Top 10 tips for booking business travel flights online

Always use a flight comparison tool.

Even if you know which airline you need to book, you may be offered a cheaper alternative that you didn’t think of. We’ve selected the most accurate and reliable search engine on our Flight Search page.

Use our “Who Flies Where” tool.

Use our impartial tool to check which airlines fly the route. Flight comparison tools may exclude an airline if a) there is no availability or b) if there is a technical communications glitch between systems. (even the best professional systems e.g. Galileo GDS and Sabre GDS occasionally suffer connectivity problems)

Always search for just ONE seat

Even if two or more are travelling. See this article HERE for the reasons why you should do this, and, we guarantee you’ll frequently obtain a lower fare for at least one passenger.

Pay with a credit card that offers cashback or rewards

…If the airline/agent doesn’t charge extra. Expedia for example, never charge credit card charges – and they offer nectar points.
See our article HERE regarding the most rewarding credit cards.

Always book internet airlines e.g. EasyJet, Ryanair, WIZZ, direct with the airline

You will never find a cheaper fare through third party online agents. They will mark-up the fares. The same applies for British Airways short-haul, but it may be worth checking around for long haul and business class.

Use a travel agent if you need a booking to be “held” whilst a passenger decides

Opodo will tell you exactly how many seats are left at each fare and if there’s just one or two seats left, it may be worth using an agent who can normally hold seats at least until 6pm, before having to pay and issue tickets

Sign up your company to the following reward schemes

British Airways On-Business
Star Alliance Company Plus
See our full article HERE

Use TRIPIT to organise itineraries

Forward all your confirmation emails to www.tripit.com and they’ll assemble your flight + hotel + airport parking etc., all in one place

More details HERE

Check health requirements, visa requirements before travel!

More details on our “useful sites” page HERE:

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Always search for just ONE seat!

Airlines (and train companies, including Eurostar) allocate a certain number of seats to be sold at various prices.

They don’t want to fill an aircraft with £9.99 fare-paying passengers!

So they’ll allocate for example:

10 seats at   £9.99
30 seats at   £39.00
50 seats at   £150.00
50 seats at   £200.00

If 9 seats have been sold at £9.99 there will be just one seat left at that price and the next seat to be sold will be at £39.00

However, if you request two seats, the airline reservation systems will not offer you that “last seat” price, but will sell you two at the next higher price, even though that lower priced ticket remains available for sale.

By requesting and booking one seat at a time, you can achieve one fare at the lower price and one at the higher price.

Having spent 20 years selling air tickets in a travel agency, I know that this scenario occurs more frequently than you would imagine!

I recently saved £150 by booking separate tickets on a trip for two to Dubai by booking individual seats. One seat left was priced at £250 and the next one was £400

Make sure that enough seats are available on the aircraft though, by checking for the total party first!

OPODO show the actual number of seats available at the price quoted, click HERE