Getting Cheap Tickets to Fiji
The other half and I been keen to hop on a flight over to Fiji for a while now. And with views like this on offer who wouldn’t? Being in Australia, it seems only right to have a look at what the world has to offer this side of the planet.
Its roughly a 5 hour flight from here in sunny Melbourne, so not too much of an arduous trip. And, while there aren’t a huge number of airline carriers flying those routes, you can still find a few bargains if timed well.
One thing travelers ( i am included here) will struggle with however, is timing the purchase of flights correctly. Get this wrong and you could end up spending upwards of 50% more on a flight than necessary, so here are a couple of things to consider before making a purchase.
Seasonal demand
There are times when a destination is more likely to be booked than not, say for example during their peak summer months. This is a simple concept to understand, so plan a trip just outside of these months for decent weather and much more reasonable pricing.
A simple search for weather Fiji in Google gives you the following website from the Fijian government. http://www.met.gov.fj/
Simply cross check your desired weather with flight details and see where you can balance the best bang-for-your-buck.
Public and school holidays
Not having kids, this is one factor i rarely consider but it really does affect prices for popular destinations within reach of your locale. Check the local government websites for details on local school holidays, along with public holidays. Families will of course like to travel during this time, raising flight pricing significantly.
Savvy workers will also normally book trips away during public holidays to minimize the amount of annual leave they need to use in on their holiday. A top tip is to book flights outside of public holidays and mid week at unusual times, as the more undesirable a flight time, the better value it normally is.
Of course, this works better if you are flexible with your travel schedule, so may not suit everyone.
Cookie based pricing
*Bear with me here Geek speak imminent*
Whenever you search on certain airline and flight websites, cookies are stored on your computer that log your activity. Cookies are simply small data files which keep a record of what you have been doing on a website, so the website may customize the next visit based on your activity. If we clear these from our computer we can avoid the website hiking prices to Fiji, as they know we are keen on that destination. A popular website was notorious for this so watch out for them especially.
To clean these up in Googles Chrome browser, Go to settings > privacy > clear browsing data and click delete cookies and other site and plug-in data. I like to delete these from the beginning of time just to be sure, but a month or two will probably also work.
This effectively wipes your click data from Chrome, ensuring that you are not served prices based on previous activity on a website. This is particularly true for big flight comparison sites. Alternatively, you can surf the page in incognito mode (Cntrl + Shift + N to open a new incognito window in Chrome), to browse without any historical data affecting your flight quotes.
With a couple of these areas to consider, you can quickly make savings on your flight purchases. You just have to be savvy about it and you will get a great deal.