Quick Guides

You can add airports in the Members' Lounge here. You can select as many or as few airports as you like, although to get the most out of your membership, you should select a mix of both short and long-haul airports near you. 

Note: if you're a free member, you can only select one home airport, and no short-haul airports. 

How do I figure out which airports to add? 

When deciding which to select, ask yourself: would I be willing to travel to this airport if it meant flying to my dream destination for a stupidly low price?

As a minimum, we'd suggest adding at least 2, but the more you add, the more flight tips you'll receive. 

To give you a better idea of which airports you might want to add, it's worth double-checking the airlines that fly from each airport near you to make sure you're covered for both long and short-haul destinations you'd like to go.

Flightsfrom.com is a great resource. Type in the airport and press 'search', and you'll see a list of destinations that you can reach from that airport, and the airlines that fly from there. If long-haul airlines like British Airways or United Airlines fly from your airport, it's likely you'll see flight tips from these airlines to their long-haul destinations - these tend to be from larger cities. 

If your closest airport is a smaller/regional one, you may only see short-haul airlines (Ryanair, Spirit) flying from there. If that's the case, it's worth adding your nearest larger airport too, so you don't miss out on any flight deals you might want to see. 

Long-haul airports

Here are the airports we see the most long-haul flight tips from, to get you started: 

United Kingdom & Ireland: 

• London Heathrow (LHR) 
• London Gatwick (LGW)
• Manchester (MAN)
• Edinburgh (EDI)
• Dublin (DUB)

Germany: 

• Berlin (BER)
• Frankfurt (FRA)
• Munich (MUC)
• Düsseldorf (DUS)
• Hamburg (HAM)

Denmark: 

• Copenhagen (CPH)
• Billund (BLL) 

Sweden: 

• Stockholm (ARN)
• Gothenburg (GOT)

Norway: 

• Oslo (OSL)

Belgium: 

• Brussels (BRU)

France: 

• Charles de Gaulle (CDG)

Netherlands: 

• Amsterdam (AMS)
• Eindhoven (EIN)

Luxembourg: 

• Luxembourg (LUX) 

United States: 

• Los Angeles (LAX) 
• San Francisco (SFO)
• New York (JFK)
• Seattle (SEA)
• Chicago (ORD) 

Short-haul airports

Although all of the above airports also receive short-haul flights (or Snacks, if you're a premium member), don't forget to also add other airports that see lots of short-haul flights within your region. They may not send you across the world, but they may just deliver a bargain weekend away.

Here's a selection of some of the airports that receive the most short-haul deals (Snacks): 

United Kingdom & Ireland: 

• London Luton (LTN)
• London Stansted (STN)
• Liverpool (LPL)
• Bristol (BRS)
• Glasgow (GLA)

Germany: 

• Cologne (CGN)
• Dortmund (DTM)
• Hanover (HAJ)
• Stuttgart (STR)
• Leipzig (LEJ)

Denmark: 

• Aarhus (AAL) 

Sweden: 

• Malmö (MMX) 

Norway: 

• Oslo (TRF)
• Bergen (BGO)
• Stavanger (SVG)

Belgium: 

• Charleroi (CRL) 

France: 

• Paris Orly (ORY) 
• Paris Beauvais (BVA)

Netherlands: 

• Rotterdam (RTM)

United States: 

• Boston (BOS)
• Philadelphia (PHL) 
• Washington, D.C. (IAD) 
• Miami (MIA) 
• Austin (AUS) 

We find lots of Snacks from these airports everyday, so make sure to add all the ones you'd like to get short-haul flight tips from. 

Made your selection? Perfect. To add more airports, click the 3 lines in the top-right corner of your member's lounge home page. Then select ‘flight settings’ from the drop-down.

From there, you'll see a list of all your current long- and short-haul airports. You'll need to click edit, if you want to add or remove any.

Then click 'add airport' and either type in the name of the city or the airport code, e.g. 'JFK'. Don't forget to click 'update' once you're all done :-)

London
London (LGW/LCY/LTN/LHR/STN/SEN)

Midlands, Wales & Southwest
Birmingham (BHX)
Bournemouth (BOH)
Bristol (BRS)
Cardiff (CWL)
East Midlands (EMA)
Southampton (SOU)
Norwich (NWI)

Northern England
Doncaster (DSA)
Manchester (MAN)
Newcastle (NCL)
Leeds (LBA)
Liverpool (LPL)
Durham (MME)

Scotland
Edinburgh (EDI)
Glasgow (GLA/PIK)
Inverness (INV)
Aberdeen (ABZ)

