How to Avoid Paying Inflated Airfares During Holiday Season

Being a contrarian traveler, that is, doing the opposite of what the majority of people are doing is a smart way to save money on airfares. The theory in this being that while everybody is traveling one way, for example heading back home at the end of their winter vacations to Thailand, the planes going back to Thailand would be relatively empty. This creates an opportunity for the savvy traveler to take advantage of reduced airfares as airlines scramble to fill as many seats as possible.

Unfortunately we are not all able to travel when we want and work commitments may dictate that we must take our holidays at the same time as everybody else. This is where the laws of supply and demand kick in and the airlines and hotels crank up their prices.
But what if you really wanted or needed to travel at a time that was a peak travel time in your country? Do you just have to bite the bullet and pay the inflated prices?

Fortunately there is a strategy which allows you to both travel to and return from popular destinations at the same peak times as everyone else, without having to pay pumped-up holiday fares.

Let's take Bangkok as an example because it is an extremely popular holiday destination and it is also one of the cheapest places in the world right now to purchase airfare tickets- a fact whose relevance will become clear in just a moment.

Let's say it's May and I am going to take a short 5 day trip to Bangkok, on a business trip or to visit friends. I've also decided that I want to take a vacation at the end of the year. I will not be able to depart until December 22nd, peak travel season. Unfortunately leaving between mid-December and mid-January will cost me pretty close to double the regular fare. Forward planning being one of the fundamentals of saving money on travel, knowing my end-of-year travel dates will enable me to save a lot of money.

What I do is instead of buying a 5 day return ticket for my May trip, I buy a one year open with the return date of the ticket sometime in January when I want to come home from my end of year vacation. Upon arriving in Bangkok I put this ticket away in my suitcase and purchase a second ticket from Bangkok to my original point of departure, or my home city. The return portion of this ticket (and this is the crucial part of the plan) is set to December 22nd.

This works because each airline in each country determines their fares from the point of departure. What this means is that the return date does not have as big an influence on the fare as the departure date. Basically they don't care if the return section of your ticket is in a peak period in the country you are coming back from.

One year open tickets are a little more expensive than your regular 7- 30 day open tickets, however you should look into this option and you may find substantial savings doing it this way than paying the inflated peak time airfares that the airlines charge.