Booking Cheap Tickets on AirAsia #1

Tip #1: Know Your Travel Date

What's the very most important thing when booking tickets? Knowing your travel date. As mentioned in my previous post about Coming Soon: Free Seats on AirAsia?, this month will see the launch of 27 Oct 2012 until XX Jan 2013. Therefore, it is best to plan your travel date for this period only. Anything earlier would not be as cheap as the previous round of bookings.

Oct-Dec includes a very hot period of School Holidays, Christmas and New Year's. For starters, you need to know when are the public holidays and school holidays. If you must travel on those dates, then come up with a list of possible dates. Or if you hate crowds, know which dates to avoid!

Public Holidays 2012
Sun  1 Jan 2012 - New Year's Day
Mon 23 Jan 2012 - Chinese New Year
Tue 24 Jan 2012 - Chinese New Year
Sun 05 Feb 2012 - Birth of the Prophet Muhammad
Tue 07 Feb 2012    - Thaipusam
Tue 01 May 2012 - Labour Day
Sat 05 May 2012    - Wesak Day
Sat 02 Jun 2012 - Agong's Birthday
Mon 06 Aug 2012    - Nuzul al Quran
Sun 19 Aug 2012    - Hari Raya Puasa
Mon 20 Aug 2012    - Hari Raya Puasa
Fri 31 Aug 2012 - National Day
Sun 16 Sep 2012 - Malaysia Day
Fri 26 Oct 2012 - Hari Raya Haji
Tue 13 Nov 2012    - Deepavali
Thu 15 Nov 2012 - Awal Muharram
Tue 11 Dec 2012 - Sultan of Selangor's Birthday
Tue 25 Dec 2012 - Christmas Day
Tue 01 Jan 2013 - New Year's Day
Thu 24 Jan 2012 - Birth of the Prophet Muhammad



School Holidays 2012
 10-18 Mar
 26 May - 10 June
 18-26 Aug
 10 Nov - 1 Jan

Suppose I would like to visit Hong Kong for Christmas 2012. Then I need to identify, how many days I would like to spend there. Suppose the answer is 5 days. So which dates should I go?

1st choice: 22 Dec - 26 Dec KUL-HKG return
2nd choice: 21 Dec - 25 Dec KUL-HKG return
3rd choice: 23 Dec - 27 Dec KUL-HKG return
4th choice: 22 Dec KUL-HKG, 26 Dec Macau-KUL
5th choice: 21 Dec KUL-HKG, 25 Dec Macau-KUL
6th choice: 23 Dec KUL-HKG, 27 Dec Macau-KUL

So have your travel date list ready!

P/S: Please bear in mind that Group Bookings of 10 persons or more, would have earlier preference to seats before the launch date. Don't be surprised if you log in at midnight, and all the cheap seats are gone. They have already been sold to travel agents or large groups. For such a hot date as Xmas, be prepared to pay a little more and not expect zero fare.

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