Northern Ireland & Ireland
Belfast (BFS/BHD)
Cork (ORK)
Dublin (DUB)
Shannon (SNN)

Belgium
Brussels (BRU)
Charleroi (CRL)

Luxembourg
Luxembourg (LUX)

Netherlands
Amsterdam (AMS)
Eindhoven (EIN)
Maastricht (MST)
Rotterdam (RTM)

France
Paris (CDG)
Orly (ORY)
Beauvais (BVA)

Germany
Berlin (BER)
Bremen (BRE)
Cologne (CGN)
Dortmund (DTM)
Dresden (DRS)
Dusseldorf (DUS)
Frankfurt (FRA/HHN)
Hamburg (HAM)
Hanover (HAJ)
Karlsruhe (FKB)
Leipzig (LEJ)
Memmingen (FMM)
Munich (MUC)
Munster (FMO)
Nuremberg (NUE)
Stuttgart (STR)
Weeze (NRN)

Denmark 
Aalborg (AAL)
Aarhus (AAR)
Billund (BLL)
Copenhagen (CPH)

Norway
Bergen (BGO)
Oslo (OSL/TRF)
Stavanger (SVG)
Trondheim (TRD)

Sweden
Gothenburg (GOT)
Stockholm (ARN/BMA/NYO)
Växjö (VXO)
Örebro (ORB)
Malmo (MMX)

East Coast
Boston (BOS)
New York (JFK/LGA)
Newark (EWR)
Philadelphia (PHL)
Washington, D.C. (IAD/DCA)
Baltimore (BWI)
Chicago (ORD/MDW)

West Coast
Seattle (SEA)
San Francisco (SFO)
Oakland (OAK)
San Jose (SJC)
Los Angeles (LAX)

South
Miami (MIA)
Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
West Palm Beach (PBI)
Orlando (MCO/SFB)
Tampa (TPA)
St. Petersburg (PIE)
Atlanta (ATL)

Texas
Austin (AUS)
Dallas (DFW/DAL)
Houston (IAH/HOU)

Premium economy is an upgraded version of economy that airlines offer to tempt you into splashing more of your cash. The main features are: 

• Wider, extra-reclining seats, usually with an additional 5-7 inches of legroom
• Improved in-flight entertaintment, e.g. noise-cancelling headphone with British Airways
• Improved meal options, offering a wider selection of food/drinks
• Additional checked luggage.

Premium economy is usually only 2-3x more expensive than economy. It's a middle ground between economy and business class, which can cost 5-10x more. 

Premium economy might be worth booking instead of economy when: 

• You're flying long distance and would prefer a little extra comfort, but don't want to splurge on a business or first class ticket 
• You're taller, or someone who suffers from back or joint pain who would greatly benefit from a larger seat, or more legroom
• You have a lot of luggage and can make the most of the additional bag allowance
• When we spot a rare prem eco fare that is not much more than a regular economy ticket.

The standard of service varies between airlines, but Cathay Pacific and Emirates are both regarded as two of the best.

For more information, check out our article explaining in greater detail the differences between economy and premium economy.

Business class is the next step up in luxury from premium economy, which often comes with a much heftier price tag. The main features are: 

• Access to airport lounges
• Priority boarding
• Extra reclining seats, or lie-flat seats on long-haul flights
• A wider selection of higher-quality food and drink options, usually including premium brands. Sometimes you may also get the option to choose when you eat, as opposed to the set meal times offered in other cabin classes
• Complimentary amenity kits including items such as cosmetics, sleep masks, stationary and sleepwear
• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• Faster and more attentive in-flight service.

The cost depends on the airline and the route, but on average, you can expect to pay around 5-10x more for business class.

Upgrading to business class may be worth considering when: 

• You prioritise comfort over budget
• You're a frequent flyer and are able to upgrade using miles and points
• You are flying long-haul and are able to maximise all the benefits, e.g. spending time in the airport lounge, using the full baggage allowance, sleeping on lie-flat seats, etc. 
• One of our business class emails has landed in your inbox—we'll only send them when we've spotted a significant discount that makes it worthwhile.

The standard of service varies between airlines, but Qatar and Singapore Airlines are both known to have some of the best business class service. 

For more information and an in-depth breakdown on what each major airline offers with business class, check out our article.

Here at JFC, we tend to list fare prices in £/€/$ for consistency. This is all well and good until some pesky airlines decide to spice things up by switching currencies when you click through to book with them.

The first way to overcome this issue is to find the currency converter, which is usually located somewhere near the top corners of the page.

