The mistakes to avoid when booking flights

Emma Khoury 21 w

Booking cheap flights can be stressful. There are dates to keep track of, payments to juggle and details to remember. While it’s not possible to avoid these things altogether, there are several mistakes to avoid when booking flights that can make your life harder. Before you begin, you need to think carefully about how you fill out the online booking form, how you go about providing details, and how you choose to make payments. It can also be useful to learn about the best ways to reduce airfares to help bring your travel expenses down. For example, if you purchased travel insurance when booking tickets with your credit card, this coverage could be used to protect you in the event of a maintenance delay or flight cancellation.

When you are in a hurry to book a flight, many things can go wrong. Foolish mistakes can ultimately prevent you from boarding a flight, or cost you a lot of money to reverse. From failing to check the baggage allowance in advance, to booking too early, here are nine mistakes to avoid when booking flights. This is one of the easiest mistakes to make when booking a flight. Often, when you are moving back and forth between pages, the date you selected can change without you even realising it. If you’re not careful, you can end up with a ticket for a flight leaving on the same day you booked it. Always take the time to check the date on the payment page before you proceed with your purchase.

We can’t emphasise this one enough: check your passport’s expiration date before you fly. If you’re not someone who travels frequently, it is easy to forget about checking the validity of your passport. Nowadays, lots of countries require that your passport be valid for six months from the date of your arrival. Without this, you might be refused entry altogether. It might sound like an obvious one, but you’d be surprised how many people get their details wrong when booking a flight. Before making a payment, check that the details you typed into the form are the same as what is in your passport. Even small errors – such as a typo in your name or the wrong date of birth – can cause you serious problems with airport authorities. So much so that you may even have your booking cancelled, particularly if your passport number is incorrect.

Make sure you research how much baggage is allowed on the airline you’re flying with. Every airline will have its policy on how much luggage can be carried by each person. Any excess weight will cost you extra at the airport. So, if you’re someone who struggles to pack light, check the airline’s baggage allowance in advance – otherwise, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. It might sound counterintuitive, but sometimes it works out cheaper to fly from somewhere other than your hometown. When researching your next trip, consider widening your search and looking for flights departing from other cities near you. Google Flights lists comparative ticket prices for airlines close to you, so you can pick the one that offers the lowest rates.