Using Charter Flights for Discount Travel
Almost anyone will probably agree that in a perfect world they'd
be able to travel more. It is one of the most natural human
desires to want to see different parts of the world and
experience new things. And anyone who has traveled will probably
agree that you don't really appreciate or think about your home
too much until you have the perspective of seeing how people
live in other parts of the world.
The problem of course, is that travel has always been expensive.
Although airfares have gotten cheaper over the years, they are
still expensive enough that most people don't fly regularly, and
this is likely to remain the case. So unless you plan on
suddenly getting rich, you're going to have to come up with some
discount travel solutions if you want to fly more, and a great
thing to look into if you're looking for a cheap flight are charter flights.
Charter flights are cheaper because they work on a different
system than a started airline flight. A standard airline will
have a set route between two cites: an airline will fly a
certain amount a times a week between two cities, and this
remains constant regardless of the amount of passengers. In
other words normal airline routes function like bus routes, and
sometimes there may only be a few people on the plane. It is
this need to average out costs - to be able to afford all those
times when the plane is a third full - that leads to high
airfares.
A charter company can offer cheaper fares by working in a
different fashion: they will charter an entire plane from an
airline for a particular date and time, and thus receive a heavy
discount on the cost. They can then pass some of this discount
on to you by offering a lower per seat price for the flight.
Most charter companies operate along very common routes during
peak times - for example, sunny vacation spots during the
winter.
Charter flights are much more reliable then other more radical
ways of obtaining discount airfare, and fares will generally get
cheaper as the departure date approaches. There is a certain
amount of risk, however: a charter company can decide to cancel
a flight if they haven't sold enough tickets. Unlike a regular
airline, which constantly has planes going to multiple
destinations, the charter company may not be able to immediately
put you on another plane. So instead of waiting a few hours it's
likely that if your charter flight is cancelled you'll either be
receiving a refund, or waiting at least a day or two for another
charter - which of course can ruin any vacation.
That being said, there are many large and reliable charter
companies, and charter flights -- while not offering discounts
as big as can be found through other discount travel methods -
remain a reliable alternative to regular airfare. And if you're
flexible and willing to buy a ticket on short notice, you can
find many excellent airfares from charter companies, making
charter flights one of the more popular discount traveling
methods.