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  • Hey everyone, how are you doing?

  • It's Sunday which means it's time for another episode of Gunnarolla University.

  • Synchronizerman wants to know about how to plan a trip abroad if you're on a budget?

  • Well, there are tons of steps involved in planning a trip, but in today's lesson I wanted to focus on booking flights and how I use Google to find the best fares.

  • Class is in session.

  • First of all, time for a paradigm shift.

  • Don't tell yourself you're looking for the cheapest fare, you're looking for the best available fare that you are comfortable paying.

  • With the exception of Budget Airlines and low cost carriers, which tend to have more fixed pricing.

  • When it comes to major airlines, the price of flying can fluctuate so much that it's almost impossible to know when you'll get the absolute cheapest price.

  • That being said, there are optimal times to book your flight.

  • A study by Cheapair.com, which I'll link to in the description box below.

  • Found that 21 to 105 days before you have to leave is the prime booking window where you'll find the best fares for a flight.

  • There is no such thing as a last minute day of deal, so make sure you organize, because booking your flights last minute is not a good idea.

  • Now when it comes to when you should fly.

  • Historically speaking, mid-week, that's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, generally have lower fares than a Friday, Sunday, or Monday departure when you'll find more business and vacation travel.

  • If you know where you're going, you might also want to research when the low season or the rainy season is.

  • Although it's always a rainy season when I'm involved.

  • Again, these are general tips but a good starting point when you're researching flights.

  • So, how do you go about finding the best fare when there are so many different airlines?

  • Well, there are basically three ways to do this.

  • You can book through a travel agent, they're usually very knowledgeable and might have access to whole sale deals that you won't find online.

  • Or if you wanna have more control, you can book the flight yourself by doing research online.

  • You can do it through a third party booking website, like Expedia or Priceline.

  • These sites will allow you to compare different airlines, buy package deals, and make your bookings through the site.

  • Or if you're like me and you want full control and you'd rather make your booking directly with the airline.

  • You can use a flight aggregator like Skyscanner or Google flights.

  • I love Google flights.

  • It's got everything you need and a really easy to use interface, it's the perfect tool for research and discovery.

  • Unlike other Google owned websites.

  • Let's say that you know your destination, but your dates are flexible and you want to find the best fare.

  • Well, you put in your destination and if you look in the calendar, you can see how much the flight will cost if you were to book today.

  • On the other hand, if you know the dates you can travel but you don't know where you wanna go.

  • Just put the dates in and Google flights will suggest some destinations.

  • You can even filter your results based on the type of travel you wanna do, the number of stopovers, your price range, or the airline you wanna fly with.

  • If you collect loyalty points, as you should.

  • Keep in mind that a lower price usually involves fare restrictions and connections, which means a longer travel time.

  • If you're not in a rush to book, you can set up an email alert and Google flights will let you know if the price changes.

  • Once you found a price that you're okay with, Google can take you directly to the airline's website to complete the booking.

  • There are some other great resources for tracking flights and finding flight deals.

  • Hopper is a really great mobile app that does a lot of the things that Google flights can do.

  • It can track flights, offer predictions, and it has hotel bookings.

  • And there are a ton of websites out there that keep track of really cheap deals and mistake fares and I'll link to them in the description box below.

  • If you're in Canada, you need to follow nextdeparture.ca, they're posting tons of deals all the time.

  • Now, once you booked your flight, keep an eye on it for the next 24 hours.

  • Most major airlines will allow you to cancel without any penalty 24 hours after you book a flight.

  • If the fare doesn't change in that time, my number one tip is to close your browser window and never check again.

  • The price might go down, it might go up.

  • But after 24 hours, there's not much you can do, so I don't think it's worth knowing.

  • So, those are just some tips for finding good flight deals.

  • If you have any of your own, let us know in the comments below, and if there's anything you wanna learn in an upcoming class, let me know.

  • I'll see ya next time.

  • A la prochaine!

Hey everyone, how are you doing?

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