My friends and I had just came back from a 14 days Taiwan "backpacking" trip. The trip was really fun, and was a eye opener for us (noob backpackers). Our trip was very budgeted (if exclude the intensive shoppings), so it can be used as a reference for those who want to go taiwan without wanting to spend a lot of money.
Okay, first of all i will start with booking air tickets.
- Book your air tickets way way way in advanced of your trip if it is possible!
We flew on budget airline (tiger) and we noticed that air tickets can be really cheap if you booked it very early (6-9months earlier). Tickets booked way in advance can be 3X cheaper than if you booked the ticket last minute. For example, when i started looking round trip tickets to taiwan (around 6 months in advance) it was really cheap, only cost ~ S$280 while if you book the tickets last minute (around a week or a few days) the pricing goes as high as ~S$700-800!!
We didnt manage to get the cheapest air ticket as we were unsure of our schedule so in the end we bought the cheapest ticket possible for ~S$400 2months in advance.
- Look through all the dates before you book!
If you are very free like us you can look at different days to see which day is the cheapest to fly. There can be a huge variation in terms of pricing depending on the day. Weekend will be more expensive than weekday. Also flights at a weird timing might also be cheaper.
-Mind the hidden charges!!!
Some air ticket might seems to be really cheap! Like around ~S$120 (one way trip). BUT it can be deceiving!!! For example, air asia have a lot of charges such as aviation levy, fuel surcharge, passenger security fee, passenger service fee ..........which can add up to ~S$70!! So in the end, promotion = no promotion.
The reason for us booking tiger air is because the hidden charge is not a lot. It does not have fuel surcharge, which is the most expensive hidden charges. So flying by tiger is the cheapest (excluding the possibility of other airlines having promotions).
-Other services
You can choose other services such as boardmefirst(if you hate waiting with other passengers), pay more to choose your seat, top up a huge sum of money for the switchmyflight service so that you can change your date of departing and coming back (SO NOT VERY WORTH IT if it is for taiwan, as the charge can be more expensive than the flight itself) or you can buy the tiger insurance .
You can also buy luggage weight as tiger air only "free" 7kg for hand carried luggage (hand carried luggage cannot exceed certain size). Can know about their luggage policy here.
Of cos, we didnt buy any of those except for the luggage weight. Unless you are strict on going backpacking and sight seeing ONLY, and you can resist any temptation of shopping, my advice is that you should at least get a 20kg while you are getting your air ticket. As it is much cheaper this way, 20kg luggage cost S$20 while you are booking your flight, but if you buy your luggage later it will cost $38 for 20kg. IF you bought it when you are going to fly, you can only get max of 15kg for ~S$38. WORST OF ALL, you will be fine heavily for exceeding weight, or you will have to throw away your loot in taiwan when you are flying back to singapore.
That's all about booking your flight from my point of view! Next post will be on booking your stay in taiwan~~~
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