Little did I know, when I set out to poll The National's staff about their best travel tips, the deep depths to which my colleagues were going to find the cheapest flights, plan their travel calendars and generally extract the maximum benefit from every precious second of their time away. After all, I'm the travel editor and no one, surely, thinks about this more than I do. Yet, while many of the tips chime with my own experience, some staff adopt mind-shifting strategies that are bordering on obsessive.
While I have now lived in the UAE for almost nine years and view it as my home base, some staff see it – in travel terms at least – as merely a pit stop on one's annual circumnavigation of the globe. Since return flights to the UAE are sometimes cheaper than return flights from their countries, many staff told me that they viewed their times working in the UAE as extended stopovers. In true money-saving backpacker style, Weekend editor Amanda Tomlinson, who is Australian and married to an Irishman, told me that a few years ago, she started planning all of her flights well in advance so that she could make the origin a country other than the UAE, to take advantage of lower fares. "My origin is usually a European city with a stopover in the UAE (often for up to several months) and then I continue on to a destination in the southern hemisphere. By booking this way, I find that the cost of the entire airfare [the equivalent of two flights] is often less than that it would have been for one return flight from the UAE."
Assistant Comment editor Brett Debritz, another Australian, also said that you can often get a better deal by flying from somewhere else. "For example a business class trip from Munich to Brisbane on Etihad return, with two extended 'stopovers' in Abu Dhabi, cost me about Dh15,000, opposed to about Dh21,000 full fare Munich to Brisbane. Booking from Brisbane to Munich would also have been cheaper. This applies to most airlines. It was also cheaper for me to fly Bangkok to Sydney return on Qantas than it would have been to start in Sydney."
Debritz said that another fare-saving trip is to go segment by segment, choosing different airlines according to price. “The flight will take you longer, but the savings can be substantial. For example, I’m flying to Brisbane, Australia, in segments, comprising Oman Air from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok, via Muscat, and Qantas / Emirates return Bangkok to Brisbane, via Sydney. The total flight and layover time is longer, but I’m having a few days in Thailand as a bonus, and still paying less than I would to fly direct to Brisbane. There’s a new website called Matrix [www. matrix.itasoftware.com] that can help you find these connecting flights.”
Marwan Al Hammadi, an Emirati multimedia editor, sent me a list of 15 flight and holiday booking tips, from travel to 16 cities in seven countries. Al Hammadi says that if you travel frequently between two points, such as Abu Dhabi and Paris, you can have several return tickets with different airlines on the go at once, picking the cheapest fares and starting points and using the segments which are most convenient at the time. He also recommends a multi-pronged approach, which compares prices offered on a variety of different airline and flight comparison websites to those of travel agencies or package-holiday companies, which can sometimes offer flights and accommodation more cheaply than the cost of the flight alone. “You can also call or show up at travel agencies, as often at the last minute, they have very cheap travel packages due to other travellers’ last-minute cancellations.”
This year I’ve spent a total of 100 days on the road, travelling to 12 countries – though I estimate that about 20 per cent of the time is spent either flying, at airports or driving to the airport. While some of the places I’ve been to before, one of the main reasons for my trips is the opening of new routes to places as varied as Yangon in Myanmar, and Atlanta in the United States. On these flights, I’ve met several travellers who use the launch of new routes to score extra-cheap flights to desired destinations, which may be the end point of a holiday or merely a base. They not only take advantage of the fact that an airline hasn’t had a great deal of time to publicise a new route, but also revel in the cachet that comes from being one of the very first to experience a new route or destination.
Flexibility is my number-one general travel tip, as when you are flexible you are guaranteed to get more out of any trip or situation. Those who are emotionally tied to a specific destination on a particular date with a particular person or group of people are almost guaranteed to lose. Since flights often make up a large proportion of your travel budget, it’s particularly important to book at the right time, as the difference between the base fare between two points and the maximum fare can be as much as 300 per cent. As Al Hammadi says: “If you move your travel date to a day later, you will compromise a whole day in the travel destination, but it could save you more than half the price on the flight.” He recommends using Skyscanner.com for last-minute travel plans, or when you have no specific holiday destination in mind. “The search engine has an option to look for the cheapest fares if you choose ‘anywhere’, then it will show you a list of destinations with the lowest fares available on the dates you specified.”
Once flights are sorted, the real fun can begin. The packing tip I most liked came from features editor Ann Marie McQueen, who most recently had a long weekend in Turkmenistan. “The thing I hate most is packing for a trip, and it was only this year that I realised I can make this much less arduous by setting out my suitcase at least three days before going. That way I can thoughtfully organise, pick and choose what I need, without panicking at the last minute and throwing in far too many clothes and shoes I’ll never need ‘just in case’. When I left it to the day before or day of, I always overpacked and regretted it. This has revolutionised my travel life and removed the fear that my luggage would be overweight. In cases of my trips home to Canada, I take only one or two outfits for going out.”
McQueen also emphasised the importance of pre-planning, even if you’re a seasoned traveller. “It’s disorientating landing in a new city – particularly one where you don’t speak the language. Research taxi options and typical fares so you won’t be overwhelmed or fear being ripped off when faced with shouting cabbies. Know exactly where you are staying – even having a photo of it or the address available on your phone in the local language.”
The National’s managing editor Laura Koot said that the only thing better than getting a business class seat on a long-haul flight was getting the flight attendants to make up the bed with the flatbed mattress toppers, which are usually available but not always offered. “It makes the bed 14 per cent more comfortable.” Koot, who has this year visited Sri Lanka (twice), the Seychelles, Bahrain, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kuwait and Greece, also said that being nice is an underrated practice that costs nothing and can bring real results.
“In some parts of the world it is natural, these days, for internet to be free with a hotel room. But when it’s not, I compliment the hotel during check-in and suggest my stay will be made much better if the Wi-Fi is provided gratis. Since it is no additional cost to the hotel, the reception will often provide the access at no charge.”
Rob McKenzie, who works on the business desk, said his best tip was to make a serious effort to detach from one’s normal life, routine and social media. “Long flights are meditative spaces. Forget the movie marathon. Stare out the window, lie back and think. This is a dozen hours when you are not on the earth. Also, use your social-media accounts as little as possible on vacation. Nobody really cares after the first post anyway. One of my best trips was in Kyrgyzstan, when I didn’t even bring a phone.”
I also asked for tips for travelling with children, and the best answer came from The Review editor Clare Dight, who simply said "don't", explaining that this year she spent a fortune taking her family on holiday and has vowed not to do it again in 2017. "Because you're not actually travelling, are you? You're just looking after your kids somewhere else," she said.
rbehan@thenational.ae
