5 ways to save money when making travel bookings online

Within this blog post, I will offer 5 of my most useful tips to explain how to save money when booking your next travel trip online. Over the years I’ve picked up a few tips and want to share with you my most effective methods.

1. Follow your favorite travel companies on Facebook

(An example of Airasia using social media to promote a sale)

Email sales used to be the thing, now that’s old school. But know travel companies are moving into the social media world. For travel discounts online Facebook has become king. Many travel companies are starting to roll out Facebook deals exclusively, so hit like, join in on the fun and see what discounts you can pick up.

2. Use comparison sites when booking flights, but don’t forget to check budget airlines directly.

(Norwegian air a long haul Budget airline might not pop up on some flight search engines be sure to check out all your options to get the best price)

Using comparison sites to book affordable flights is always the recommended method. I like to use ITA Matrix and it works wonders. But not all comparison sites include budget airlines such as Ryanair, Wow, or AirNorwegian, which could cover your route at a cheaper price.

Do check both options and compare, for Example when using ITA Matrix, a one way flight from London to Bangkok in December was £304. Using budget airlines (Which ITA didn’t pick up) I found Ryanair flies from London Stansted to Stockholm Skavsta for £19 then along with A Norwegian Air flight from Stockholm Arlanda to Bangkok the price was £111.70. It’s always best to search around a selection of option until you can discover the best price.

3. Sign up for loyalty programs, they are mostly free!

(I like to Use British Airlines airmile service called Avios, its free to sign up and you can collect airmiles with other Oneworld alliance airlines and as well as many other services.)

Travel companies want your repeat business, they look after returning customers and one way of doing this is by creating loyalty programs. This won’t take up too much of your time. Once it’s set up, it’s ready to rock and roll, you simply hand over your Loyalty reward number every time you use their service and over time you can claim free stays or discount flights, once your points build up. For the little time it takes to set up and hand over your unique number, its a no brainer and totally worth it. I’ve managed to bag free hotel stays and flights by following this simple method.

4. Always search for deal codes if you see a coupon box

(Here is an example of a code that activates a great travel saving.)

This is one of my favorite little tricks, it doesn’t work all the time, but can be a wonderful reward when it does work. When you reach the checkout payment page of your travel booking, if you happen to notice a box that says enter discount code here, this is an indication that some sort of discount code may exist. All you Simply have to do is check out discount deal sites such as Dealslands.co.uk as an example and search the name of the website you’re booking your travels on, to see what deals pops up.

Hey presto! If a code works, then you’ve saved something that’s only taken you less than 5 minutes of your time, not bad hey! If your first code doesn’t work, don’t give up, keep trying, normally you will have a list of different codes to try out, worth the time of investment

5. Use a VPN to block cookie trackers that are monitoring your behavior.

(Tunnel Bear a VPN service will cover your internet activity and stop online tracking)

It’s important to set up a VPN hotspot when booking your travels online as many travel services will set up cookie trackers to monitor your online behavior. My VPN of choice is TunnelBear and one simple switch will cover my IP address and cover up any site trackers from following my behavior. This is important, especially if you book your travels like me and check the same website multiple times until you book, travel sites will notice your IP repeat visit and raise the price, normally after the third visit, your ready to click purchase, with a VPN the price has a better chance or remaining the same.

Thank you for reading my blog about how to save money online when booking your next trip. If you have any more suggestions, feel free to post below in the comment section, cheers!