Given that we Australians love to travel, and that most travel we embark on is via a plane, if you’re not armed with all the tools, websites, apps, and frequent flyer programs that you can use to fly cheaper and more comfortably, you’re missing out. We’re here to help

We’ve worked on this post with the legendary grum, from We Go On Plane Now? Grum subscribes to so much material on flights and deals that he receives around 80 newsletters a day. This guy knows flying.

The basics – facts and myths:

There is no last-minute cheap travel in Australia

Cheap last-minute travel is a myth. There are no tricks. If you do manage to secure a cheap last-second flight, it’s due to luck. In Australia, as we don’t have the option to fly standby or manipulate mystery flights, the more time you have to plan a trip, the more time you’ll have to grab a bargain.

You can easily figure out the upper limit of what you can pay just look up the next available flight for your desired route – it’ll likely only be the most expensive. That’s your high-water mark – now beat it by as much as you can.

Return is often much cheaper than one-way flights: explained

Booking classes are something airlines use to fill their planes and maximise their revenue. They are different to travel classes, which are generally economy, business, and first.

These booking classes are hugely complicated, with economy classes including S, Q, W, O, P, M, B, K, L and X. Frequent flyers talk often (seemingly in their own language) of F – first, J – business, and Y – economy.

(A breakdown of what the booking classes mean.)

It’s not easy to understand, but airlines cater to those who will accept sale fares and their tight rules and restrictions, and those who want flexibility.

With return airfares, airlines will offer you cheaper varieties of booking classes. Sale fares get people interested and onto planes.

With one-way fares, which are more common for business travellers, the booking classes available are usually the more expensive booking class.

Airlines want to encourage you to fly return – they can’t afford to sell every seat at the cheapest sale price, or they’d lose money on every flight.

When should I buy flights? The Tuesday myth busted

It is absolutely a myth that you should buy your flights on a Tuesday, one which started due to airlines releasing sale and promo fares on Tuesday evenings.

However that’s no longer the case. Jetstar release sales regularly on Friday and mid-week, while Virgin Australia do so on Thursdays during ‘Happy Hour’ between 4pm and 8pm.

The sweet-spot for cheap flight bookings is 90 days prior to departure.

Are there cheaper days to fly?

Absolutely. Flying on Monday, Friday and Sunday will increase the risk of paying more for your ticket – these are prime days for business travellers on the go, as well as families leaving or returning from their weekend trip.

Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday are likely to be cheap days to go.

What about times?

Early birds pay attention: most people prefer to leave at convenient times of the day – that means flying before 7am will likely better your chances of paying less.

On return, if you can handle getting in late, most people prefer to arrive before 9pm, making your potential 11pm flight cheaper.

Other airports?

To avoid paying higher fees, many lower-cost carriers don’t fly into major hubs but into smaller, often out-of-the-way airports – think Avalon instead of Tullamarine. These are often less convenient as they can involve longer travel times to cities, but the costs differences can be worth it.

The best flight-finding tools to use for Australians

A number of websites offer tools to track down the best, cheapest, or fastest way to fly. These sites are comparison tools, designed to either get you to book with them (for a small percentage fee), or to direct you to the best place, hands-down, to buy.

Sometimes it’s cheaper and better to book direct, sometimes not.

The best in the business

Adioso and Skyscanner are the best tools to find flights from the widest range of carriers for Australians, with the most up-to-date data.

Other websites either have slowly cached data, data irrelevant to Australia, or pool the same information from third-party websites.

Other useful aggregators that you might want to check for an exhaustive search include Kayak and ITA Matrix, now owned by Google.

Tips and Tricks

Adioso price alerts

Adioso Alerts are a useful way to monitor travel fares for places that you might fancy flying to. You might not choose to travel at the times, but at least you can track how much a ‘cheap’ fare is. Bargain fares do turn up – our man grum has flown for as little as $9 from Melbourne to Launceston or Hobart. Sydney to Manila has been as cheap as $143 return – it’s not regular, but these fares are out there.

Booked your flight? Keep checking the prices via online tools for refunds

One tip that grum shared is yapta.com – a tool which can track for when prices are low, but also get you a refund when prices drop. The catch is that the tool is generally only for American airlines.

For example, if you book a return flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York City (JFK) and the price drops $100 in the next week, Yapta will alert you, and you may be able claim the difference back via a voucher – Yapya will even tell you how to do it too.

But Alaskan and JetBlue will refund you for any price drop – and the author can attest to JetBlue’s politeness in passing on the discount via a voucher with a quick phone call.

(Note: Qantas doesn’t refund on cheaper fares!)

Is it worth paying an expert?

Of course, you can pay someone to do the hard work for you if you’re looking to do something complicated.

Travel agents are there to help, and in some cases can use their contacts to find cheaper flights. But be aware of commissions at play.

FlightFox offer an attractive expert service for those short on time, offering to organise flights for a range of travellers, including those with unusual requirements. Got ten cats? Looking to fly using points on different flights? On your honeymoon and want everything to be sorted out by someone else? Flightfox may have your solution, with prices starting at around $50.

