Black Friday travel deals: 3 clever ways to maximise your savings
Before you hit the checkout check out these top tips to save even more this Black Friday.
Black Friday is one of the biggest sales events on the calendar.
With it comes loads of travel deals that can save you hundreds, even thousands, on your next holiday.
Want to stretch your dollars even further? Here are our top 3 ways to get the very best price this sale season.
1. Ditch loyalty and shop around
Just as physical stores can stock the same items so too can travel agents and booking sites.
For example, hotel booking sites Wotif, Agoda, Trip.com, Booking.com and Expedia all list many of the same hotels.
Instead of heading to your tried and true, shop the sites to see which has the best price.
Aggregators can help you here. They look at these sites and more to find you the cheapest price for the flight, hotel, car or cruise that you're after.
Here are a few aggregators, as well as booking platforms, to start you off:
Accommodation aggregators
- HotelsCombined
- Trivago
Flight aggregators
- Skyscanner
- KAYAK
- I Want That Flight
- Cheap Flights
Vehicle hire aggregators and booking platforms
Cruise aggregators
- CruiseDirect
- CruiseAway
Tour booking platforms
Experience and activities booking platforms
Something to keep in mind is that aggregators may not be able to pick up promo code discounts.
If the aggregator you're using pulls up similar prices, check out our list of Black Friday travel deals to see if there's a coupon code that can bring things down further.
2. Sign up to the rewards program
On the flipside, loyalty can pay off over Black Friday with loads of sites offering extra discounts for members or members-only deals.
Most of them are free to join and all of them give you benefits, including discounted travel and early access to sales.
Here's what's going down over Black Friday:
- Accor Live Limitless: Extra 5% off on top of any Black Friday discounts.
- Expedia Rewards: 30% or more off eligible stays.
- Club Jetstar: Presale access to Jetstar's Black Friday sale. This ensures you get the best prices AND the best dates. Membership costs $55 annually.
- IHG One Rewards: Up to 10% off Advance Saver and Book Early and Save rates and up to 20% off the Best Flexible Rate at participating Kimpton Hotels.
- Wotif: Mates Rates on top of any Black Friday discounts.
3. Look for price-match and price-beat guarantees
Those willing to do the research and call a company up on its prices will reap the rewards.
Price-matching can mean you can book with your preferred travel agent or get benefits a competing price doesn't offer such as reward points.
Price-beat guarantees put more money in your pocket. This is typically 10% off the price difference or a voucher of a certain value to use towards your next trip.
Airlines that price-match or price-beat include Jetstar, Emirates and Qatar Airways.
Hotel chains that price-match or beat prices include Accor, Choice Hotels and IHG.
Cruise sites that price-match or price-beat include CruiseDirect and My Cruises.
Ready to shop this year's Black Friday sales? Catch the latest travel deals here.
