Tip for Getting Cheaper Plane Tickets

Get Plane Tickets for Cheap Online

By Joshua Neil

Everyone has to take to the skies now and again, and while the process can be fun, humbling and fascinating to see the Earth from so high up, it can also be expensive. Very, very expensive. So while we could get that flight to Norway for £80 on budget airlines, most of us prefer our planes to have more than one working engine and at least one seat per person, so this isn’t an option. You can take a look at Skyscanner, Cheapoair, Momondo, or any of the other sites out there stating that they can give you the best deal- but with last-minute cancellations and uncertain price fluctuations, this doesn’t lead to much peace of mind. There is another way, however, of getting seriously cheaper flights than usual without having to sacrifice comfort or safety. For anyone looking to travel the world cheaply, it’s best to start as you mean to go on, right?

How Does it Work? Change the point of sale to get cheaper price

You can get cheap plane tickets by tricking a ticket website into thinking that you’re at another country’s point of sale– that is, the place where you’re buying the tickets- meaning you can get tickets for a vastly discounted price.  This is because ticket prices vary from country to country, so ticket prices in American dollars might be worth something else entirely in Chinese yuan. By working out what the price is in each country, you might be able to save hundreds of pounds on flights, both internally and internationally.

How Do I Do This?

By going on certain ticket comparison sites and changing the point of sale– it should be on there somewhere- you can change the currency of your ticket price, and then with a little bit of maths and fiddling, work out if what you’re getting is actually a discount (sometimes the price you’re given in pounds really is the best out there).

Business Insider gives a good example- travelling from Cartagena to Bogota in Colombia will be cheaper if you put your point of sale as Colombia rather than the U.K, simply because you’re leveraging currencies against one another: I had a look and it does definitely work, though it might take quite a while to find a currency or point of sale that will give you the best deal possible. Sites like Skyscanner or Google’s ITA software make it fairly easy to compare, allowing you to find the best price for your flight.

Once you’ve compared your prices and know in which currency you want to pay, you need to find a ticket site which will allow you to buy tickets in that currency. It’s a good idea to head over to the website of whichever airline offered the cheapest deal in your comparison- since they’ll be flying to and from your destination, they will most likely allow payment in that currency. Then see if you can switch your point of origin on that site, and buy cheap plane tickets instantly.

What are the Problems?

There seems to be a large debate surrounding just how legal this is- however, you must be aware that many airlines will check your I.D to see which country you’re from, and failing to have an I.D for the country you registered the tickets in could mean you have to pay a much larger fare, or even have your flight cancelled. While there are chances to get well over £100 off tickets internally and internationally, it’s vital that you be aware of the problems with this loophole, and make the decision to do it yourself.

Beyond this, it’s important to try and pay via a credit card which doesn’t charge for foreign transaction fees– though even if yours does, you might still make a profit- and you’re set. For those absolutely looking to get flights cheaply, this is the trick for them.

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For more cheap ways to fly, check out our article on The 10 Best Flight Deals Websites.