looked a month ago.

Note: I am showing one way trips because of the nature of my trip. Try round trips on the online sites if that suits your needs. Then try each way of your round trip separately. Why? If there is more than 8 hours between your stopover or you will already be retrieving your checked luggage, there is no advantage to being on the same ticket. So booking a return ticket with the same company makes absolutely no sense unless it is cheaper. Find the cheapest round trip and then find the cheapest one way in each direction.

Break up the Flights Using Connection Cities

There are a million possibilities here, but you can start guessing based on your own knowledge of geography or by the stopovers you see in the previous list of “more expensive” flights.

Pick cities to go to that are large and will have large airports with a lot of flights to choose from. I usually look at London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Houston, Toronto, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Seoul, Tokyo, and Copenhagen (just for my Russia trip).

You will not have your flights on the same ticket so keep that in mind. This means you must retrieve your checked luggage and re-check it in. They will not compensate you for your missed connector necessarily (they will on flights all on the same ticket). I like to have at least 3 hours between international flights if possible.

I already did this for myself so I am going to use the cheapest flights I found. I typed in Calgary (YYC) to London (LGW). I found a flight leaving the evening of July 10th, 2007 for $588 including taxes with Air Transat. It arrives the next morning and there is a flight 3 hours later going from London (LGW) to Amsterdam (AMS) with EasyJet for $59 including all taxes and fees. You arrive at 3:20PM, see a bit of Amsterdam, and stay the night in a hotel. The next day there is a flight from Amsterdam (AMS) to Moscow (SVO) for $259 including taxes.

Result: Now it takes me longer and I have to stay in Amsterdam for a night. They total cost is $906 all taxes included. This is half the price of our original quote with Expedia. You are taking an extra day, but saving over $900 per person. I think that is worth the hassle really.

Go Back to the Travel Agents

No doubt, the travel agent will have quoted higher than this. Go back to them with your number and get their opinion. They might think the stopover is to short or something else. They should match it and try to get it all on the same ticket for you. If they cannot, no biggie, just try and get them to match. Then you will have a travel agency that can help you if have any more problems.

A good one to try in Canada is Flight Centre. These guys will price match and then give a $10 discount per person for you. For a family of 4 that will give you $40 back on your trip to use for something else. Another one I have used it Travel Cuts

Conclusion

There is an order to which I have found the cheapest flights. I will list them from the most expensive to cheapest. I am using my recent flight purchase example. I needed to fly from Calgary to Moscow and from Beijing to Vancouver.
Book a complete round trip online using only your starting and end destinations. This would be a round trip or using the multi-destination feature. i.e. Multi-destination flight of Calgary to Moscow and then Beijing to Vancouver. Both flights on the same ticket.

Book each part of the one-way online using just the start and end destinations. i.e. One ticket with Calgary to Moscow. One ticket from Beijing to Vancouver. This is the most expensive of the “no hassles” option. There is no reason for me to have both sections of my flights on the same ticket because they are almost a month apart and I will be retrieving my checked luggage.

Book through a travel agent. They will be doing number 2 on their own, but have better resources to look.

Book individual one ways flights on separate tickets through connection cities to your final destination. i.e. Ticket from Calgary to London, ticket from London to Amsterdam, ticket from Amsterdam to Moscow, ticket from Beijing to Vancouver.



There are lot of other possibilities out there. If you know of other good techniques and good websites, post a comment and I will give you a link back.

I’m looking to visit a friend who’s away for the best part of 2 years (i miss her lots!!) and was hoping to meet her in Rio for the Carnival in February. I’ll be flying from the UK (Manchester but I don’t mind getting a train to London if it’s cheaper) and was originally looking for flights and accommodation separately as this is usually the cheapest way to do these things! However, I can’t find flight cheaper than £630 which is way too expensive (I was hoping that it’d be closer to £400 since you can get to South Africa easily for that price and the distance is not dissimilar). Does anyone have any tips on how I can get a cheaper price!? Either with a tour operator or flying via the states etc (eg, I can get to New York for about £250 return).
Please help, i really want to go see my friend but can’t afford that much money!!!

Global credit crunch has resulted in an increased number of favourable offers for travellers. Cheap airline flights, train and coach fares, hotels, restaurants, theatre, concert and exhibition tickets – to mention just a few – have created a competitive range of options available to those who are looking for affordable luxury for their holiday or city break.

Expedia is arguably the most prominent website for packages, including flights, hotels, car hires and other useful options. However, today research shows that even cheaper deals can be arranged when things are booked directly and separately, creating your own package. For example, London is a popular destination as pound is weak and cheap airlines are offering convenient and efficient travel. But there are also trains and coaches, providing access to greater England, with fares tumbling. Special offers are just another example of how companies strive to complete in difficult times. These days, special offers are probably the best thing to keep an eye on. Ryanair and EasyJet, both flying to London, often feature offers where tickets can be bought for as cheap as £20. Central London hotels offer affordable luxury for a price much more favourable to traveller than it was half-a-year ago. Greater effort is channelled through all customer service industries and these should not be overlooked when creating own travel package.

For those who like to get the best deals, try to compare. Don’t be surprised to discover that when booked directly, through official website, central London hotels as well as rail tickets or theatre tickets, are most of the time cheaper when combined rather than when buying a package through sites like Expedia. When booked directly, guests can expect some nice additional perks like free upgrade or breakfast. And this, measured against the total cost of the package, might result to extra cash for London entertainment and sightseeing.

a challenge for you all,can somebody find me the cheapest air return ticket including taxes for a trip from london to l.a and back to london around april time??? im hoping for something including taxes to be around 300 us dollars. hope someone can help. multiple stops ok.
sorry london england. please try to find us dollar prices taxes included for 300 dollars not uk 300 pounds as that comes to 600 us dollars.lol

Do i have to take a one way trip from London or can i change at another country to save from money????

My orchestra is going on tour to Spain next year but I want to go on to the UK….what’s the easiest/cheapest way? ….emphasising the “easiest” part of the question as well as the cheapest
It’ll just be me as i’m planing on leaving the orchestra in Madrid…is a train cheaper than flying?