Do not wait until the last minute to book your December flights as you may end up being sorry.
Last year when I booked my flights to Cape Town, I did so in September. I did this as flight prices increased significantly over this period, which may cause a dent in your finances.
By December, I found that I saved nearly a R1000 rand as prices skyrocketed. Jennifer Morris, the owner of Travel Savvy, said due to the high demand for flights from the leisure market in December over the holidays, availability is already limited.
“Travellers should book their flights as soon as possible if they want to travel over the December/January period. It's a fallacy that flights get more cost-effective the closer you get to departure. Flight prices for December will only go up from here,” she said.
Flying at this time of the year can also be stressful as the airports are filled with flyers and everything is so fast paced.
Therefore be prepared. With the long queues at check in or security, you need to be at least an hour early as many passengers, especially in a foreign country, ends up missing their plane due to bad time management. This ends up costing you more as you have to pay additional costs to get on the next plane.
Arriving 20 minutes before your flight can never guarantee that you will make it to catch it.
Here are some of my tips:
Check around for prices
It's okay to penny wise this time of the year as everyone is hoping to save wherever they can. Try to find the best costing airline, but take in consideration that some airlines do not include luggage in their cost.
Book it as soon as you can
The prices are never decreasing, so why wait? Besides, that December holiday is calling.
Book a return ticket
You may think you are going to find cheap flights on your way back, but the truth is you may never. Often flights skyrocket to over R3000 for a single flight.