Sam - August 25, 2016
Traveling abroad can be one of the most enjoyable things you can do. However, it can also be one of the most expensive things you can do, especially if you are travelling far away.
A big chunk of the money you will spend will likely be on your flights. While there are cheap flights available to some locations, many places, especially those further afield, can cost thousands of dollars to get to.
It is, therefore, natural that you will want to do everything you can to save as much money on your flight as possible. There are many ways you can save money on flights, some of these are:
Using a comparison site
Flying a less direct route
Flying on off peak times
Using a VPN
While all these methods may well save you some money, and in fact the best possible way to get a cheaper flight could be through a combination of all the above methods, in this article I will look at how using a VPN such as ProxyRack can save you money.
How to flight websites work
To understand how a VPN can save you money when booking a flight, we first need to understand how flight websites work.
Basically, many airline websites will set their prices based on a load of factors gained from the web trail of the user of their websites. Things that can change the price of your flight can include details such as where you are browsing from, whether you have been on the site before and whether you are on a mobile device or not.
While it may seem incredibly intrusive, flight websites can gain this information easily through using things such as stored cookies, your IP address and any GPS you may have turned on.
How ProxyRack VPN can help you save money on a flight
If you know anything about how VPNs work you will probably already have an idea how using a VPN could help you save money on a flight. If not here is how a VPN can save you money on a flight:
Change your browsing country
When you connect to a VPN you connect to a server, this can be in any number of locations and is often in a different country. When you then access a website through this server the website you are visiting will think are browsing from that country.
This means that if an airline is offering different prices to people in different countries you will be able to check the difference and book using the cheaper flight. ProxyRack VPN has servers in 11 countries so there are plenty of options for checking prices.
Airlines will often also have different websites depending on where you are visiting from that have different deals and prices. For example, etihad.com may have different prices to etihad.com/au.
However, it can be practically impossible to view the international versions of these sites without changing your IP address first.
Change your in-country IP address
Sometimes when an airline website sees that you have visited and searched for flights numerous times it will take this as a sign that you are ready to buy and hike prices up accordingly.
By changing your IP address, even to another address in the same country, you will be able to trick the website into thinking you are a new user.
When doing this it is worth remembering that often sites will store cookies on your computer so before changing your IP address it is worth clearing your cookies to make sure the website has no clues that you have looked for flights before.
Downsides
Of course, while you may be able to get a cheaper flight using this tip, there are still some things that you should watch out for when trying it out.
Firstly you should check out if there are any potential service fees you may be charged if you pay using a different currency. This can eat into your saving and as such if the saving you find isn’t too great it may be worth keeping on looking.
Secondly, sometimes the website and phone numbers etc may well be set up to the location you buy the ticket from. If the time difference is particularly large this could be a problem if you are booking with a carrier in a different region.
Of course, these potential downsides can seem tiny if you manage to make a big saving on your flights!
Conclusion
So, next time you need to book a flight abroad, why not give some of our tips a go. When you combine price comparison website, flying at off peak times and changing your location with a VPN you may well find you can make a good saving!
And also you don’t necessarily need to stop at flights. Hotel and car rental sites also use similar methods to set their prices so you may find that you can make a slight saving on some of these purchases too.
And remember, if you need a free VPN to use to check out this service, then why not take a look at ProxyRack VPN.