How to avoid the big Easter flight rip-off: ten ways to reduce the price of your getaway

Every year Easter witnesses a great British getaway, as millions of us take domestic holidays as well as trips to sunny shores.

It is one of the busiest travel times of the year. But the big problem for those traveling abroad is rising flight prices.

Airfares on some routes are as much as six times higher this Easter than just a week into the holiday period, leaving those who booked at the last minute in dire straits.

Our research into popular Easter routes found that return British Airways tickets to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands cost £938 if you fly away for a week, departing on Good Friday. However, after the school holidays ended a week later, the same route was on sale for just £152 return.

It is a year-round phenomenon: prices rise during peak hours during summer holidays, around Christmas, but also at Easter and during bank holiday weekends.

So can you avoid it? The answer is: yes, if you are smart.

Here we’ve collected some top tips to save your hard-earned money during busy periods.

FOLLOW ‘FARE TRACKERS’

If you know exactly where you want to go and when, you can use Google Flights or Skyscanner.net to ‘track’ the cost of fares on the route you’re eyeing. The latter has a section with tailor-made alerts – see the ‘Find the best airfares with Skyscanner Price Alerts’ page. It is possible to set more than one.

Meanwhile, Google Flights – a great place to check the cost of fares on a route via its ‘date grids’ and ‘price charts’ – also allows you to enter specific travel dates and be alerted when new low fares are available. issued.

Kayak.co.uk is another option, with a ‘flex dates’ feature that helps reduce prices by searching within a range of three days from your desired time.

SIGN UP FOR SALE NOTIFICATIONS

Airlines have regular ticket sales and big savings can be made if you sign up for online ‘alerts’. With British Airways you can do this by joining the Executive Club for free on ba.com. You will then receive emails when regular ticket sales start, usually around May, September and December.

Another way to find BA’s best prices is at ba.com/en-gb/offers/sale, which lists last-minute deals and the best flight prices – or by taking a look at the ‘Low Price Finder’ -page.

Easyjet has a similar low fare search arrangement in the ‘Last Minute Deals’ section of easyjet.com. You can also sign up for alerts by downloading the Easyjet app. The same applies to the Ryanair app and the airline’s ‘Why haven’t you subscribed yet?’ page on ryanair.com.

Jet2.com has a similar system with messages offering the latest deals and highlighting sales sent through the app. There’s also a handy ‘Incredible deal and great availability’ page on Jet2.com.

GO OFF THE BEATEN PATH

Avoiding tourist ‘honeypots’ can pay off when booking cheap flights. Instead of Prague, consider Brno for a cheap weekend getaway in the Czech Republic. Instead of Rome or Venice in Italy, how about Bari in Puglia or Bologna in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna?

Flight guide website Skyscanner.net this week highlighted cheap flights over the Easter period to Luxembourg (from £50 return from Stansted with Ryanair) and Oslo (from £133 return from Manchester, also with Ryanair). Tempting prices for Zadar in Croatia, Eindhoven in the Netherlands and Limoges in France.

AVOID WEEKENDS

Try not to travel from Saturday to Saturday. There are big savings to be had for those who go from midweek to midweek, especially for families during the summer holidays. Since the pandemic, employers have become much more flexible in taking annual leave. They no longer always expect this to take place in the blocks from Monday to Friday. See if you can take weeks off in the middle of the week and you will almost certainly benefit from lower rates.

Tuesday is said to be the cheapest day for domestic flights, while Wednesday and Thursday offer the best value for international travel, with savings of as much as a fifth.

GO FOR SIX NIGHTS – NOT SEVEN

It may seem counterintuitive to lose some of your precious vacation, but cutting back a day can result in significant savings; money that you can then spend on tasty meals or fun activities when you’re there. ‘Staying a day shorter can make a difference to the price,’ says Richard Sinclair of travel agency SNO.co.uk, a specialist ski holiday site. “And if you combine looking for a six-night trip with looking for flights that depart mid-week, that can yield the biggest savings.”

THINK AHEAD

The further in advance you book, the more money you are likely to save. Forget the myth about what time of day or day of the week to book – the main advice from aviation experts is simply to book as far in advance as possible.

Ultimately, the price of flights is all about supply and demand. If there is demand for certain dates, such as Easter, they will sell faster and airline prices will rise as fewer seats are available.

BEWARE OF ‘ERROR RATES’

It sounds extraordinary, but sometimes airlines make big mistakes with ticket prices – a famous example of this is when United Airlines once listed a £4,000 business class fare from London to New York for £59, leading to a rush of bookings.

Instances of ‘error fees’ (which must be adhered to once purchased) may not always be as noticeable as this, but they do crop up regularly, in most cases attributed to human error. In Britain, Jack’s Flight Club keeps an eye on them – you can sign up for alerts at Jacksflightclub.com, which will also notify you of great aviation deals that aren’t a mistake. Recent return fares include £588 return from London to Auckland and Edinburgh to New York from £366 return.

Another option is US-based Going.com, which regularly offers discounts of up to 40-90% on rates.

CHEAP FLIGHT GUARIES

Jack’s Flight Club is just one of a growing number of useful websites that compile tempting flight prices. Sign up for free or just see what they have to offer. For example, Momondo.co.uk has a simple search engine that aggregates offers from other websites such as Mytrip.com, Flightnetwork.com, Gotogate.com, Edreams.co.uk and Traveljunction.co.uk.

Meanwhile, Hopper.com offers a good search function. Return flights from London to Boston were from £460 with JetBlue in April when we looked.

TRY A TRAVEL AGENCY

That said – and it may seem almost old-fashioned to suggest this – but traditional travel agents can often offer advantages over booking online. Justin Penny, head of aviation at Flightcentre.co.uk, says this is because online booking sites don’t always list all fares. “Some airline tickets have booking criteria, which means they can only be booked offline,” he says. ‘So my advice would be to contact a reputable estate agent directly; they are the real travel experts and book holidays every hour.’

BOOK A PACKAGE

And finally… you may find cheap flights and book them quickly, but be careful: your savings may be offset by skyrocketing hotel costs. This is where booking a package can keep prices low. Chris Webber, head of holidays and deals at TravelSupermarket.com, says: ‘Tour operators such as TUI, Jet2 and easyJet often use their own flights in their holiday packages, so it may be cheaper to book those – you’ll also get a hold baggage allowance, and often a transfer, included.’