Strategy | What are the tricks and black techniques for buying air tickets?

I'm not an expert on air tickets, but after all, I bought 23 flights for myself this year, and including those for others, I bought at least 69 flights in 2017, so I have some experience. But there is so much knowledge involved in buying air tickets, so I only dare to talk about part of it~

Time to buy air tickets

1. It may not be better to buy air tickets for statutory holidays as early as possible because this is the off-season for business travel.

2. "The earlier the better" when buying air tickets, there is also an early deadline. Generally, airlines will not release low-class tickets very early. Roughly speaking, for flights over 2,000 kilometers, 4-8 weeks in advance, and for 1,000- 2000 kilometers 2-4 weeks in advance

3. Some low-cost airlines will release low-cost tickets long in advance. If you don’t mind the experience, it is recommended to bow to the power of low-cost airlines and pay more attention to low-cost airlines’ Weibo and WeChat articles.

4. On holidays such as Double Eleven and Member’s Day, or because the occupancy rate is expected to be low, the cabin class will be lowered and the price will be lowered; the price will also be lowered due to natural disasters and man-made disasters. After the South China Sea incident in the Philippines, air tickets became so cheap that I regretted buying them earlier.

5. Pay attention to the information of major airlines. Sometimes there may even be promotions for flying for 0 yuan or flying for 1 yuan.

6. There is a big difference in air tickets between peak season and off-season. Of course, sometimes we can only go during the peak season. After all, sometimes it would be meaningless to go when it is not the "best travel time".

Even if you buy cheap air tickets, you may not travel during the holidays. We usually travel when we have holidays, so the summary of this part may be that it depends on luck!

Connected? One Way?

Generally speaking, a joint trip is cheaper than buying a one-way trip separately, but there are also situations where buying a one-way trip separately is cheaper than buying a joint trip. I have encountered it myself. This involves many factors such as passenger occupancy, agents, splitting, etc. The principle can be understood by yourself if you are interested.

The summary of this part is We just need to compare them when buying air tickets.

Where to buy air tickets?

There are many channels for buying air tickets. There will be differences in prices between airlines and agents. According to national policies, the official price of airlines should be the cheapest, but in fact agents sometimes have cheaper prices. There are still differences here. Principles of points, seat occupancy, etc.

In addition, even for the airline itself, there is a price difference between the official website, app, and phone number.

As for travel apps, I only use Qunar, Ctrip, and Fliggy. I personally like to use Qunar for shopping.

But having said that, no matter how you buy it, the price is generally not much different everywhere. If you are cheating, you may be afraid that sometimes the agent will charge his own freight, and make the difference between high and low cabins, etc.

The summary of this part is to compare shopping

low price first class

It’s possible to fly first class even if you don’t want to spend a huge amount of money.

1. Arrive at the airport late. Since airlines sometimes release more tickets than seats, when low-cost airlines can’t seat them, you can get a free upgrade.

2. Some airlines will launch "super value first class". When I last bought a ticket, the super value first class from Harbin to Shanghai was only 1530 yuan, while the full price economy was 1810 and the full price first class was 4530.

3. If there is no one in the first class on domestic routes of the United States and some domestic airlines (Hainan Airlines, China Eastern Airlines), Platinum Cards can upgrade the class for free.

4. Mileage upgrade is actually not cost-effective.

Cancellations, changes and delays

Refund: If it can be refunded or changed, the ticket is valid for 1 year.

Change: The fee includes the change fee for the same cabin class and the fare difference between different cabin classes (if any)

About delays

1. Disgust caused by uncontrollable factors such as weather: generally no compensation

2. There is an obligation to compensate for human reasons such as mechanical failure, but there is no compensation standard.

3. The procedures are cumbersome

Some other black technologies

1. Price comparison tools, such as Skyscanner

2. Buy more, open, stay (international routes)

3.Transit and nearby cities

4. Mileage redemption

5. For example, Air China package tickets, discount price buy high-priced tickets in a package