Book Early to Save More

There is a little known secret insiders use to get their air tickets much cheaper than the average traveler: Early flight reservations combined with delayed ticketing for maximum flexibility of the travel schedule.

Few airlines allow it, and less travel agencies and online booking portals talk about the opportunity. Everyone is looking for a sale, and a reservation is not yet a sale. But the travel agent has to take care of every reservation in his portfolio, whether he has issued a ticket or not yet. Early flight reservations mean work for the travel agent work with mere hope for a payment.

But for you as customer an early flight reservation means the chance to get an early birds airfare, without an immediate firm commitment. This is important if you want to travel in high season, around Christmas, Easter Holidays, summer vacations, or as far as Asia is concerned, the Chinese New Year season, or if you want to attend a big trade show like the Frankfurt Book Fare.

You may ask why the airlines allow these early flight reservations for a much lower price than you would pay if you booked your Christmas flight in December. Do they have money to give away?

Airlines sell only a very limited number of seats for these low prices. And the cheap seats for the best timed flights are gone within a few hours after being available in the reservation systems. This helps the airlines to identify very early the really hot selling flights, and raise the prices for these specific connections quickly. The aim of any airline is to receive as much revenue as possible for each movement of each plane. The industry term for that goal is yield management.

I have to admit that not all airlines allow early air ticket reservations combined with late ticketing. An airline which is closely connected to a huge home market knows the sensible flight dates without testing the water every year. But airlines with a huge global network, like Jet Airlines India prefer to test the market year by year.