Purchasing flight tickets

neil7

Hello

It is my first time buying multiple tickets:

18th February London – Singapore

22nd Singapore – Auckland

Late March: Auckland - Tokyo

around 4th April Tokyo - London

The affordable results require 2 or 3 different airlines. I have used google flights and skyscanner to find flights and they suggests different ways to purchase the 4 separate tickets, for example Expedia or Jettzy. 

Any suggestions regarding purchase – would you wait until the January sales or best price now?

How would you make the purchase – 0ne site, different sites, something else?

Thanks

Westin

Have you priced up your itinerary on the SQ website? Use the multicity function. 

Voyager2002

Air ticket prices change all the time, so really there are no such things as sales. Simply buy whenever you are happy with the price. Note, however, that most air tickets are not flexible so buy only when you are willing to fix your dates of travel.

It is generally a good idea to buy tickets directly from the airline. However, with a complicated itinerary such as this it might be worth asking a GOOD travel agent such as Trailfinders. Avoid the online agents that offer slightly lower prices like the plague: there is too much scope for things to go wrong to take such a risk.

bagand96

When you say booking multiple tickets are you sure that's the case?  Just because it's different airlines it should be possible to book this all under the same reservation, even if some of the flights are operated by different airlines.  General advice is it's preferable to have everything on one booking, although with your flights being days/weeks apart then the "self transfer" risk is significantly less.

Generally the best advice is to book direct with an airline.  If you go via an agent then you have to deal with the agent in the event of any changes (by you or the airline). Whilst the majority of bookings have no issues it's worth pointing out that some agents are better than others, Expedia are at best patchy, never heard of Jettzy, seem to be Australian based.  

What's the cost difference?

saajan_12

Depending on how important price is vs time, you could compare the multi city / many singles versus booking some return flights which is generally cheaper.  Eg 
Lon - Singapore
Singapore - Auckland
Auckland - Tokyo
Tokyo - Singapore
Singapore - London (return flight)

However you'd need to be wary of flights close together booked separately, so in doing the above I'd leave a good buffer between the last two flights. 

Also is there any chance you find you want more or less time in a particular place if its extended travel? You could leave some of the shorter flights to be booked once you're out there. The benefit is you give yourself the flexibility of changing how much time you spend in each place without the cost of change fees, but it may be more expensive vs booking in advance.. you'll never know. 

silvercar

The problem with booking each leg separately is that you have no cover if one flight is delayed and you miss your connection. So you either need to pad out your trip with plenty of time to make the connections or accept the risk.

neil7

Have you priced up your itinerary on the SQ website? Use the multicity function. 

This brings up Singapore airlines - is that correct?

neil7

 it should be possible to book this all under the same reservation

3 different  - Singapore BA and NZ

I do not know how to do it on the same reservation, unless you mean via someone like Expedia? 

neil7

What's the cost difference?

i priced up the 4 fligths using google flights and skyscanner, selecting the 'mulit city trip' which gave one overall price and then purchase via someone like Expedia/Jettzy...

and priced via going direct with each of the 3 airlines and the price is almost the same

neil7

silvercar said:

The problem with booking each leg separately is that you have no cover if one flight is delayed and you miss your connection. So you either need to pad out your trip with plenty of time to make the connections or accept the risk.

all flights have no less than 4 days between them

neil7

Depending on how important price is vs time, you could compare the multi city / many singles versus booking some return flights which is generally cheaper.  Eg 
Lon - Singapore
Singapore - Auckland
Auckland - Tokyo
Tokyo - Singapore
Singapore - London (return flight)


so i could look into some return flights even though I would not need the return leg? that might cost less overall?