It’s a piece of cake online: you’ll save a lot of money when booking holidays

Flight prices depend on supply and demand. During holiday periods and weekends, there are more passengers and flight prices are higher due to increased demand. Air travel prices are also generally higher on Mondays and Fridays because these days are often used for business trips. For travelers with the necessary flexibility, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the recommended travel days.

Flight prices vary widely. If passengers book a direct flight from Zurich to Istanbul and the corresponding return flight, they pay almost twice as much on weekend flights as on weekday flights. The cost of a flight connection for two people, departing on Saturday, February 10, 2024 and round-trip on Friday, February 16, 2024, is 576 francs. This corresponds to 288 francs per person. If you postpone the trip for a few days, with the outbound flight on Thursday, February 15th and the return flight on Wednesday, February 21st, you will pay only 322 francs for the same connection. This corresponds to 161 francs per person. Total savings for two people: 252 francsThis corresponds to a good rate of 45 percent.

Travelers can’t save money just by choosing the right day. A VPN (virtual private network) can also be used for this. This makes it possible to set a foreign IP address. An IP address outside Switzerland can have a direct impact on flight prices, as booking platforms and airlines charge different prices for their offers depending on the country. For example, if you book a flight from a Turkish IP address, the price is cheaper than a Swiss IP address. Martin Steiger (44), a legal expert and lawyer in the digital field, says that the use of VPNs for booking services is legally harmless. «You are making a reservation with a Turkish IP address. Legally, this is essentially the same as if you booked in Turkey.”

If you want to book a flight ticket for two from Zurich to Istanbul (direct departure 10 November, direct return 16 November), you can search for the cheapest offer on the Google Flights platform. As of the beginning of October, it is 368 francs, that is, 184 francs per person. The cost of the same flight at the same time, under the same conditions, with VPN and Turkey IP address is only 332 francs, that is, 166 francs per person. You can also choose another country’s IP address. With Turkish IP address You save 36 francs, So ten percent for the flight.

Booking a hotel with your mobile phone can be much cheaper than doing the same thing using a computer. This is due to “Mobile Only Prices” which are often lower than what you’d pay on a desktop. Hotels and booking platforms want to encourage customers to book more often from their mobile phones. Among other things, customer loyalty to smartphones is particularly strong.

For a hotel reservation made through the Booking.com platform, this means: on the website on the computer, a room with a double bed for six nights costs 439 francs, but with the app on the mobile phone it costs only 396 francs. Travelers save money here 43 francsSo exactly ten percent.