Don’t Snub Those Packaged Vacations
They could just save you hundreds.
It’s probably the last thing you want to think about right now. There’s no clear window as to when we can all set foot on board an aircraft just yet, but for me, holiday hunting is the only thing that brings me joy. Not knowing when we can travel is disappointing to say the least, but it will happen eventually and when it does, I’ll be prepared to find the best of the best by using a few travel hacks I’ve learnt to date.
When to Book?
This might come as a surprise but the cost of your holiday can be made cheaper simply by booking on a specific day. I always tend to keep my eyes peeled for prices displayed midweek. Prices can fluctuate quite a bit when it comes to holidays. Your holiday price can even go up on the same day, meaning if you check your price in the afternoon, there's no telling if it will still be the same by the evening.
I worked as an inbound customer service advisor for a major UK travel company for 3 years, and the amount of calls I had from customers demanding I change back the price was astonishing, as if I had control of pricing.
It’s more to do with supply and demand. If a holiday isn’t selling then it will be made cheaper and according to www.Confused.com Tuesdays at 11am is the day and time to look for the best prices.
When it comes to the best day of the week to book your trip, “Tuesday is the day companies usually adjust their prices, especially if holidays aren’t selling,” says Oonagh Shiel from Cheapflights.co.uk.
When to Travel?
This is another thing you should really take into consideration when looking for the cheapest holiday deals. Again, according to www.Confused.com the cheapest days to take flight is either Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday Afternoon.
I used to travel from Monday to Sunday as for me that represented a full week (I know, Weird right?) but booking mid-week will save you a pretty penny.
Length of Travel
So you’ve seen your ideal holiday and it’s within your best price range. You have 7 days in paradise that suits your needs. What if I told you that it could be cheaper for you travel for 10 or 11 nights? Confused? Well the reason is, the return flight might be cheaper on a different day. If you have the option of adding a few extra days to your holiday then take a look at a longer duration as again this could be a saving of hundreds. It’s not always the case but it doesn’t harm to check.
Package holidays?
It’s not a secret that package holidays are not always the cheapest way of travelling. Sometimes the cost of booking your holiday is cheaper if you book flights, hotel and transfers separately. It pays to shop around first but for me I do look at packaged holidays first.
- Even if your package holiday includes economy seats, baggage is usually including in the overall price, (although this should be checked when booking). If you were to book checked luggage separately, don’t be surprised if you’re asked to pay anything from £50 per 20kg of luggage.
- Package holidays are usually covered by a governing body, that means if your holiday was to be cancelled for any reason, other than by yourself, you get your money back.
- If you book a package holiday and YOU need to cancel, the terms and conditions are far more lenient than cancelling your separately booked flights. Flight companies usually give £0 refund for cancelled flights. Booked the wrong dates and need to book another? — That’s £0 refund for your first flight and £100’s on the next. Of course, during this awful pandemic that we are currently living in, travel companies are far more lenient when it comes to cancelations but this is something that you should really pay attention to when booking. Travel regulations will be constantly changing, therefore it is up to you to check.
If you are leaning more towards package holidays, then here are a few suggestions on how to find the cheapest tour operator packaged holidays. This is the system that I usually use:
For Todays example, I’ll be looking at using a British tour operator, traveling from London to Orlando, for 2 adults, staying within 1 hour of Walt Disney World Resort, sometime in July for any duration. I must point out that even though I have mentioned before that the best time to book is a Tuesday, I am currently searching for holiday prices on a Thursday evening but this is just to give you an idea.
First thing I tend to do is check to see if they have a flight deals page.
As we can see from the above example, we can see that a three week duration flight is the same price as a one week duration. I’ll be focusing on looking at the cost of traveling between one and two weeks as I feel like those are the most popular durations. Also from the example above, we can see that the return flight for the 1st of August will be busy as there are only 6 seats left. If you see this on your preferred flight then this means — act fast.
Now that I have an idea of when the cheapest flights are, it’s now time to see what prices I can find for our holiday package as a whole.
For this example, I’ll be looking at my options for staying at The Clarion Inn, Lake Buena Vista. A three star hotel which has all the amenities I need and is within two miles of Disney. As I’m looking for something that is reasonably priced, The Clarion Inn, is perfect as it has everything I need. Also, to add to the many benefits this hotel has to offer, it also has free shuttles to and from all parks and there are zero resort fees, which means no surprise charges when you get there.
When searching for the ‘Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista’ I can see that the only durations showing up for 11th of July is either 7 or 11 nights. 7 nights comes out at: £1,562 for 2 adults 11 nights comes out at: £1742 for 2 adults
When I continue through the booking it says that I have 20kg of hold luggage and 10kg hand luggage included. There is however, a charge for seat selection at £36pp
Coach transfers are also included.
Another quick tip for you — when you know what hotel you would like, search by hotel name rather than destination and this should give you an idea as to the best time to travel.
Non-Packaged through the same tour operator:
Well we already know that the price of our flights is £603 if we depart on the 11th of July. If you book your flight separately then you will not have the added benefit of luggage being included and prices for luggage on the TUI website is £70 for 20kg of checked in luggage.
The cheapest duration was for 7 nights. Most, tour operators don’t let you just book hotels through their websites as their main priority is filling up those plane seats, so I’ve had to check directly with Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista for their direct prices.
11Jul — 18Jul standard room = $595.74 / £472.69
Of course the hotel room cost can be split between the 2 traveling. So we have £603 x 2 for flights, £70 x 2 for luggage, £472.69 for hotel and this is all without transfers thrown into the mix. The grand total for 2 passengers is £1818.69. As this tour operator fly's into Sanford International Airport instead of Orlando International Airport , transfers are a little more difficult to find and can be costly, but all in all, I think the packaged holiday came out on top. A 7 night packaged holiday would save you £256.69 and you would even save £76.69 if you chose to go for an 11 night packaged holiday.
Shop Around Of course it goes without saying that you should try more than one tour operator, this example is only to show what the difference in prices can be when you look to use an already packaged holiday instead of booking all components separately. A quick glance at another British tour operator, British airways shows that for the same date your flight can be half of what TUI’s flight would have cost, and a packaged holiday through British airways, staying at the same hotel came to less than £1251. 25 with transfers included.
It might seem like a good idea at the time to book your flight separately and unless you’re travelling light and don't require checked luggage then this might seem like a good idea. For those who need to travel with a suitcase, you’ll be missing out on a few things when doing this. The main ones being, cheaper hotel rates, cheaper transfers, cheaper checked luggage and if your booking through a British tour operator then you also get the added benefit of your package being protected by ABTA, (Association of British Travel Agent)
If you are still looking to book flights only then I’d recommend using googles built in flight finder which will tell you the cheapest times to travel throughout the year for any airline. It also helps find you the best website to book it through so you know you’re getting the better price.
All Prices in this article are correct at time of publication and are subject to change.