How to get cheap flight tickets (Bali, Ho Chi Minh)

Day -69

I can cheerfully announce that we have purchased our FIRST flight tickets from Sydney to Bali (Indonesia) and second flight tickets to Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) from Bali. According to our plan, we are flying to Bali on 4/7/2013 and Bali to Ho Chi Mihn on 26/7/2013. It is very exciting to set up the dates and having clearer ideas on our journey as we booked 2 flights so far, but I can tell you that booking flights requires so much time and effort especially if you need to travel on tight budget. I have been trying hard to find  best value tickets (Minimum flight time and low cost) by contacting travel agencies while searching travel web sites diligently by my own so I can revalue the offers from the agents. I found many people around me choose a travel agent and relay on his or her advices or offers instead of putting their efforts to get better valued tickets. I would recommend you to have ownership on your travelling. Firstly, this kind of approach most likely costs you more. Secondly, when you are involved in the preparation process of travelling, you will learn many valuable things for your next trips and you will earn exclusive emotional attachment to the trip.

As I mentioned earlier, it is good to contact local travel agencies as they have special deals sometimes so I contacted 2 Indonesian travel agencies in Sydney. Unfortunately, our travel dates are sitting in the middle of school holidays (as I had to postpone by 2 weeks to comply my boss’ request/order) so there were no special deals they could offer. The cheapest ‘one way’ ticket to Bali was $820. I rang ‘Flight Centre’ and a travel consultant offered me $620 for a direct flight to Bali. I told her that I found a better deal of $554 on the web and she replied that they can match the price if I send a screenshot of the $554 deal. I still don’t get what is the point to use Flight Centre services by sending a screenshot of better deal when I can book it directly on the web. Anyway, the ticket price went down by $266 per person so far so it was worth effort. I went on on-line again with flexible dates this time (3-4days earlier or later). What a surprise?  I found a best deal with a budget airline, Jetstar (http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/home). $394 per person (including $35, 20kg check-in baggage charge) and a direct flight which will save two of us by $320 and our precious time. I had to follow Jetstat booking steps very carefully as there are plenty of hidden traps such as pre-paid seat selection, meals, insurances, donations, etc...  but at the end I was very happy to find the very best deal. I went through similar steps for the tickets to Ho Chi Minh and I was again lucky to find a great deal with Jetstar, $162.13 per person (including $26, 20kg check-in baggage charge) and the shortest trip to the destination. I was very proud of myself that I found the best deals for us and also that I proved my involvement and efforts could bring positive outcomes. Therefore, I would like to share with you some tips for ‘how to get cheap flight tickets’ based on my personal experience.

1.       Compare Local Airlines and Budget Airlines : You never know which one you will get the better deal from unless you try. I got far cheaper tickets and better services with Thai Airways for the last three trips to Thailand through local travel agency. Air fare can be very different based on seasons so try to avoid the busy seasons but if you can’t, the best will be contacting local travel agencies to get their best offers first and compare with budget airlines’ offers on their website.

2.       Flexible dates (a week) : Make your travel dates flexible at least a week unless you have to keep the certain date. Oftentimes, the fare can be very different for a couple of days earlier or later. My airfares to Bali and Ho Chi mihn were different by $50 to $150 per person. If you travel with your family or a group of friends, the saving you can make by changing dates can be considerably big. I have found week days are cheaper (except Friday) and Sundays are cheaper than Fridays and Saturdays.

3.       Time is money : Some friends of mine are even more frugal  than me and often find very cheap tickets with a very long flight time (2 or more stops). I don’t agree with their argument that they have got a better deal. Cheaper deal doesn’t always mean a good value deal. Time needs to be considered as money. To cut your trip cost, you spent more time unnecessarily on the flight or at the corner of the waiting area cannot be considered as a wise choice. Try to find a flight as short as possible unless you want to stop over the places to look around or spend days there. Avoid wasting your valuable time will make you enjoy your trip more.

4.       Watch out extra costs : Many budget airlines offer a very good price but they certainly know how to drag money out from you. There are many hidden traps so be aware of extra costs. You need to be extra careful when you go through the steps to finalize purchasing tickets not to get caught by the tricky extra costs. They expect (wish) you to miss pre-arranged services which will increase actual flight ticket price. They are already chosen/ticked and included into the total  so you need to cancel or untick the services. You can get bit annoyed but remember that there is nothing for free.

5.       Avoid using credit cards : Try to avoid using credit cards for payment unless it is necessary as you will get charged fees. Most of time you can choose other options such as direct debit, Poli, Paypal, etc... I normally use Poli which will be connected into my bank account directly and transfer the money to their account. It is easy to use and no fees will be taken out. When I purchased tickets to Ho Chi Minh, there were no options except credit card payment so unfortuately I had to pay credit card transaction fees on the top of ticket price ($5 per person). Five dollars doesn’t seem big but you can buy a meal in Bali (for two). It is all about your attitude on your money.

6.       Confirm! : Don’t forget to confirm your booking and payment. Normally you will get the confirmation via your email but sometimes it can go wrong. Just after I made a payment for Bali tickets, my computer suddenly started updating and I didn’t know whether the payment went through or not. I could check that the money was taken out from my bank account but I didn’t get any confirmation so we had to contact Jetstar to track down the payment and booking. It took quite long time to find out but eventually everything was fine. It is always good to make sure, isn’t it?

I hope my tips can help you out when you buy flight tickets. Hereunder are my Itineraries to Bali and Ho Chi Minh. Exciting!!!

Sydney to Bali

Bali to Ho Chi Minh