One would have thought I would have got the hang of booking tickets online by now after having to book a multi city last year for our trip to Europe for 7 people. I knew the ball park figure I was looking at this time which is $2.3K each for 2 people flying to the UK and returning to Johannesburg via Faro in Portugal.
This is a must do trip and I am not normally galivanting around the globe as my mother is very ill and know I have to see here as often as possible whilst she is still around. I expect to be going in March/April again so this will be the first of many for 2025.
Last night I spent a good 4 hours looking for tickets and used every flight booking site I could find including the direct sites with the airlines themselves. They offer the information for the two main flights from Johannesburg to the UK, but the in between flights to Faro they say nothing is available over those dates. We know that is a load of nonsense because Faro (Algarve) is a major airport.
This is obviously not true as the site does not have an option for multi city visits and you have to book those flights separately. I checked 4 other sites last night including booking.com which I try and avoid at all costs because I know from previous experience they are not great. They have you work around what they have to offer and this is not cheap and often means lengthy stop overs.
British Airways was useless as I can book individual flights, but the multi city says there are none available. I can fly out of Gatwick directly to Faro on the BA Euroflyer which is better that the 7 hour 1 stop flight time I have found across most sites. The BA Euroflyer which is British Airways has a 2h 30 minute flight direct to Faro and the times would fit in with the returning flight to Johannesburg with a 4 hour stop over between flights allowing for time to get to Heathrow.
On the way back for some reason most of the flight sites are sending me via Amsterdam which gives a total travel time of 27 hours by the time I land in Johannesburg. The flight time would normally be half that time and why I am doing direct flights and not messing around with lengthy stop overs.
By the time you have booked your seat and added the extra luggage you may as well fly business class which has these already built into the ticket prices. This above example was with TAP which when I was growing up was called Take Another Plane and their flights do not offer direct and is a 7 hour flight from London to Faro.
I have now decided to let my friend who is an ex travel agent try and solve this problem and she is working on this tonight. When I told her what I am having to do she said that it was crazy and she would sort it out. The problem like I had last year is the prices quoted rise significantly once you book your seat
It seems most of these so called flight booking sites have certain airlines they deal with and if you have an itinerary not involved in their pool of airlines then they reroute your flights so you use their airlines and it is absolutely bonkers. The one flight offered nearly a 10 hour flight from Faro to Zurich with a stop over in Lisbon. The flight from the UK to Faro is 150 minutes which is a premium direct flight for the same price as the not so convenient 10 hour flight to Zurich.
The good news is the $2.3K ball park figure will be far less once I have fiddled with this and expect the price to be a more reasonable $1.6K each which is a significant saving. I know which flights I need to book, but think it is best first to let her play around and see what she comes up with. My advice to anyone looking to book flights is to search thoroughly as prices can vary by as much as 500% for the exact same flight.