Picking Flights | Wandering Travel Tours

A question was asked in my travel group today about what Airline/Flight to pick for an international destination. And honestly I was legit surprised because I subconsciously pick my flights and have never listed or even thought about how I approach purchasing flights. With that being said, here is how I approach choosing a flight.

1. I'm always down for a sale, so generally price is the trump card for me. But as I've discussed sometimes that's not the best way as you have to factor in flight time and luggage allowance.

2. Which leads me to my next criteria. Time in the air. If it's an international flight that generally runs 12-24hrs or so, I expect to spend time in the air and possibly a layover, but I'm not into 36 to 46hr flights UNLESS I want to visit the layover city and spend a few hours to days. Nor am I into domestic flights that take 12hrs when I could have driven in 8 hours. Use your common sense meter, and pick what works for your travel style.

3. What's included in the flight? Is it a discount airline that only provides a seat such as Norwegian, or is it a full-service airline such as Qatar. This ties into seat selection and luggage allowance as well. Now defunct WOW airlines weighed your carry-on bags and the bags that they carried, and they charged you for going over an ounce. And if you go with no seat selection on a budget airline, you might be in the middle seat for 12hrs. And if that's not an issue for you, go for it. I personally only do Aisles or Windows. Well I did windows til the boy decided that the window seat was his compensation for not complaining about this world trip. Kids.

*I've flown both Norwegian and Qatar and recommend both as long as you understand the offerings for each.*

4. The location of the layover is my next criteria. Is it a city I want to visit or even an airport that I want to see? Nice airports do exist, and Singapore's airport takes it to a new level. A 5-hour layover there is sweet! Take it.

5. Last but certainly not least is reviews. If they've met every criteria listed above: reasonably priced, quick, seat selection and luggage allowance that works for you on this trip, BUT every review says they suck, Pick Another Airline. The $100 savings won't be a savings when you are stranded or your bags come up missing or the airplane smells like used pampers.

--As an added tip, head over to Seat Guru and take a look at the seating chart for that particular aircraft before making your selection and then head over to YouTube; someone has a video talking about their flight on all the airlines, especially the ones you've never flown or heard about.

Now if you are getting FLEWED out, go with Qatar or Emirates Airlines always...lol.

AND if all else fails and this is confusing let me make the decision for you at Wandering Travel Tours - shameless plug.

Kat

#PickingFlights #Economy #Choices #WanderingSoup #WanderingTravelTours