Top tips for saving money on your holiday
Seeking solace amid the financial gloom? If you're looking to save money on holiday, you could find the global economic crisis working in your favour. We offer our pick of penny-pinching strategies!
1. Book a holiday apartment
You might have to make your own bed, but at least you can lie in as long as you like. Increasingly, savvy travellers are increasingly considering a holiday apartment rather than a hotel.
The economic slowdown has also seen a torrent of properties originally bought as investments or second homes flood on to the holiday lettings market. And many of the established websites specialising in holiday apartments have upgraded their offerings in recent months, presenting potential renters with the range of accommodation and level of functionality they've come to expect when searching for hotels. In short, there's never been a better time to rent a holiday apartment.
Many are finding that they need to lower their prices to attract potential renters, apartment owners are increasingly willing to negotiate. Finding a suitable apartment is easy and it allows you to live like a local on holiday.
Staying in an apartment saved them money not only on accommodation, but also on overall living costs. You can eat out but also enjoy being able to cook our own meals, too, making the most of trips to local markets and food halls.
Staying in an apartment also allows your trip to alternate between "one day exploring and the next day chilling", a godsend after a 14-hour flight, and it gives you more space to relax and get a feel for neighbourhood.
2. Swap your holiday home
Since the economy started to pinch, holiday home-exchange sites like PropertySwap.ie have been doing a roaring trade. This is where holidaymakers swap holiday homes with people in their destination-of-choice for a fixed period. Obviously, this saves heaps on accommodation. For example, if you have a place in the algarve and want to go to Paris for a week in April, you look for people with a property in Paris who would be interested in visiting the Algarve, and get chatting. With the recent peak in membership, there are lots of new locations popping up day by day.
3. Exploit online codes
When you book car hire and flights online, you usually see a little box giving the option to input a loyalty, membership or special offer code. It's all too easy to ignore, but don't - typing the correct few letters can give a significant discount on the subsequent quote. Thankfully, you don't need to actually be a loyal customer, you just need to go to websites such as www.vouchercodes.co.uk, where they are listed for you.
4. Free airline points
Airline loyalty programmes are complicated but there are numerous ways for canny travellers to maximise their points. Check out web forums such as www.flyertalk.com. Some are straightforward - shop at Tesco, and you can convert your Clubcard points to BA Miles. Others are downright dubious. There are great tips and advice to be found on the site.
5. Ski pass savings
Walk up to the ticket window at the bottom of the lifts in Vail, Colorado, ask for a week's pass, and you're in for a shock. At current prices, an adult six-day ticket costs €450. Buy it in advance online from the resort's website and the rate comes down to €315. Go to a third party site, like the excellent www.onlineskipass.com, and it falls still further, to €292.
6. Crazy codeshares
The expansion of airline alliances has led to some curious, and potentially money-saving anomalies. Keen to make their own network appear larger, and make complex itineraries easier to book, an airline will set up "codeshares", that is, giving one of its flight numbers to a service operated by another airline. So for example, Air Mauritius lists an 8.25pm service, flight number MK9372, from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Edinburgh, and Alitalia lists AZ2530 on the same route at the same time. In fact, neither exist - book them and you'll be sitting on a Cityjet service. Sometimes this throws up price discrepancies. Shop around and make sure to check out both airlines prices that are involved in the codeshare.
7. Become a courier
Courier flights - where you get a reduced price ticket in return for assisting in the delivery of a package to a destination - are not as common as they once were, but nor have they disappeared altogether. British Airways currently offers courier tickets on flights to Tokyo and Bangkok (the latter is only available until this spring). Travel writer Gemma Exley has booked a trip to Japan for April - peak season - for £320, when the normal online fare for the same flight was £910. "As there's only one courier flight to each destination per day (only Tues to Sun for Bangkok), my friend is flying out on another ticket 24 hours later," she says. "But since no responsibilities are required on the return leg, we can travel back together." As for those responsibilities, you don't come into contact with the package, but on arrival, you are required to collect a loading note which you must then hand to customs officials. Availability was plentiful at the time of writing - even for flights this month.
• For more information call British Airways World Cargo on 0870 320 0301
