Jack Sheldon is the 29-year-old brain behind Jack’s Flight Club – a
newsletter sending its 89,000 subscribers breathtakingly low deals on
flights from the UK and Ireland.
Yangzhou to Jeju flights
The
Texan native moved to London six years ago and swiftly built a
reputation among his friends for always finding the cheapest fares. He
decided to share his skills by launching his service – which scans for
the best discounts, hidden offers and error fares – last September. He’s
not the first to do this, of course – sites like Scott’s Cheap Flights
do exactly the same – but Sheldon’s strong point is that his deals are
all from the UK and Ireland.
“I’ve always loved to travel and found
that you could always find a cheap place to stay or find cheaper food
but flights were always the place where you spent the most,” he told The
Independent. Not any more – his personal best is a ￡18 return fare from
London to Belize on American Airlines (which, he admits, is
“exceptionally rare”).
Want to be in with a chance of matching that? Sheldon’s shared his top tips on how to grab the lowest cost flights.
“The
main mistake people make in booking flights is going straight to the
airline website. While booking direct will make things easier should you
need to change your travel plans, the cheapest fares are often found by
booking with various online travel agencies.
“Google Flights is a
great resource and enables you to track flight prices across the board
by setting yourself an alert.Other major mistakes include booking too
late or too early (depending on the season, route etc) and only sticking
to certain airlines. Not spending enough time checking is also a
mistake – this one really isn’t anyone’s fault as most people don’t have
the time, but it really does take a lot of checking particular routes
to know when to book.
“Even peak season flights over summer or
Christmas season can be got at very, very low fares if you time it just
right. For summer, it’s often better to buy in January-February or wait
until May-June. For Christmas-time trips summer is the best time to
start deal hunting, though deals will come up all the way into
November.”
The Wall