How to Find Cheap World Cup Airfare for South Africa 2010

The world outside your window may look like a winter wonderland right now, but if you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people (some projections are for more than a million to show up!) planning to go to South Africa for the World Cup in the summer of 2010 and you haven’t already booked your trip – what are you waiting for?

Seriously, we know that summer 2010 may feel like it’s really far away right now, but it’s not as far away as you think. And when an event of this magnitude only happens every four years, you can bet that people in the travel industry – including the airlines – have been planning for it for a lot longer than you have. What’s more, they’ve been jacking up their prices on flights to South Africa, since they know so many people will be going.

Now, if you’re one of the lucky people who got tickets to World Cup games in the lottery, then you’re going to be buying airline tickets to South Africa no matter what. But wouldn’t it be great not to pay a king’s ransom for them? Yes. Yes, it would.

Here are our tips for finding cheap airfare to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

Be Flexible With Your Itinerary

One of the easiest ways to save money on airfare at any time and to any destination is to be flexible about when you fly. There are sometimes great deals lurking within a few days on either side of your desired travel dates, and if you’re willing to travel at a different day or time you could save big.

Often with scheduled events it’s hard to be as flexible with your flight plan – but since the World Cup is comprised of games that will stretch over a few weeks, you do have a bit more wiggle room. This is especially true if you’re making more of a long-term vacation out of it and staying in South Africa (or elsewhere in the region) for a longer period of time.

The easiest way to find cheaper flights around the days you initially wanted to fly is by using the “my dates are flexible” option on many online booking services. It’s usually a box you can check near where you’re entering your travel information. If you don’t see this option, you can change dates and times manually, choosing a few at random within a 4-5 period.

Plan to Fly When it’s Cheapest

This is a slightly more specific version of “stay flexible,” but it’s worth mentioning on its own because it can work even if you’re not as flexible with your travel dates as you are with your travel times. And again, this information is valuable money-saving advice no matter where or when you’re flying.

As a general rule, the cheapest days of the week to fly tend to be Wednesdays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. If you’re already flexible with when you fly, start looking for flights on those days before you search elsewhere in the week.

But even if you have strict boundaries of what days you can fly, you can still look for the cheapest times to fly – notably, the earliest morning flights are almost always the cheapest ones. Just don’t forget to set a second alarm, just in case.

Check Out All Your South Africa Airport Options

One method you can employ to find cheaper flights to any major destination is to look at all the airports in the area – sometimes (especially in big cities) there’s more than one airport serving that city and you may find a bargain flight into a secondary airport. The 2010 World Cup makes it easy to use this strategy, since there are games in nine cities throughout the country.

No matter what city you’re planning to spend the most time in, be sure to check all the area airports for flights to see if something other than the main airport has cheaper options. Since you’ll likely have a layover along the way to South Africa anyway, it could be just as easy to fly into a smaller airport than the primary one.

To make it even easier, let’s say you’re going to the World Cup final in Johannesburg (lucky you!). It just so happens that there’s a cluster of other World Cup cities not far from Jo’burg, including Nelspruit and Rustenburg. Spend some time looking at a map of South Africa and get creative with where you land in the country. Even if you find a killer deal into Durban or Cape Town, you may be able to score a cheap flight on a small South African airline to the city you’ll be staying in.

Don’t Book a Vacation Package Without Doing the Math

There are lots of options when it comes to going to South Africa for the World Cup, including many packaged vacations – but before you jump at one of those packages claiming it’s a “deal,” you need to do some math.

Vacation packages can be a great money-saver if they’re combining things you would have bought anyway and at a better rate, but just because a package says it’s a deal doesn’t mean it is. To find out for sure, you need to take a close look at exactly what the package includes and then see if you can find comparable things at a better price. If you find a cheaper rate on airfare and a cheaper hotel, then it’s obviously better to book those separately than to book the package (unless you’re dead-set on getting any extra things they’re throwing in).

photo by - Nahum -