Anyone know the secret of how to get flights at a reasonable price?

[Dowser]

I never get bargain flights. My friend has just flown to benidorm and back for £30! How do some people do it?

I checked on flights for October about the 4 th to the 28th and they were coming in at £520 each. I think that was without bags.

I've got them down to £615 for the two with bags. It's still more than we usually pay.

Is there a knack to it?

Starting with the obvious: go straight on the airline's website, not through an agent.

Try different dates/airports.

Try Skyscanner...

I hear that January is the best time to book for cheap flights

Use private / incognito browsing mode so cookies don't track. Play around with the search parameters. I looked for tickets to New York for 5 nights leaving on a Monday: £600. Changed to a Tuesday departure: £340.

I just checked Easyjet for those dates. It doesn't go to Benidorm but Alicante was £35 each way. Where are you getting £600+ from??

PS I've just looked on SkyScanner for the dates you've mentioned, less than £200 per person flying from Gatwick?

The 28th October is during half term which will bump prices up.

Don't go in school hols.

Go at off season for your particular destination.

Have connecting flights.

Cheaper not flying out in the weekend IME.

Newcastle to Tenerife sur at Thomas cook travel agents oct 7-28 prices were £520. I think that was with another carrier. The tc ones were £620 each.

I managed to find two tc ones plus bags for £615 for both of us. Oct 2-25
Last night. Can't stay any longer than 28th. Has anyone ever tried flying out with one airline and back with another.
Interesting comment about the cookies. Hmmm!

Sorry, I missed out that mine were for Tenerife. Doh! We went oct 28 this year for two weeks which I think was bang on half term and paid £280 each including bags for two weeks. It was a last minute decision and only booked four weeks before travelling.

I think that was why I was shocked at the price of the flights 10 months in advance. I thought having got your money up front that was the time when the bargains were around. We don't usually book so far in advance.

Don't bother with travel agents. Loads cheaper to just book direct with the airline. Where do you think travel agents make their money? They buy seats on flights and beds in hotels for cheap and then sell them for more to you!

Also, Easyjet sometimes only release seats for flights 6 or so months in advance.

Tenerife is about twice as far as Benidorm so is always going to cost more.

I think there is now more competition for the Canaries and hence higher cost outside the main summer months from people who would have gone to Egypt, Tunisia etc.

Your friend won't have had any bags on her £30 ticket to Benidorm and it was probably outside the school holidays.

It can cost £70/80 for a hold bag return to the Canaries. Always consider how many you actually need. Unless you are taking diving kit or similar, one bag between 2 or 3 combined with clothes in hand luggage should be plenty.

Sometimes packages can be cheaper than booking separately to Tenerife. I find the package holiday divisions of Jet2 or Easyjet good value if you are near the airports they use.

If looking to book independently, I use travelrepublic to easily compare several airports and airlines - you mention Newcastle - can you go from Durham, Glasgow or Leeds for example?

It's fine to fly out with one airline and come back with another - you just have to make separate bookings.

late september might be better for flights, but youve got a half term in october, and that bumps prices up

I've read that 11 weeks before travel is the optimum time for getting deals on flights.

And your friend probably saw the cheap flight and then planned the holiday around that.

on easyjet you can get 3week view, or year view to show you average prices for diff times of year

Thanks for your helpful comments . I shall just keep plugging away at it.

Incidentally a friend goes to sharm el sheikh Several times a year. She was there when the plane went down. Come January she's going back out again. She usually travels on her own as well.

Book early

Be flexible with your dates (saved £600 on flights to Singapore by flying 1 day earlier)

Join all loyalty schemes you can as offers go to members first get on the mailing lists.

For cheaper hotels book them late as prices go down

Sometimes you can book to far in advance and the airlines haven't had a handle on customer demand yet so will sell at peak price only.I'd wait till Jan or Feb then look again for flights

As others have said, the Canaries are always going to be expensive in school hols, due to distance and climate.
If you want a cheaper holiday in Oct half term, look at Greece, Spain or Portugal with a heated/indoor pool, and be prepared for mixed weather.

Btw, for Easter, we're flying out to Mallorca with one airline and back with another.

Simon Calder (travel journalist) talks about booking your 2 wks off work but not booking flights until 1-3 weeks before departure, and then being completely flexible about where you go with some flexibility on exact dates, too.

Erase your cookies before going onto Ryanair. They're up to all the tricks like "only four tickets left at this price" when they know you're looking for 4. Thay also raise their prices at the weekend when there are more people looking.
Personally I book about 4 months in advance for my yearly break (same Ryanair flight, same destination every year) and that seems to be the cheapest way.

Well I'm sorted. Out with Thomas cook and back on easy jet. Flight plus hold luggage is £287 and we have 23 days.

Am happy with that. Considering the first time I looked Thomas cook were charging £520 plus luggage.

Its what we paid last oct . I'm now banned from looking at any more flight sites ( as if I'd want to. I was a wreck over this one. Especially as we've booked on two different airlines. TC had gone up £60 on the return since yesterday.

I rang our local TC this morning. The woman said that the more you look the more the price goes up. I don't believe that . Since dec20 I must have been on those sites at least 50 times at various times day or night and the outward price for TC had not budged.

We paid for the return flight in euros and by waiting a day it had come down from £155 to €170 or £130 .

So i got my bargain...eventually.

If anyone wants any help with flights let me know because I like to get people bargains....and I don't get so wound up when I'm doing it from someone else ...;-)

Thanks sgt major mummy. I don't know why Ryanair don't fly to tenerife from our airport. They go to alicante so doesn't make sense.