How I saved $2000 on flights to a UK wedding despite global conflict
War, my best friend's wedding and the booking hack that saved my trip.
I have somewhere I need to be, desperately, in August. And unfortunately, the war in the Middle East doesn't care. It stops for no one.
One of my best friends, a girl I met when I was on exchange in Birmingham, UK, in 2017, is getting married. It's a milestone event we've been looking forward to for years, and something I can't miss.
My husband and I have known about the wedding date for more than a year, but like most people, we were waiting to see if an airline had a sale to save some money.
Then America and Israel attacked Iran.
The times I've flown to Europe before, it's been with either Emirates or Qatar. But suddenly, flights stopped going to the Middle East and we weren't sure if things would be back to normal by the time we had to travel. So when we sat down - four days after the war began - to book our flights, we were forced to contemplate an alternative.
What we found on Skyscanner was terrifying. We knew it was going to be expensive to fly to Europe in July or August anyway - after all, it's the time of year you can guarantee sunshine in the UK. The perfect time to host a wedding.
What we weren't anticipating was how expensive it would be. For the dates we wanted - to be there for our friend's wedding day - and to avoid the Middle East, it was going to cost us a minimum of $2300. Each. Return.
I don't know about you, but for economy seats, that's a lot of money.
We'd flown with Singapore Airlines before, an airline we love - not to mention their insanely beautiful airport, which you can spend hours whiling away in. They were our first preference. But suddenly, the prices were going up, and up, and up. And not just for Singapore Airlines, but for all airlines.
We tried shifting our dates by a couple of days here and a couple of days there. We live in Adelaide, meaning it's already slightly more expensive than flying from Melbourne and Sydney, which are larger hubs.
So, we shifted our search to depart from the other major capitals. Then we shifted our arrival city from London to Paris. Then to Barcelona. Prices became slightly cheaper, but at what cost? We'd have to spend extra money to get to England anyway.
After more than an hour of shifting the wedding to the beginning of the trip, to the end, departure and arrival cities, and lengthy layovers, we found a diamond in the rough.
Malaysia Airlines.
Something we hadn't considered - I believe because we were overwhelmed - was to make the wedding in the middle of our trip, and to have, albeit a somewhat lengthy, layover in Kuala Lumpur.
Suddenly, our prices dropped by almost $1000 each - and the route? Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur to London.
Consider us booked.
It's crazy how much money you'll save if you're able to be flexible around a non-flexible trip.
The price of the return
And then there's the experience of my in-laws, who are currently trapped in Europe. The opposite of our problem. While this may be a dream come true for some, I adore my in-laws and would much rather they be home.
After vacationing in Spain with their closest friends (oh, to be retired), they've since had to grapple with the absolute headache of trying to come home. It's an unprecedented occurrence - war. It's not as if their airline could have anticipated this happening, so therefore, it's not really anyone's fault.
Nevertheless, they're not made of money, and they want to come home.
They've been dealing with Qantas, and by all accounts, the airline has been accommodating, going so far as to offer them a credit for their return trip. Except, the credit is only valid for a flight from Madrid to Adelaide via the Middle East ... which they currently can't do.
And who knows when they'll be able to do it again.
Now, they've had to fork out thousands of dollars to come back home through my mother-in-law's homeland - the United States of America. And while this isn't a bad thing - they're seeing some relatives on the way through - it wasn't a part of the plan. And Qantas won't be paying for it.
Have you had an experience trying to book flights during the war? Tell us at editor@exploretravel.com.au
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