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Online holiday deals
By Martin Lewis
Summer is gradually ticking away and if you're still on the hunt for a cheap flight the one cry you will hear is 'get on the web'. When it comes to finding flights the internet is superb, although if you're actually looking for a package holiday good, old-fashioned teletext and phone haggling beats it hands down. However, what many people fail to realise when flight hunting is that there are three different types of cheap-flight website, and it's important to know which to use.
Book early
To get the cheapest flights, the first rule is to book early. Unlike package deals where empty places mean last-minute bargains, when there are only a limited number of seats left, the scheduled airlines know there will always be business people willing to pay whatever it costs to get to a meeting, so they usually gamble with higher prices.
Screenscrapers
The first type of cheap-flight sites are 'screenscrapers', perfect if you know where and when you want to go, and it's within Europe. These are effectively, shop-around sites. Just enter the details and it'll whizz out your request to scores of other sites (including flight brokers and individual airlines) and speedily come back with a list of the cheapest deals. If you then pass from these sites to one of the companies it lists, they're then paid a lead-generation fee.
As these sites depend on commercial relationships, they don't always cover the same brokers and airlines, but if you check a couple you will get huge market coverage in super-quick time. Some of my favourite screenscrapers are Travelsupermarket.com, UK.SideStep.com, Traveljungle.co.uk, and Skyscanner.net.
If you are looking for long-haul flights, many screenscrapers start losing coverage, so at this stage you need to look at flight brokers' websites.
Flight brokers
Brokers usually have specific commercial relationships with airlines and their own special prices for those flights. Screenscrapers include some but not all brokers; and two regularly excluded brokers, Expedia.co.uk and Travelocity.co.uk, are definitely worth a specific long-haul look.
Another advantage of brokers is that if you are looking for a city break, they often have good deals on hotels with discounts if you book them with the flight. Good examples here are Expedia and Lastminute.com. Flexibility will be limited and the terms and conditions strict, so it's easy to fall foul of the rules. This means you have to book defensively, making sure you only book what you definitely need as you won't be able to change your mind later.
Flightcheckers
The last website type is a 'flightchecker'. This is specifically for those who are simply looking for a bargain, and don't care when they go away. The idea here is that many budget airlines often advertise things like '100,000 seats at 1p' yet when you try to book, suddenly they're charging you £75. A flightchecker simply finds the super-cheap seats for you.
Other options
There are other tricks you can try. See if a travel agent can get you on empty seats on a charter flight - although you won't get much legroom. Also, with some holiday destinations a package deal will work out cheaper than booking a flight. A former girlfriend of mine wanted to visit family in Sri Lanka and flights were in the region of £800. Yet I found a package holiday for £300 less, so she booked the package and didn't stay in the hotel.
Martin Lewis is the presenter of ITV1's Make Me Rich, author of the bestselling the Money Diet and the creator of the award winning Consumer Revenge website MoneySavingExpert.com
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