Booking a Flight: Where to Start

Hi!

Welcome back to The Blog. I’m so happy you’ve made it this far.

So, Uzbekistan. It’s piqued my interest enough that I’ve officially decided that I have to go! It’s been on my mind and it’s time to dive in.

Certain places in the world come at more expensive price points for travel within the country, but also for flights. In my experience, the more high traffic and popular the destination, such as Italy, France, Mexico, etc, the less it costs to fly there from Vancouver, Canada. On top of this, the time of year travelling drastically affects the price point of flights and in-country activities. For example, although Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is a high-traffic destination with many frequent flights to and from Vancouver, in the summer time, it is an ultra desirable destination that results in a price jack. On the other hand, some destinations that are less frequently travelled to and from Vancouver can be ridiculously pricy (I’m looking at you, Madagascar). Uzbekistan is, unfortunately, one of those places, too. However, don’t let this steer you away from an incredible country! If you don’t pull the trigger, then you’ll never get to know all that a country has to offer and, at this point, I’m already too set on going, so there’s no turning back now. All that being said, it’s important to do some research and try to find the most economical flight options.

Whenever I look at travelling to a new destination, I always look at airports within the country on google maps. This is important because a flight landing in one part of a country might be cheaper from Vancouver, but the area with the attractions is in another part that is expensive to get to, making the “cheaper” flight not so cheap in the long run. Also, factors like long layovers and abnormal takeoff hours can affect the cost. For example, if you have to stay 12 hours in an airport, that will cost a lot in food and entertainment, or if you have to leave early in the morning, you might need to factor in a hotel to stay close to the airport the night before your flight.

After searching for potential airport hubs, I look for flight options, but ALWAYS using a VPN and an incognito window. The VPN allows for me to change my location to somewhere that might offer a better currency for local airlines. I’ve done this before with Peru and LATAM airlines and had major success. I did have to book in Spanish though. An incognito window allows for my browser to not track my searches. High interest in a particular flights can result in price increases. Now, I’ve heard this has been debunked recently, but I still do it out of habit. Here is a link to a video speaking more on that if you’re interested!

The next step is comparing flights across different websites. A few of my favourites are Google Flights, Skyscanner, or the airline website itself! Some of my best flight deals have come from catching a mistake fare directly through the airline.

Without further ado, here is a screen cast of my process searching for flights to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

I hope this information helps! Tune in next week to dive into more how to travel to Uzbekistan content!