How to Find the Cheapest Airfare to and in Asia
This post was inspired by my friend, Ian Huang, from Shanghai, who demonstrated how shopping for airfare is almost as fun as the trip itself. You can ask Ian for further travel tips on his Twitter.
Finding the cheapest possible airfare for your trip is often a matter of smart and persistent research. It often involves checking and comparing prices on a number of different flight dates, airport stops, and airline websites. However, saving money is the same as making money and often times you’ll find those hours researching airfare can lead to hundreds of dollars saved.
BOOK 21 DAYS IN ADVANCE
Most airlines consider ticket purchases beyond 21 days to be an advance-purchased ticket. In addition, airlines increase fares 21 days, 14 days, 7 days, and 3 days before your target date. However, there are still ways to save if you’ve missed these important deadlines. Lastminute.com and Lastminutetravel.com specialize in listing last minute flight and hotel deals especially for the weekend. Most online travel agencies and airline websites also have special sections for last minute travel deals as well.
TIME YOUR FLIGHT CAREFULLY
Due to supply and demand, flights are most expensive during the weekend and cheapest during the mid-week. In addition, airlines often release their special fare sales on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If you are extra scrupulous, make use of online sites which use predictive pricing technology such as Yapta.com and Bing Travel. Both are great resources for tracking flight prices. If you are undecided in making a purchase, track your flight to see if prices are going up or down as days are passing to decide whether to buy now or wait. If you’ve already bought your ticket, Yapta can alert you to price drops so you can claim an airline refund.
For a complete guide on finding inexpensive airfare, check out these other sites I used for my research: Away.com and IndependentTraveler.com. However, their detailed suggestions apply more to US domestic flights. Traveling to and within Asia have their own comparable version of online travel agencies, aggregators, and airlines.
SEARCHING FOR THE CHEAPEST AIRFARE
When doing your search, there are three types of airfare websites: online travel agencies, travel search engines, and individual airlines.
1. Online Travel Agencies – Of the 3 options, online travel agencies often provide the most expensive results. This is due to OTAs purchasing flights on behalf of the airlines and redistributing them to consumers while earning a profit for the extra fee they charge consumers. However, since these companies must purchase airfare in bulk and are based on estimated sales, they can often misjudge and be forced to provide substantial discounts that even the original airline can’t match. Some examples are Ctrip.com (for China), and Zuji.com (for flights to and from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Australia and New Zealand).
2. Travel Search Engines – While travel search engines are functionally very similar to online travel agencies, their business model is not predicated on fees, but instead redirect your purchase to the airlines themselves to collect a finder’s fee. Since they receive advertising revenue from the airlines instead of charging users a fee, their results are often cheaper. Examples include Qunar.com (for China), Momondo.com and Mobissimo.com (for flights from the US/Europe to Asia), and Wego.com (for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong).
3. Individual Airlines - Using a travel search engine provides the most efficient way to determine the cheapest dates, airports, airlines, connecting flights, and some combination thereof. If you’ve narrowed your search down, it’s best to purchase your flight directly from the individual airlines since you can be sure there will be no hidden fees and you’ll have a better chance of changing or refunding your ticket if you’ve changed your mind.
Knowing which airlines use which airports as a major hub also helps in finding the best deals. Thankfully, Wikipedia contains a list of all the major airline hubs, which shows all airlines and their corresponding home base. With a destination airport in mind, you can visit the matching airline’s website to receive the most flexible flight schedule and sometimes the cheapest airfare. In the best case, you’ll find packaged hotel deals that can be even cheaper than the flights themselves. These deals can be found in free eNewsletters that encourage direct visits and purchases from the airline. For example, if your destination is Hong Kong or you are based there, subscribe to Cathay Pacific’s Newsletter.
A new trend in airfare promotions is now making its way to Twitter. Already very popular in the US and Europe to assist airlines move their excess inventory, it is also catching on in Asia. You can find a fairly comprehensive list of Airlines’ Twitters on Listorious.
VISIT BUDGET AIRLINES’ WEBSITES
While this is related to visiting individual airlines, the savings is substantial enough to merit its own section. The most popular examples of no-frills or budget airlines are Southwest in the US and Ryanair in Europe. However, there are also equivalents in Asia and most other countries in the world. For example a flight from Singapore to Bali via Air Asia can be found for 32 SGD or 23 USD. Wikipedia has a list of discount carriers organized by home country.
CHECK THE LOAD OF A ROUTE
Revisiting the subject of supply and demand and the timing of your airfare purchase, knowing the load or available seats on your itinerary gives you the best indication of whether you need to purchase your flight ASAP. The most accurate data is closely guarded by the airlines due to security reasons, but one website, SeatCounter.com, gives an approximation of availability by booking class.
USE NEARBY AIRPORTS
On my trip to China, I decided to take a bus from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and fly domestically with considerable savings versus taking an international flight out of Hong Kong. Another example is taking a train from Shanghai to Hangzhou to fly out of HGH. The trade-off of an extra few hours can mean significant savings in airfare as these smaller airports often serve as hubs for budget airlines and supply and demand is in the consumer’s favor.
EXTRA TIP: FINDING THE BEST SEAT
This won’t save you money in airfare, but it could definitely aid you in comfort. When making a direct purchase from an airline website, users have the option to choose where to sit amongst the available seats. Not all seats are created equal, as some have more legroom while others won’t recline all the way back. SeatGuru.com can help you figure all of that out with a very detailed blueprint of the aircraft, color-coded to distinguish the good seats from the bad seats.
“Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and a need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.” - A. Maslow