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The four-step guide to booking your flight ticket

What is important to you when booking flight tickets? Is it the price, level of service, number of stopovers or the level of CO2 emissions?

In this step-by-step introduction, we will guide you to what to remember when booking flight tickets, and how to find the best flight ticket price.

Step 1 – The airline: which airline to buy from

The first step to booking a flight ticket, is deciding what airline to fly with. The experience can differ from one airline to the next. Some airlines emphasise customer service, some emphasise CO2 emissions, while others focus on budget savings. Before choosing who to fly with, you need to decide what is most important to you.

You can look at the table below, which ranks the airlines in Scandinavia that RefundMore considers to be the best on the market currently.

How we calculated the scores: the RefundMore score is based on five different parameters, which together form the basis for each airline’s ranking. Therefore, we recommend picking an airline from the top of the list. This ensures that you are less likely to experience delays – and that you fly with an eco-friendly airline.

Best rated airlines

Major airlines in Denmark ranking

Airline

Customer satisfaction

Punctuality

Eco-friendly

Expert opinion

Willingness to compensate

Total score

SAS, Scandinavian Airlines

4,63

5,44

7,41

7,12

5,99

5,67

Norwegian Air Shuttle

3,08

5,29

7,04

5,32

9,48

5,64

Ryanair

1,52

5,76

2,86

5,32

9,13

4,83

Rankings of the 30 biggest airlines in Scandinavia

Airline

Customer satisfaction

Punctuality

Eco-friendly

Expert opinion

Willingness to compensate

Total score

DAT Danish Air Transport

9,13

10,00

5,32

7,92

8,86

BRA Braathens Regional Airlines

7,92

9,49

8,22

6,04

5,91

7,83

Widerøe Flyveselskap

10,00

7,53

7,11

6,40

3,25

7,26

TUIfly Nordic

3,42

7,08

6,63

7,48

9,79

6,52

Icelandair

6,37

4,37

7,69

6,04

9,47

6,49

Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia

6,88

4,51

6,06

5,68

8,27

6,25

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

4,81

7,62

4,34

7,84

4,70

5,89

Qatar Airways

5,15

7,73

3,13

10,00

3,09

5,80

SAS, Scandinavian Airlines

4,63

5,44

7,41

7,12

5,99

5,67

Norwegian Air Shuttle

3,08

5,29

7,04

5,32

9,48

5,64

Austrian Airlines

4,63

5,74

5,35

6,76

5,44

5,41

Fly Emirates

4,29

6,72

6,01

9,28

2,35

5,30

EasyJet

3,08

4,83

5,30

5,68

8,80

5,23

Wizz Air

1,52

6,76

4,11

3,16

9,42

5,09

Pegasus Airlines

2,56

6,11

2,57

2,08

10,00

5,07

Turkish Airlines

3,08

5,39

5,63

7,84

5,37

4,96

Eurowings

2,04

4,99

7,39

5,32

7,33

4,85

Finnair

3,08

5,80

2,46

6,04

6,65

4,84

Ryanair

1,52

5,76

2,86

5,32

9,13

4,83

LOT Polish Airlines

3,94

4,46

7,92

6,76

3,66

4,72

Air France

1,87

5,39

7,30

7,12

4,97

4,61

Deutsche Lufthansa AG

3,42

3,57

7,04

7,84

4,02

4,39

Vueling Airlines

1,00

5,00

1,85

5,32

9,34

4,39

Brussels Airlines

2,21

4,06

6,45

6,04

5,46

4,22

Air Canada

3,77

2,72

5,05

7,84

4,85

4,21

Air Cairo

4,98

2,52

1,00

8,02

4,05

Swiss International Air Lines

3,08

4,30

3,96

6,04

3,59

3,93

British Airways

2,38

5,45

4,92

7,84

1,00

3,83

Czech Airlines

1,17

1,00

5,30

6,76

7,93

3,44

TAP Portugal

1,35

1,04

4,82

4,96

5,98

2,89

This is how the RefundMore-score is calculated

The 30 airlines’ score is based on the following five parameters:

Customers satisfaction

Based on Trustpilot score and the airline’s previous customer reviews.

Punctuality

How often does the airline arrive at the airport at the scheduled arrival time, based on data from OAG.

Eco-friendly

How much pollution does the airline emit, based on data from a contractor to the EU Commission.

