Who doesn’t want to save some money when traveling to amazing places like Asia? I know we do! Below you will find some great travel tips when flying Asian airlines you’ve never heard of or even the ones that you have, but have no idea of what to expect. Check out our travel tips to book cheap flights in Asia and KEEP them cheap by avoiding all those pesky add on charges. If you have any to add comment down below!
Going on a trip? Be sure to pack all of these items!
Travel Tips to Book Cheap Flights in Asia
Don’t spend the extra money pre-selecting a seat when you book your ticket.
We ended up taking Scoot Airlines and Jetstar to and from Bali to Singapore and both airlines gave us the option to pick our seats for an extra fee. While it was tempting to pre-select seats so that we could sit together, we decided against the extra fee and chanced it. We love each other, but 4-6 hours apart won’t kill us, especially because the reality is that we will both have headphones on watching different movies at the same time. We just won’t get to reach over to steal a kiss from each other is the only inconvenience really. Even though we dodged the additional charge and assumed we would be sitting apart – we ended up next to each other on both flights (lucky him!). We bought both of the tickets on the same reservation, so we assume it just sat us next to each other automatically because of that. So make sure you buy both tickets together on the same reservation and don’t pay that pesky extra fee!
Travel light and understand airline baggage policies.
These airlines, like most, have different baggage policies. Always research this before you fly on any airline, but especially budget airlines. We found that with the budget airlines in Asia everything was MUCH smaller than in the states. Our regular size carry on rollaboards were the equivalent to a checked back in the US and our personal items were considered carry-ons. We decided to travel to Bali on a whim with no plans so we found ourselves paying some hefty bag prices which were basically the equivalent to the ticket price.
Check for unsuspecting automatic “add-ons”.
When you buy a ticket on any airline they usually ask you if you want to purchase additional insurance for your ticket, but on these budget airlines I noticed it was automatically opted in when you check out. You have to keep an eye out and uncheck unwanted add-ons before you purchase your ticket.
Print your boarding pass ahead of time.
Budget airlines can change you anywhere from $10 USD to $25 USD to print your boarding pass for you. In situations like this its always best to find a local library and pay around 25 cents to print two pages.
Expect to Pay additional fees for using a credit card to purchase tickets.
We were surprised to finally get through the process of entering in all our information and unchecking add-ons and calculating baggage prices to now be faced with a credit card fee just for buying the ticket. Every little thing adds up when purchasing budget airline tickets. Brace yourself. What started as a $40 ticket has now morphed in to $115, but all-in-all still a great price for a ticket.
Pack your own food.
Just like the budget airlines in the states these airlines nickel and dime you for everything. It’s always a safe bet to pack your own food and water to avoid spending 3x as much as you should for some plane noodles. Although I do love me some plane noodles.
Leave a Reply