Sometimes, you may find yourself in a situation where you do not have time to book your flight early. Whether you are dealing with a family emergency or a short notice business trip, then you may need to book last minute flights. However, as you may know, there are complications that come along with booking a flight at the last minute and you will need to keep those complications in mind. If you know what to expect, you can book your trip more smoothly.
The first thing you will need to keep in mind is that last minute flights will cost more. In fact, they can cost as much as double what you would have paid if you had been able to book the flight a few weeks in advance. This extra expense is just something that you will have to deal with and expect. If you have a family emergency, you may consider calling the airline to see if there is anyway some of that cost can be lowered.

Another thing to consider when it comes to last minute flights is that sometimes, they can be booked up, especially if you need to travel during the busy season. You may need to be more flexible about the time you are willing to fly. If you are more willing to fly in the middle of the night or at other odd hours, then you may be able to find an open flight more easily. In addition, keep in mind that standby is an option. If you choose to fly on standby for a full flight, then you will need to arrive at the airport and wait. Your name will be put on a list and you will just need to wait and see if a seat becomes available. The only thing about standby is that you could spend a great deal of time waiting at the airport, and you may not even get a ticket on the flight that you wanted.

Last minute flights can be costly. That is just something to deal with when it comes to flying on short notice. However, there are times when you do just have to fly at the last minute, whether it be for a short notice business meeting, a family emergency or some other situation. There are ways that you can make a last minute flight more hassle free. Be flexible about when you are willing to fly and consider the option to fly on standby and you should have no problem getting the flight that you need.

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David Iwanow

I have been travelling around the world since I was young and travel is in my blood. I've travelled to almost 40 countries around the world and can now be found based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I've visited over 7,778places with 15,615 checkins on Foursquare/Swarm and I'm a level 10 Google Local Guide with 873 reviews and having posted 17,705 photos which have been viewed 164 million times.