Underrated travel hack could save you hundreds on long-haul flights 

When booking a long-haul trip, it’s only natural to look at flights from your nearest airports.

But an underrated travel hack proves that adding your own DIY stopover via an airport on route could save a considerable amount of cash.

‘Positioning flights’ is the lesser-known travel tip and it involves taking a flight from your home airport to a bigger international one for your onward journey.

Essentially, it gets you ‘positioned’ where you need to be for your final destination.

Typically, major travel hubs and airports get the best deals and this is where positioning flights come into their own.

A good way to go about it is to think about which major airports you can cheaply fly to from your home airport and then use this as your starting point when exploring positioning flights to save on international routes.

For example, direct flights in April from London’s Heathrow to Tokyo’s Haneda airport start from £900 on Skyscanner.

But going from Rome to Tokyo’s Haneda is £457 – and flights from London to Rome on that date start from £22.

So that’s a saving of more than £400 just by going via Rome and booking two separate flights.

Similarly, a direct flight from London Heathrow to Rio De Janeiro International is £616 in April.

However, a direct flight from Madrid to Rio on the same date is £346 – and flights prices from London to Madrid that morning start from £19. So that’s a saving of more than £250.

It goes without saying that this stopover hack comes with a slightly longer journey time than a direct route – plus you have the risk that delays might make you miss your second leg of the route. But, it’s a great choice if you want to save money.

It’s also worth flagging that the hack isn’t a very environmentally-friendly option as you’re adding another journey, compared to going direct – which is also something to consider if you’re conscious about your carbon footprint.

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