| Being a contrarian traveler, that is, doing | | | | short 5 day trip to Bangkok, on a business |
| the opposite of what the majority of people | | | | trip or to visit friends. I've also decided |
| are doing is a smart way to save money on | | | | that I want to take a vacation at the end of |
| airfares. The theory in this being that while | | | | the year. I will not be able to depart until |
| everybody is traveling one way, for example | | | | December 22nd, peak travel season. |
| heading back home at the end of their winter | | | | Unfortunately leaving between mid-December |
| vacations to Thailand, the planes going back | | | | and mid-January will cost me pretty close to |
| to Thailand would be relatively empty. This | | | | double the regular fare. Forward planning |
| creates an opportunity for the savvy traveler | | | | being one of the fundamentals of saving money |
| to take advantage of reduced airfares as | | | | on travel, knowing my end-of-year travel |
| airlines scramble to fill as many seats as | | | | dates will enable me to save a lot of money. |
| possible. | | | | |
| | | | What I do is instead of buying a 5 day return |
| Unfortunately we are not all able to travel | | | | ticket for my May trip, I buy a one year open |
| when we want and work commitments may dictate | | | | with the return date of the ticket sometime |
| that we must take our holidays at the same | | | | in January when I want to come home from my |
| time as everybody else. This is where the | | | | end of year vacation. Upon arriving in |
| laws of supply and demand kick in and the | | | | Bangkok I put this ticket away in my suitcase |
| airlines and hotels crank up their prices. | | | | and purchase a second ticket from Bangkok to |
| | | | my original point of departure, or my home |
| But what if you really wanted or needed to | | | | city. The return portion of this ticket (and |
| travel at a time that was a peak travel time | | | | this is the crucial part of the plan) is set |
| in your country? Do you just have to bite the | | | | to December 22nd. |
| bullet and pay the inflated prices? | | | | |
| | | | This works because each airline in each |
| Fortunately there is a strategy which allows | | | | country determines their fares from the point |
| you to both travel to and return from popular | | | | of departure. What this means is that the |
| destinations at the same peak times as | | | | return date does not have as big an influence |
| everyone else, without having to pay | | | | on the fare as the departure date. Basically |
| pumped-up holiday fares. | | | | they don't care if the return section of your |
| | | | ticket is in a peak period in the country you |
| Let's take Bangkok as an example because it | | | | are coming back from. |
| is an extremely popular holiday destination | | | | |
| and it is also one of the cheapest places in | | | | One year open tickets are a little more |
| the world right now to purchase airfare | | | | expensive than your regular 7- 30 day open |
| tickets- a fact whose relevance will become | | | | tickets, however you should look into this |
| clear in just a moment. | | | | option and you may find substantial savings |
| | | | doing it this way than paying the inflated |
| Let's say it's May and I am going to take a | | | | peak time airfares that the airlines charge. |