How to find the best flight prices for your viewing trip

Your guide to grabbing the cheapest flight fares

So, you have found Martin Real Estate, and the property search is looking good.  Now it’s time to consider getting to Spain to put boots on the ground and get up close and personal with the property market in Spain.

We will focus here on how to find the best flight prices from one European origin to another. Hopefully you are coming out to meet your Martin Real Estate representative.  You might just be coming out for a holiday.  Either way, we are here and ready to serve.  If you are hoping to be one of those lucky people keeping two homes in two countries, what follows will also prove useful throughout the year as you plan your trips from home to your new Spanish home.

How to get cheap seats on good airlines and the best prices has been a mystery that has perplexed and defied the greatest minds for decades.  Ask me who my favourite dinner guest would be and, I will, in a heartbeat, say the guy who sets the pricing strategy for a major airline!  I think though that I need to Plan for a very long dinner, and I may not be any more enlightened in practical terms by the time pudding is being served!

First off, let me tell you that I am not a mathematician, economist, scientist, or a data analyst. I am just an ordinary person working the issue in the hope of not spending more than I ned to pay.  What I am going to dispense here is a mixture of common sense, experience and some research based on booking and flying to Europe many, many times over the last number of years. And yes, I know flying and carbon footprint is an issue for us all.  So, let’s assume we are now all environmentalists (saves distracting arguments) and conscious of our actions and the needs of the planet.  However, we do need to travel from time to time, and if we don’t own a Yacht or can swim there, we have little choice but to resort to commercial flights. Unless, of course, you happen to own a Lear Jet, in which case this article is not suitable for you, stop reading now and board your executive jet and enjoy free flowing bubbly!

Predicting air fares for your viewing/house hunting trips/vacation or second home visits is a tricky business.  Airlines spend a small fortune on algorithms, and IT systems of all sorts to help them optimise their revenue and keep the setting of seat pricing a sort of ‘mystery wrapped in an enigma’. It’s a closely guarded industry secret, and a carefully protected one. It’s clearly not in the airlines best interest to make their pricing model easy or transparent. Hence the ‘should I wait or press that purchase button’ dilemma comes with a heavy shroud of mystery and lack of real clarity and, at times, a giant leap of faith. Remember that not all airlines have the same game plan which makes it even more complicated. And it seems to me that some airlines take a perverted sense of satisfaction in employing several game plans and varying them by time of year and route whenever the mood takes them.  One budget airline can up end the game entirely and right up to the departure date discount fares if load factors are low on a particular route. The logic being, in my humble opinion is that the high-priced sambo and beer will make up the fare discount!

If you search the internet, you will find numerous studies on the stress effects of finding the best pricing deals for your seat. It is well documented that everyone is going through the same ordeal.  Airlines love to make pricing unpredictable and appear complicated.  One study reported that German air travellers find the airfare purchase task as stressful as losing a family member temporarily at the airport terminal!!  Having said that, misplacing a family member at the airport may be a somewhat subjective concern in terms of mood impact.  Misplacing the mother-in-law may not induce the same level of concern or panic as a spouse or son/daughter!  The missing in law may well bring joy to your day! And I know one or two scoundrels who might be willing to pay extra for a permanent disappearance of the mother-in-law prior to take off!

For decades, the airlines have hypnotised us into believing that the longer you leave it prior to take off, the higher the ticket price.  We have been conditioned by experience, in many cases, to accept this as gospel.  It was a key belief in the old pre-internet/pre-budget carrier model and, unfortunately, it still holds true for some carriers to this day.  Some airlines still generally operate on the principle that the longer you leave it before the departure date, the higher the price. Then with the odd sale thrown in to compete with the budget airlines, it may appear like they are offering a major deal but is it simply a ploy to confuse us punters even more?

