Last Minute Travel is an Interesting Option

The growth of the Internet and budget airlines has turned last-minute flights into a huge industry. You can just be surfing around, and then, right there, there’s a flight cheap enough for you to buy on impulse and go away this weekend. If you’re thinking about booking last minute flights, however, there are a few things you need to know.

What you must remember

An important point to make is that you can’t trust the prices you see quoted.  This is because of the common practice of excluding booking fees, airport taxes and all sorts of other little extras from the price. These all get added on just when you’ve got your card out and you’re ready to pay. They are in the hope that by then you won’t want to back out.

Also, you should realize that just because a flight says it goes to a big city like London or Paris, it doesn’t mean that the airport is actually anywhere near. Budget airlines use smaller airports to avoid paying the higher airport charges at the larger ones. And these smaller airports can be as much as two hours away. Therefore you will have to use often unreliable public transport. In some cases, you can end up paying as much as twice your plane ticket price.

On airlines that take bookings for seats, it is also worth noting that last minute flights will only have the seats that no-one else wanted, which usually means the ones in the middle of the row. This can be very important if you really want to sit together as a couple or family.

The biggest gotcha is that last-minute flights are always non-refundable. If you are going to buy one on impulse, remember, there won’t be any backing out.

In Conclusion

Last minute travel is an appealing option, only when done right!