Discount Flying

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Have you ever seen the adverts where the travel agents offer discounted one way air fares to another country? I sometimes wonder if that is why many New Zealanders go to Australia and don’t come back. Don’t they realise that they can get a return ticket? The agents could do their part by just mentioning that we are not trying to get rid of them and they have a choice to return whenever they wish.

A politician once mentioned that when New Zealanders went to Australia that it increased the intelligence of both countries. Surely then we should be doing our best to encourage the travellers to come back, so as to retain the status quo. After all, our neighbours across the Tasman could do with all the help that we can give them.

A big question is why do people use first or business class to travel to Australia? It’s only about three hours away and everyone on the plane arrives at the same time.

But I diversify. The subject is Discount flying. I wanted to travel overseas, so I went to a travel agent to get the best possible fare. I was quoted a price which appeared to be very reasonable, then the agent advised me that if I travelled on a certain day that I could get a further discount. The agent then offered me an extra discount if I went on an early morning flight. The next offer was to give me more discount if I didn’t take any luggage. All this was sounding very attractive to me and my wallet. I thought I had been offered the best ever discount, until another offer was put to me that if the airline didn’t have to provide something to eat on the flight then I could get another discount and at the same time take my own food with me. What I figured would be the last offer of discount was when I was asked if I would be willing to accept the seat that was way at the back of the plane. How could I refuse, but then the piece de resistance hit me. I could have all that had been offered and another discount if I went on standby and took pot luck.

Guess what? The airline actually ended up paying me to fly.

The moral here is, don’t be afraid to ask for a discount. You never know what you will accomplish.

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