We have been traditionally punished by airlines, with astronomical sky-high prices for being naughty and not booking early. Airlines like early bookings at prices showing healthy margins. They like bums on seats and predictable load factors. Try booking an urgent flight two days out from your departure date and see the prices on traditional carriers or indeed the so-called budget carriers price offerings.  Be prepared to sell a kidney for something that you could have bought at the right time (or earlier) for €70 or less. But this is the million-dollar question, when exactly is the right time?

Here are my quick rules to securing the best prices (with some logic to back it up at the end). None of this is a scientific certainty and luck can still play a big role in the air ticket pricing outcome for your Martin Real Estate house viewing trip or indeed your recurring trips to Spain as you enjoy your new second home.

Things to avoid doing if you can:

1. Avoid peak travel times. I know, the house of your dreams has just come up for viewing and you have a few days to get out there. Sometimes, we just don’t have the luxury of planning ahead. And the higher ticket prices may be worth paying to secure the right home to be enjoyed over the long term.  However, general rule of thumb is avoiding peak times.
2. Avoid Summer, Easter, and Christmas Holidays. Busy single holiday/feast days, and bank holiday weekends are best avoided also. Airlines are not known for their bargain tickets when demand is likely to be strong. Again, for those of us tied into school holidays, not always practical but helpful to keep in mind.  
3. Be aware also of the popular trend to combine public holidays with ‘Bridge days’. A Thursday public holiday, with a day’s personal leave (bridge day) plus a Monday’s personal holiday, with a return on Tuesday night can give a person almost a week’s holiday for the price of three personal days. It’s becoming an increasingly popular practice.
4. House Hunting is a serious and time-consuming business. Here at Martin Real Estate, we recommend taking your time and NOT combining this activity with a family holiday.  This is a big decision and deserves your undivided attention. It is advisable to focus on the task to hand and do a special, single minded house hunting trip.  HINT:  Agents also devote more time to clients, who are focused and not shunting house hunting into a ‘down the list’, lesser priority, during a family holiday.  Serious buyers get more attention and see the best listings, because they make the time and invest the effort in their search.

Recommended things to do…

1. Travel mid-week to mid-week, Wednesdays to say Tuesdays? It is worth a try to bag better fares.
2. If your destination is also a business route of significanceg Madrid, Friday is perhaps a good time coming back on a Sunday. If it’s a tourist destination route, weekend trippers will drive up the price of a Friday to Sunday ticket, so it will be hard to bag a bargain (in this case best to avoid the weekend!). Popular sunspots might be best explored mid-week to mid-week. Having said this, it may be difficult to book viewings at weekends, owners may not be available.
3. If you are combining your viewing trip with school holidays (not recommended, but some people may not have a choice), look for December or January sales. If your dates are very restricted, you may need to book early. Be on the lookout for the sales, but do beware that the Black Friday deal from your budget carrier may well not be the best price for your Easter break. It might, perhaps, be better waiting for later sales offerings in January.
4. Consider using one airline on the outward journey and perhaps another airline on the way home. Remember load factors may force one carrier who has miscalculated demand to discount similar flights to competitors on the same route.
5. Check out deals also that might sound a little inconvenient. If you split your journey and transit through a neighbouring country/island from which your ultimate destination is not so popular, you can save a bundle.   It does add time and possible risk of delays, so do tread carefully.  A Cork, Ireland direct to Malaga might be 150€ , but try  a flight to Stanstead with a 2-hour layover, and you could see the fare halved  Definitely worth considering if you have the flexibility, and if you need a few tickets.

There are many tools available on the web that claim to help you assess a price on a route and give you an assessment as to how good the fare is and the probability as how likely you are at the time of logging a ‘fare check’, to get a better offer.  AirHINT.com is worth a look.  And there are many other sites out there too offering the same advice and inputs. Signing up to Kayak or Skyscanner and saying yes to updates on your proposed travel itinerary fare options, and pricing trends can help if you don’t mind the frequent email updates.