Expert opinion

External experts’ ratings in terms of safety and risk of bankruptcy.

Willingness to compensate

To what degree is the airline willing to pay an entitled compensation, based on our data.

Step 2 – How to book the cheapest tickets?

According to a substantial analysis made by Momondo, flight tickets to a European destination are cheapest on Thursday evenings or 44 days before your departure date. However, if you fail to buy at these exact times, you can still find cheap tickets, so do not worry. There are huge variations in ticket pricing across Europe, and the smartest strategy, therefore, is to use an online travel search engine. You are probably already familiar with Momondo, where you can check different dates and airlines to find the cheapest bookings. You can find Momondo’s price analysis here.

Nevertheless, how you are booking your ticket is just as important as when you book.analysis here.

An example: You’re browsing online and found the perfect ticket in terms of price and departure time. Still, you want to play it safe and decide to wait, to double-check the dates and times. The following evening you are ready with your credit card in hand. You find the same flight, but now it is much more expensive. A coincidence? Perhaps. Or maybe the airline is using cookies that detect you already looked at the same flight before and increased the price. analysis here.

A good place to start to avoid these tactics is searching for bookings through travel search engines, like Momondo, Travelmarket or Expedia. This ensures that you find the cheapest flights across multiple vendors. If you combine this with the score, we have assigned each airline, you are sure to find flights that suit your needs and requirements.analysis here.

However, you should always pay attention to who you are buying from, and whether they offer a single booking. You might save on the price, if you book a trip that is not a single booking (a trip that combines several airline booking numbers), but in terms of passenger rights, you are far worse of buying a trip containing multiple booking numbers. If you want more information about your rights, feel free to email us at service@refundmore.com and we will advice you about your specific situation.

Step 3 – When to travel

It is probably a given that more consideration is afforded each traveller when there are less passengers at the airport and on the airplane. At the same time, fewer travellers mean less risk of delays, and cheaper flights. In short, attempt to do your travels when most others are not. But when is that? We recommend the following:

1. School holidays

When schools are off, the airports are very busy. To avoid stress and delays, and if you are not dependent on school holidays, we recommend travelling before or after school holidays.

2. Weekend getaways

Weekend getaways are becoming more and more common, and with many flights for around 15€, it can be a great option to get away from it all. However, a full airport busy with travellers and long queues can also be stressful. If you want to get away and unwind, avoiding the airport’s weekend “rush hour” is wise. Travelling on a Tuesday or Wednesday and back on a Saturday is a way cheaper and less stressful. If you are determined to go on a weekend, try avoiding busy weekends like before any major holiday.

3. The airport’s busy hours:

The airport also has a rush hour of sorts. According to data from airports in the states, between 7 am to 10 am is the busiest period. To avoid the rush, travel before or after this period.

Step 4 – choose the right airport

Just like airlines provide different experiences, airports also differ from each other. Therefore, we have created a guide to which airport to travel from. The guide includes risk of delays to and from Scandinavians’ popular destinations.

The full list can be found by clicking here.

Do you want to travel with ease? Know your rights

Thanks to the EU Commission’s regulations, you are protected as an airline passenger, and you have certain rights that the airline must adhere to. Here are a few worth knowing:

The right to a rebooking

If your flight is cancelled, you have a right to be rebooked as soon as possible to another flight. This means that if SAS can’t offer a rebooking within a reasonable time frame, and there is another airline, say KLM, with available seats, which departs in 2 hours, you can demand SAS rebook you to KLM, rather than wait a day to fly with SAS. Airlines are often forgetful. If they tell you to book another flight yourself and they will reimburse you later, always get that in writing or a recording, so you are not left with the expenses yourself.

The airline’s duty to provide catering and accommodation

If you are more than 2 hours delayed, the airline should provide you with food and drinks. If you are rebooked to the next day, you are also entitled to a hotel and transportation to and from the hotel. Should these not be provided to you, you can pay for it yourself and get a refund from the airline afterwards. Just remember to save your itemised receipts. If you don’t save the receipts, you will not get a refund.

Lastly, lets go through the four steps to booking your flight tickets.

1. Pick an airline high on our list according to the Refundmore-score, 2. Search for tickets by using a travel search engine, 3. Don’t travel when most people travel, 4. Chose a good airport and know your rights, then you can travel with ease.

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