I’m preparing an extremely useful guide with 20+ amazing pro tips to find cheaper flights, so you can benefit from my experience (over 400 flights flown), and so you can stop overpaying like so many people sadly do. But I want to share a simple tip as a teaser here.
I’ll also soon have more content about this trick specifically too, with important details.
And a lot more video content like this with our team growing, so make sure to follow us on Instagram too. I know you all want more videos.
Here’s the introduction, including today’s Australia deal.
The self-transfer trick (or separate tickets trick)
Here’s the summary of the trick in video format, the text version is just below.
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Example for Europe
The self-transfer trick works very very often for almost every destination in Europe!
It’s yet another of the many examples of simple tricks that sadly so few travelers know about. There are so many like this!
In short:
- With a restrictive transfer on 1 same ticket:
- Montréal-Bulgaria can often be $1500 roundtrip
- That costs you $1500 (more simplicity)
- With a self-transfer on 2 separate tickets:
- Montréal-Paris can often be $500 roundtrip
- Paris-Bulgaria can often be $200 roundtrip
- That costs you $700 (more value)
So you can save more than half the price (and you get to add a visit to Paris of your desired length as a bonus) by simply buying 2 separate tickets to create your own self-transfer instead of relying on airlines alone!
Why?
Because:
- Being flexible
- Doing things on your own
- Planning and preparing your trips well,
- Choosing the less simple options
- Act accordingly if you want to save
… that’s really the key to traveling for less!
Really not that complicated when you know how, and if you really want to travel for less — which is how you get to travel more obviously.
You can download our free ebook with 100+ travel tips and you’ll automatically get the detailed posts with all the information for this pro trick in particular (and many more), as soon as they’re ready!
The cheapest cities in Europe for a self-transfer are usually Paris, London, or Lisbon. But like anything else related to airfares, it always varies! It obviously depends on the dates. Compare.
Our guide will show you how to easily find flights, but in short, it’s all by using Kiwi and of course by investing some time to research and compare (like anything in the travel world). Search from your city to “Europe” in its entirety and with as wide a range of dates as possible, and make comparisons. Really that simple; just some time to put in.
And by the way, short-distance flights in Europe are often much cheaper than $200 roundtrip, so the self-transfer tip is even more beneficial. I’ve paid as low as $10 for a one-way flight and many times I’ve paid just $20 or $25.
It’s the case with the current deal for flights from Barcelona to Ibiza for $15 roundtrip. If you bought a Canada-Ibiza flight on 1 same ticket, you’d get royally screwed — as almost everyone else does, sadly.
For more complete concrete examples to help you wait for our detailed step-by-step guide on how to do it yourself, check out the current examples for Asia and Oceania.
Example for Asia
I’ve often used the self-transfer trick for my trips to Europe and that’s where it works the most often, but I’ve also used it for Asia.
Yes, it can work from Canada to Asia too, depending on the prices for your dates! It works a lot more often right now since flight prices to Asia are abnormally high due to the governments’ pandemic restrictions over there.
Here’s my example from my trip to Southeast Asia in 2019:
- With a restrictive transfer on 1 same ticket:
- Montréal-Bali was $1500 roundtrip
- That would’ve cost $1500 (more simplicity)
- With a self-transfer on 2 separate tickets:
- Montréal-Singapore was $499 roundtrip
- Singapore-Bali was $200 roundtrip
- That cost me $700 (more value)
I once again saved over half the price. So simple!
And I got to visit Singapore, a fantastic city! The definition of travel is literally to visit places, and this way, you get to see a new one not just for free: you even save half the price of your tickets!
Right now, flights to Asia are expensive. But don’t be like those who pay $2000 to fly to Thailand! Flights to Jakarta or Ho Chi Minh City are sometimes still around $1100-$1200 roundtrip. And flights from there to Bangkok are available for at most a few hundred dollars. Once again saving you hundreds of dollars — and giving you a chance to visit an extra destination too, a true win-win!
Here is a concrete example. I’ll use Montreal as the example, but our guide will help you with specifics from each Canadian city.
If you search a bit, right now, flights from Montreal to Ho Chi Minh City are $1239 roundtrip.
And flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok are just $138 roundtrip.
That’s still “just” $1377 roundtrip, which is much better than $2000.
And it allows you to visit Vietnam! Win-win!
Example for Oceania (current deal)
The self-transfer trick works even less often for Oceania. But like today, you could save over $1000 per person thanks to a deal… from Hawaii to Australia!
I’ll use Montreal for the example, but from almost all Canadian cities, it’s easy to find pretty cheap flights to Hawaii — by being flexible.
In November, flights from Montreal to Australia are $2200 roundtrip (and even more on specific dates), which is a completely insane price.
And that itinerary has 2 stops that you cannot customize.
Don’t pay that price!
Instead, flights from Montreal to Hawaii are $627 roundtrip.
(A price that is easy to spot by being flexible, from most Canadian cities!)
And flights from Hawaii to Australia are $330 roundtrip!
(Current deal for direct flights on Mondays and Thursdays in November, which will expire very quickly like all good deals!)
You’re starting to get how it works.
That’s $957 instead of $2200. It pays to know the pro tricks, which are so simple too.
And that has 2 stops, same as the itinerary that is 2 times more expensive. But it lets you discover Hawaii as a bonus for 1 day on the outbound and 1 day on the inbound (or more if you want, of course).
Okay, Honolulu is one of the worst places in the world in terms of costs, yes. So the extra costs of being in Hawaii instead of Australia for the one-day buffer between the separate tickets are quite a bit more than when you apply the tip for Europe and Asia.
But to save $1200 per ticket, of course, it’s well worth it! It’s important to know how to count to travel for less.
The same tip sometimes works via Los Angeles or San Francisco. By the way, those 2 cities are worth considering, especially if you want to go to French Polynesia (Tahiti or Bora Bora); it’s often half the price with the self-transfer tip!
More information
There are obviously things to know, which I will detail in the upcoming guide.
In the meantime, the 3 main ones are:
- It’s not going to work 100% of the time, obviously
- Like any travel tip, IT DEPENDS
- Leave yourself plenty of time to make the transfer
- Not just a few hours, the longest possible
- At least for now, because of COVID-19
- Take the opportunity to visit an extra city
- I recommend taking the other flight the next day at least
- Especially before the longest flight on the most expensive of the 2 tickets
We’ll also have some concrete tips to help you find those flights, step by step.
Don’t miss it!
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Summary
The self-transfer trick (or separate tickets trick) is an important one, especially to find cheaper flights to Europe. Don’t miss the important details shortly.
What would you like to know about the self-transfer trick? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Video screen capture (photo credit: Andrew D’Amours/Flytrippers)
