To Book or Not to X More Travel Blue: Good Timing Rules

this is a real story

about trip planning which

land me in quite a headache

like never before given

the amount of people

 

that’s the price

we actually managed to KIV

last Saturday which is not too bad

Traveloka – MAS – KL-TOKYO

 

for flying during peak season

on a full service carrier

with good timings too

although the amount looks

slightly daunting for a start

Traveloka – MAS – KL-TOKYO

 

peak season is the period where

you don’t expect good deals

and it can even be more expensive

to travel on a low cost carrier

one left? at that price?

on top of meal and luggage fees?

AirAsia (Official) – KL-TOKYO

 

then I went on to get busy

as last Saturday was

one of the busiest weekend ever

juggling 3 deadlines, due by EOD

all with zero progress

and managed to get some bookings done

My First China Domestic Flight

But First, Off to Silverland Jolie

 

then

i didn’t check it

throughout the whole Sunday

was outside almost the whole day

since it was first my work-free Sunday

for more than 2 weeks

 

and when I clicked open

9 something on Sunday night

shoooot i forgot

that’s the MATTA Travel Fair week

Traveloka – MAS/JAL - KL-TOKYO

 

was texting my sister

trying to tell her

but she thought i was

trying to tell her something

unimportant and pretended that

she wasn’t around!!

 

and yesterday

the price didn’t fall, obviously

and i was busy the whole day again

 

and that’s the current

cheapest flight available

Traveloka – SQ(Indirect) - KL-TOKYO

 

12 hours transit?

no way!!

Traveloka – SQ(Indirect) - KL-TOKYO

 

the same tickets we KIV-ed

last Saturday would have cost

Traveloka – MAS - KL-TOKYO

 

that’s almost a 5k difference in MYR

Traveloka – MAS - KL-TOKYO

 

the other alternative

would be splitting the booking

into two bookings

and secure whichever tickets

at a lower price before the rest

 

changing dates is not feasible

as we are travelling with kids

and not every working adult

in the group is a freelancer like me

 

that’s the cheapest solution for

flying one day earlier

Traveloka – Cathay - KL-TOKYO

 

yet the timings are not ideal

and flights operated by Dragon Air

is pretty small, similar to low cost

Traveloka – Cathay - KL-TOKYO

 

almost giving up already

then i remember CTrip

no harm trying

who knows

or i can just see

how ridiculous the price

can actually get

 

well

this is actually not bad

CTrip – MAS/JAL - KL-TOKYO

 

and even better

if we are okay with

shifting the dates one day earlier

CTrip – MAS/JAL - KL-TOKYO

 

just out of curiosity

how much would the same flight

cost on the official website?

i did this exercise once

and let’s do it again

wow

MAS (official) - KL-TOKYO

 

 

but then

1 adult and 1 child are holding

expired passports right now

and I am given the instruction to

 

proceed with the other 5

instead of waiting for them

to get their passports renewed

 

moral of the story

- flight booking is a now or never thing

- would be great to survey on different platforms

- make sure your passports are active!!!