Young Aussie’s travel hack that saved $1,500 on flight to NYC: ‘I thought everyone knew’

A young Aussie living in New York City has revealed the hacks she has discovered to keep her flight costs back home as cheap as possible. Depending on what time of year you fly and how much notice you have, flying between the US and Australia can be an expensive exercise.

But Claudia Giblin said she follows a few simple steps that have saved her upwards of $1,500 for a return trip. She added that you don’t need any fancy tech or software either to get the best savings.

“It has come to my attention that people do not know the way to book the cheapest flights online,” she said. “I was shook that my mate, the other day when I was explaining to her the system because I thought everyone knew the system, was unaware.”

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How to get the cheapest flights

Does incognito mode actually work?

Giblin said her first port of call is opening an incognito browser window or tab because travel websites won’t be able to track your activity and increase the price of flights the next time you visit.

Because the site will harvest your cookies, it’s only natural that the cost could go up if you didn’t book the flight on the first visit.

But it seems like this long-held hack doesn’t actually do much.

A study done by Berkeley, Yale, and the University of Chicago found last year that the main factor in price changes is the overall bookings for a given flight, rather than your specific personal interest.

“Your search behaviour almost surely does not affect anything,” Kevin Williams, a Yale economist who worked on the study, said.

“But if you booked the last seat at the lowest price, then you could affect that flight for everyone else.”

Google Flights vs Skyscanner

The Aussie living in NYC urged travellers to load up both Skyscanner and Google Flights to make sure they’re getting the best deal.

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“I always find cheaper flights on Google Flights. I feel like the ones through Skyscanner always bumped up a bit. Don’t know why,” she said.

Yahoo Finance found a $24 price difference for the exact same flight from Sydney to LA, with Google showing the cheaper journey.

Don’t be too picky with the destination

Giblin said sometimes travel websites will automatically put in an airport for you, which can make things more expensive.

She said on Google Flights, you can select the actual destination you’re going to and it will show you the closest airports to that and there could be some journeys that are cheaper.

But keep in mind, you might have to pay more to travel via car or public transport to reach your final destination.

Book flights separately rather than in a package

The Aussie gave the example of her flying back home to Melbourne. Normally, you would just type in New York City as the origin and the Victorian capital as the destination.

But she has found it’s far cheaper to break it up, even though it takes a little longer.

“I’m booking them separately,” she said.

“So one is from New York to LA, and I booked that as one return. And then booked another one from LA to Melbourne. And this cut out a grand and a half from my flights.”

She added that flying via Hawaii also shredded hundreds of dollars from the final bill because she didn’t do a multi-city altogether booking.

Yahoo Finance put that to the test and found huge savings. If you booked Sydney to LA, the cheapest flight was $613, and then it was an additional $121 to get from LA to New York City.

But if you tried to book from Sydney to NYC, the cheapest flight was $1,009; which is a saving of $275.

The additional price is based on convenience and cutting down the total amount of time you’re waiting at the airport between flights.

If it’s the same airline the whole journey, you’ll also have to grab your bags at each leg and re-check it in, which might not be worth the hassle for some travellers.

Aussies divided over the advice

While there are some serious savings to be had, not everyone was convinced.

“I don’t want the cheapest flights. I want the best flights,” wrote one person who believed price shouldn’t be the only factor when travelling.

“Used to work in air travel, you’re better off getting those prices and calling the airline to match price then booking direct,” another said.

“Airline customer service here, the only issue is that if you have a problem with your booking, we can’t do as much, such as rebooking your flight etc cause it’s booked through a third party,” a third added.

“I would rather just book direct, I don’t care for the cheapest, I want the most reliable and trusting,” commented another.

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