Often flying, in the long run, is it cost-effective to buy air tickets online or to apply for airline membership?

For me, I want to share my personal experience.

As a travel enthusiast, I often need to travel around by plane. After a period of experience, I found that buying air tickets is a major expense in my travel. So I learned to find preferential air tickets and applied for membership of many different airlines. So which is more cost-effective?

First of all, it is very common to buy special tickets online. Sometimes, buying special fares can save me a lot of unnecessary expenses. For example, I once met a flight with a short time limit. If you use the APP of the travel platform to buy, you can enjoy a very favorable price and eventually save 40% of the cost.

In this case, it is very cost-effective to buy special online air tickets. Moreover, I am very sure about my itinerary, and there will be no change of visa, because the special ticket is cheap, but it may be more troublesome in the process of changing the visa, and the efficiency of changing the visa is relatively low, which may sometimes delay my itinerary.

However, special fares also have some disadvantages. Special tickets usually have strict time limit, purchase time limit or no refund. As I said just now, if your itinerary changes or is delayed, it will be difficult to use this special ticket, and because it is caused by personal reasons, airlines generally will not compensate, thus causing economic losses. In this case, it is still necessary to carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using special tickets that happen to be cost-effective.

Second, relatively speaking, airline membership can also allow me to enjoy many benefits and services.

Membership rights of Air China Phoenix Companion

Specifically, membership cards usually have different grades. You can handle different levels according to your frequency of use and preferences, so as to enjoy more preferential and exclusive services. Members registered in China Airlines before will also give exclusive flight packages before the plane takes off, as shown below:

I remember that on a trip last year, due to the special circumstances at that time (I can't remember the specific reasons), I encountered a fare increase. Because I am a gold member of the corresponding airline, I got free baggage check-in and priority check-in service, which helped me save time and avoid unnecessary waiting and formalities. Generally speaking, it is very worry-free and labor-saving.

In addition, becoming a member of an airline has a great advantage, that is, it can accumulate mileage. You can accumulate different mileage every time you take the flight of the corresponding airline. If you accumulate more miles, you can exchange them for free air tickets or other rewards. Although mileage is not equivalent money, it is still very affordable for people who often fly.

In addition, applying for airline membership has another advantage, that is, every airline has a membership day on different corresponding days every month. On the designated membership day, if you are their member, you will enjoy certain discounts on air tickets and other activities according to the actual activities of different airlines, but you must remember that this is the membership day of the corresponding airline. I have compiled a list of the corresponding dates of ordinary airline member days, as shown below:

To sum up, for people who often fly for a long time, it depends on your specific situation whether it is cost-effective to buy a special online ticket or apply for an airline membership card. We need to find a more cost-effective method according to the time limit of the trip, the time limit of ticket purchase and whether there is an agreement to implement it. Therefore, the two are not absolutely cost-effective, and different situations have different methods of use. You can refer to the above and choose the corresponding ticket purchase method flexibly.

If you use it frequently and like to fly on an airline plane, it will be cost-effective and less risky to apply for a membership card. Of course, understanding the ticket purchasing strategies and itinerary characteristics of different airlines will enable you to purchase tickets more freely and choose a satisfactory flight experience. I hope the above sharing can help everyone.