Remember air ticket prices in an economy/budget airline setting can, and oft times do,  change daily.  Frequent direct checks with the airline websites, when you have determined exactly when you want to go,  can bring success and lower fares.  Don’t forget also that Ryan Air has a ‘fare finder’ tab facility that shows all their fares on each route for each day by month.  It’s a quick way to help you make your mind up on where perhaps to start. You can clearly see the daily fares at a glance in any given month, if you have the luxury of planning in advance.  

And finally, we must talk about the endless debate that rages on the issue of when to book your summer break air tickets, in terms of ‘the number of weeks out or in advance’ approach, if you have not used the early bird Sales strategy.    Like doctors, experts can differ a little on this, but the general wisdom that I can glean from industry sources and the internet, is that 6-8 weeks out is the optimum.  This is where you are likely to see fares come back to a more reasonable level, prior to them taking off again like a rocket. If you are sitting down in mid-February and contemplating your travel plans for mid-July, you may observe, that most carrier’s air fares are high and holding firm.  So, the question being, should you buy on the next small dip or wait for a more substantial discount?   And the truth is that the airlines have us all both frightened and confused on the topic of waiting.  Logic does not always prevail.

We can all imagine the scenario where we wait to bag a deal 6 weeks out and end up in Brighton for a rainy July vacation if the airlines hold firm and even worse if the fares start to climb.  Honestly speaking, if you have not grabbed a deal in a sale/promotion in December/January, keep an eye out for the popular flash sale price that you can live with price wise.  If you are twenty weeks out from departure- you are best off looking at all alternative airports, working out a strategy not to be confined to one departure point,  keeping an eye on fares and, as a last resort, use all these tactics and  as a last resort, get very, very active on searches 6-8 weeks prior to departure.

There is a possibility (less likely) of bagging a lower fare, in the 3-6-week window prior to departure but the chances are getting less and less, and it almost never transpires during holidays/bank holidays or peak travel times.  And unfortunately, all budget airlines revert to type and their original traditional thinking and from 3 weeks out the chance of fares going down for summer months is very slim indeed. for peak travel times, all airlines will keep the upward pressure on fares and prefer to sell those remaining seats at high prices or fly the seat empty to teach us all a lesson not to play with them and book early!

The good news is that there is a lot of choice in terms of airports right across the UK and Europe and lots of competition from airlines to boot!  So don’t lose heart, there are plenty of options out there.  And remember to watch out for add-ons like luggage when comparing fares.  Compare like with like.

Here is my summary.

1. If it’s last minute, shop around with an intermediary (e.g. Skyscanner) and let them do the leg work. Be prepared to move your preferred airport to a lesser known one. Perhaps book the outward/return journey with a different carrier.
2. Bag a price you can live with if it feels right and is in budget, but don’t assume a sale price is going to be the best value, and that the early bird will get the best price. Airlines are crafty this way!!
3. Get familiar with the route and the competitor airlines and have an idea as to the best prices available on the route off-peak or shoulder season. That helps you assess if £200 each way is a good price in March when in November the prices are available for £40 each way.
4. AVOID peak holiday time, and major holidays like Easter and Bank Holiday weekends during the summer season. It is unlikely you will get a reasonable price unless you are booking seat number 1 on that flight in November for the following July travel date.
5. If you are stuck with Peak summer, be flexible on your dates. Don’t restrict yourself to popular days and weekends. If you have not booked well in advance, try to make your definitive decision 6-8 weeks out.  Consider using different return or departure legs via a third airport. e.g. Malaga, Gran Canaria-> Stanstead.
6. And if you have a party of four to book for, it is often worthwhile booking two seats at a time. Trust me on this, if the airline has two seats left at £50/each in their today pricing model for a particular route, and you try to book 4 seats together (and the next price point is £70 per seat), the airline will happily sell you 4@£70, inducing a price increase on the first two you could have bagged £20 cheaper!!

A friend of mine tells me that she only books flights when Mercury is aligned with Venus, and it coincides with a full moon. And the scary part is that she might end up having the best approach resulting in the better deal.   The choice is yours.  But I hope the above has given you some good tips and food for thought.  Happy fare hunting!