As we hurtle into 2015 (as we write this, we are almost a week in already), January for many airlines is THE peak booking season. Airlines launch extremely competitive fares at this time of year, like Dubai for £289 or New York from £336, and now is the time to be booking your next trip. As airlines slash prices, each one becomes more and more competitive. What's more, the hotels are doing it too and when you book your flight and hotel together, you can get even bigger discounts on package fares and hotel rates.
At the same time, it's very much worth shopping around for your flights and/or hotels, as different companies or travel agents are able to offer better discounts. Some get access to exclusive fares, whilst others get add-ons with hotel rates, like dinner included or spa treatments. This sort of thing is well worth looking around for. You'll have to check each agent individually for what's on offer in the various hotels.
In other news, just recently, a small company call Skiplagged were caught offering far cheaper flights to various destinations in the USA, by selling 1-stop tickets, but then passengers get off at the transit airport. For example, on a one way flight from New York to San Francisco, a direct flight may cost $350, however an indirect flight from New York to Los Angeles, via San Francisco might only be $250. Skiplagged were booking the second fare and the passenger would leave the airport in San Francisco having saved himself $100.
This has only worked with one way flights and where hand-luggage only was taken onboard (otherwise your luggage would go through to Los Angeles. However, now that this method of "cheating" the airlines has been exposed, the airlines are beginning to clamp down on these sorts of fares and we expect certain routes and destinations to have their fares altered, and not necessarily for the better.
We will just have to wait and see what happens with this one and see how airfares in 2015 will be affected.
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