Booking my flight online
Booking my flight online
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Last year I was at the airport, ready to board a flight to Melbourne, when an announcement came over the intercom that Jetstar were cancelling my flight. Panic! I had to be in Melbourne the next day to make a tour.
In a panic, I turned to my phone, and within 5 minutes I had booked another flight that was departing about 40 minutes later with Virgin. Forward to 2 weeks later, I had my refund back from Jetstar. In the end I arrived about 15 minutes later than I had planned, and about $50 out of pocket (because Virgin is more expensive than Jetstar… but worth every penny!). No harm done.
In past years, there was no way I would have made that flight. I would have been stranded, and sure the airline would have compensated me for the flight, but I would have missed the tour.
Now, thanks to my particularly dexterous opposable thumbs, and modern technology, the solution was easy.
Booking travel has never been easier.
That said, despite the relative ease, we find many of our guests are reticent to try booking online.
We hope this little guide will embolden you to give it a go.
SkyScanner
At the top of our list is SkyScanner. The interface is very easy to use, and the prices are exceptional. Most of the booking sites work in exactly the same way, so if you can use SkyScanner, all of the others will be simple to work out.
Here is how you do it…
- Firstly, get comfortable with the fact that you are about to put your credit card number into a website! If you can’t get comfortable with this, we recommend a nice cup of tea before, 🙂  you head down to the bricks and mortar travel agency.
- Choose whether you would like to book a Return or One-way flight.
- Enter your departure city and arrival city, the date of travel, the number of people, then click “Search flights.
This will come up with a list of all of the flights available. Our example below is a simple one as it is Perth to Exmouth and there are only 2 flights a day, but sometimes there are pages and pages to choose from.
In the middle column all of the flight details are listed, i.e. airline, departure time, and arrival time. On the right is the price.
Hit select on the flight you would like to purchase.
This will bring you to another page.
Now Skyscanner is so smart that it will show you all of the other websites that are selling this same flight, and the price you will pay if you book via that site.
In this example, Bestjet has the best price (I checked Qantas, and their price was $14 more!).
Click on the Select button and you will be forwarded through to Bestjest’s website.
Here is where you need to enter all of your personal details.
Pay particular attention to your email address. You need to get that one right, otherwise your flight confirmation will go to the wrong person!
Once through this screen, it is time to enter your credit card, and click purchase.
It is not hard but it takes a leap of faith.
You can take comfort these days in the fact that the banks are right on top of online credit card fraud. The likelihood of someone stealing your data from one of these big reputable sites is tiny, but if it does happen, the banks will compensate you.
So that’s it. Easy as click click.
In our experience the prices are significantly cheaper than a travel agency. That said, travel agencies definitely have their place. If you are booking multiple flights with hotels, airport pickups, as well as a number of tours, a travel agent is worth their weight in gold.
But you will pay for it.
I hope that helps. Happy travels everyone!
Simon and Team Inspiration Outdoors
