Air Miles: 7 Booking Mistakes That Will Cost You Money

Airlines never tell you what you are doing wrong particularly when you are making a booking. But if you don’t want to waste that hard earned money of yours then you should avoid doing these seven mistakes at all costs.

Don’t Make Bookings In Night

Airlines normally put up a limited number of coach seats on an inexpensive price normally in the early morning time or in the late afternoon. From consumer point of view this means, early bird catches the worm. If you book flights in late evening then it means you get to find only the leftovers (expensive coach seats). So it’s recommended that you always search for the best prices in early morning or in the afternoon.

Fly Over A Weekend

The most inexpensive days for flying are Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. This means that if you are not traveling on these days and you are flying on Monday, Thursday, Friday or Sunday then you are paying more than needed. So you see if you travel from Tuesday to Tuesday then your air expenditure will be less as compared to if you are traveling from Sunday to Sunday.

Travel In Afternoon

Want to pay extra money for your air ticket? Booking a flight that departs in the afternoon is a definite invitation for extra expenditure. Do you know flying in the afternoon is travel industry’s version of rush hour and is the time when chances are that your flight will get delayed? Traveling in the afternoon means that you will be paying high fares and expecting unusual delays.

Don’t Stay Loyal With One Air Carrier

Unless you are planning to get an elite status on your regular air carrier which is only possible when you have around 25,000 air miles per year, it doesn’t makes sense to just stick to one airline or frequent flyer program. We suggest that you keep shopping around on other major air carriers and their loyalty programs.

Disregard Baggage Fees

If you think that while you are buying the air ticket there will be no other charges you have to pay for then you are mistaken. If a round trip on American airline will cost you $250, it can cost you $200 on JetBlue or Southwest, so always keep a check on the baggage fees and compare them as they can really add up the amount.

Continue To Be Inflexible

This one plays a major role. I know nobody wants to pay more for their flight. Don’t book your flight through 30 days search option found on Hot wire or through 330 days search option on Cheapair.com , but if you want to find out the cheapest flights first followed by planning your trip, then you can easily use these tools.

Deferral

It’s really difficult to search for cheap flight, right? So at times it seems like a good deal to get a last minute cheap ticket, but that’s more like an exception rather than a rule. In many cases, the longer you wait the more you pay, so it’s my advice start searching from a month earlier before you plan to fly. The best way to find a good deal is six weeks before flying.