FlightFox previously had a crowd-sourced system but have moved to in-house ‘flight hackers’, and have experts in flights that originate in Australia. We checked, and they no longer offer promo codes or discounts.

Change up your browser

If you find that prices seem to be increasing as you’re researching, wipe your browser’s cache, use another browser, or open an incognito window. Travel experts suggest that some low-cost carrier sites will increase their price if you’ve looked at the same fare more than once to force you to buy tickets “before its too late”.

[Update: We’ve been told that it’s not proven that incognito or different browsers do make any difference – it’s more of a myth as more often than not, prices are increasing as seats are taken, rather than sites actively targeting return browsers. This one might be busted – it’s up to you if you think think it is worth doing another check in a different browser before you book.

Be flexible

As grum said to me via email: “Be flexible. Be flexible. Be flexible. Be flexible. Be flexible.”

If you need to book holiday time in advance, negotiate with your employer to grey-out timeframes for your holidays rather than exact dates, and find flights inside those times. A week here or there might save you hundreds due to a sale.

When is it better not to fly on the cheap?

A cheap flight isn’t always the best flight. For example, Air Asia will usually stop at their hub in Kuala Lumpur when flying in Asia. A flight from Melbourne to Tokyo can take up to 24 hours in travel time thanks to a layover combined with the fact you’re flying the wrong way, compared to a direct flight of 10 hours.

The longer the travel times, the more strain you’re putting on yourself, and the end result is often less enjoyment during your actual holiday time.

Be frugal, but put a price on your time.

Frequent flyer points and statuses

Just about every airline in the world has a frequent flyer program, first introduced in 1972, and most are connected with other airlines. Points, also known as miles, are thought of by some as a virtual currency, and there are two main advantages:

1. Fly for free – cash in your miles for free flights and/or upgrades

2. Accumulate enough points and credit statuses to earn tiered rewards, including lounge access.

Point 1 is somewhat of a false economy. Flights using just points can be hard to find, and rarely available when you want, at the class you want. Airlines prefer real cash to virtual cash, which means even if you have a huge bank of points, you might not find a flight for points if you’re looking to fly on certain dates. Of course, it’s not entirely free either – you’ll need to pay taxes.

Point 2 is a genuine benefit and something that can make a long-haul trip go from being a chore to being enjoyable. Airport lounges have different levels, and economy lounges are generally busy with people looking to get in free drinks, nibbles, and download what they can on the free WiFi.

The benefits really start in the business and first class lounges. Here the meals and drinks are (literally) a class above, the lounge more exclusive, and the service is far better. Plus, splitting two 10-hour hauls with a shower and a relaxing drink on a comfy lounge is worth its weight in gold.

And that’s not mentioning the delights in the first lounges, which include spas, meals and desserts equal to any restaurant in the city, and generally being looked after extremely well.

Frequent flying tips

1. Don’t waste your points on economy fares. For the most bang for your buck, use them on business flights or, as a minimum, to upgrade an existing economy fare (make sure the fare is upgradable).

If you do your maths, you can increase the value of a frequent flyer point to 20 times as much with business than it would be for economy.

2. If you are flying on business, make sure you claim the points. It’s a definite benefit of being flown somewhere for work.

Qantas



Qantas – and by extension Jetstar – are oneworld airline partners, which means you can earn miles with Qantas with a range of other airlines, such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, Fiji Airways, Japan Airlines, and Emirates.

Qantas ‘charge’ $89.50 to join, but there are many ways around that.

1. Woolworths’ Everyday Rewards lets you sign up for free, and link your Woolies card. If you’re shopping, you might as well be earning a trickle of points.

2. Use a Qantas Frequent Flyer promotion code that we’ve figured out for you.

Here’s two to try that will work – link in full below. Just click and you’ll be waived the joining fee:

https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/dyns/joinffp?code=WESTPAC

https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/dyns/joinffp?code=AVIS

Virgin

Virgin, meanwhile, have fewer partners, but you can still earn miles with the likes of Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Etihad.

Signing up for Virgin’s Velocity program is free.

Racking up frequent flyer points without actually flying

If you’re not really all that frequent a flyer, you can still keep your air miles ticking over with your feet on the ground.

Both Qantas and Virgin recently added Apple to their range of retail partners, meaning for every dollar you spend with Apple, you earn two miles (if you’re a member of both Qantas and Virgin obviously you’ll have to decide which account the miles will be credited to).

These miles can be earned on Apple’s range of devices, as well as purchases in the iTunes store, but not on anything you physically buy from an Apple retail store. Furthermore, you need to activate the option online – head to Qantas Online Mall or Virgin’s Velocity eStore to select the Apple miles, then do your iTunes shopping.

Of course both Qantas and Virgin have dozens of partners through which you can earn miles without going anywhere, including hire car companies, banks, credit cards and retail outlets such as eBay and HP.

Watch out for extra costs for checked baggage, food, and seat selection options

While we would recommend trying to keep luggage in just carry-on for ultra-frugal flying, if you have baggage, it will pay to check for expensive baggage fees and limits.