Below, we’ve highlighted where Pegasus hides theirs, but you may have to hunt a bit more with other airlines.

The second option, is to load up a currency converter in another tab to cross-reference their price with the price we listed in the email.

It typically works out cheaper to pay in local currency. So, if you were buying the flight above from Copenhagen, it may be helpful to check the price in Euros matches our price before booking in DKK.

If you have a bank card that allows free currency conversions, then sometimes paying in local currency works out cheaper, even if you're buying from the UK.

Vueling often offers slightly cheaper fares in Euros, so it’s always worth checking each currency against the current exchange rate and evaluating which is the cheapest.

Just make sure you have a card which allows you to pay in different currencies for free, or else you may get lumped with an extra exchange fee.

It’s helpful to keep an eye out for these repeat offenders who often like to switch currencies:

• Vueling
• Pegasus
• American
• United
• Wizz Air
• Ryanair

When you are taken to Skyscanner or Momondo from one of our flight tips, the page should load with your location selected. This means the OTAs you'll see are the ones that are operating in your region.

So, when should you change your location on Skyscanner or Momondo? 

In a nutshell, you should change it if, in a flight tip, we've suggested there's another region that will show cheaper prices than what's available in your region. If this is the case, we'll always let you know in the How to Book section. 

To do this, follow the instructions below. 

Skyscanner

Once you’ve loaded the Skyscanner page, you’ll see the region selected at the top right-hand corner:

Change it by clicking on the button and selecting the right location from the menu:

Once you press save, the OTA results will refresh for your itinerary automatically.

Momondo

Once you’ve loaded the Momondo page, you’ll see the region selected in the top right-hand corner:

Change it by clicking on the button and manually selecting the right region from the menu:

Once you press save, the OTA results will refresh for your itinerary automatically.

Things to keep in mind if you do buy from an OTA in a different country:

• If the transaction is in a different currency to yours, it's worth double-checking to see if it's actually worth it, once you consider conversion fees and other international charges. 
• OTAs from different countries may not have English language customer support, so it may be difficult if you need to change or cancel your flight down the line. 

Skytrax is a UK-based consultancy company who have taken in upon themselves to review anything and everything within the aviation industry. They've been at it since 1999, so they're considered the standard for judging how a particular airline is performing against their competition.

Alongside their annual airline awards (think: The Oscars, but for planes), they also rate every airline from 1 to 5 stars. To come up with this rating, their professional auditors claim to use an unbiased unified system to examine areas onboard and in the airport.

Because of this, we will often refer to Skytrax ratings in our flight tips as a reason to consider booking with a highly-rated airline, because the service and your experience should be top-notch.

What do their star ratings mean?

• 1 star - Very poor/unacceptable service standards (currently, no airlines are rated 1 star)
• 2 star - Poor/inconsistent/unfriendly service (Tunisair/Viva Air)
• 3 star - far/average standard (Air India, Air China)
• 4 star - Good/above average standards in some areas (Air France, Emirates) 
• 5 star - Excellent service in all areas (Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways) 

There are only 10 airlines worldwide that currently have a 5-star rating, so it’s a pretty exclusive club.

You can find each airline’s current rating on the Skytrax website, along with a detailed breakdown rating of specific services e.g. washroom cleanliness, seat comfort, etc.

Are Skytrax star ratings reliable?

The short answer: Yes…to a certain extent.

The long answer: Although Skytrax do not charge or accept any kind of payment from airlines for their star rating, they do offer a ‘consulting service’ which airlines can use, for a price.

This consultation is, in theory, designed to give airlines a better understanding of their rating, and how they can improve it in the future. But critics argue that this creates a pretty convincing reason for Skytrax auditors to bump up an airline’s scores—so, there’s a conflict of interest there.

And, at the end of the day, these reviews are based on the auditor’s individual experience, which may be different to the service you’ll actually receive on that airline.

It’s worth noting that there are other 3rd-party organisations out there which will offer their own airline ratings, either for a price or because they already have ties to the airline. So, when you see a rating on an airline’s website, you should never automatically assume that it’s from Skytrax unless they explicitly say it.

Things to look out for

While Skytrax’s airline rating is usually a good indication of the quality you should expect from an airline, here are a few other things to consider when choosing where to spend your hard-earned cash:

What do you actually get for your money, and is it worth the price?

Some airlines may offer cheaper long-haul fares, but is the price is still worth it once you’ve added on any necessary extras i.e. cabin/checked bag, meals, drinks, seat-back entertainment?

What do real customer reviews say?

The opinion of Skytrax’s professional auditors is one thing, but it’s worth reading real customers reviews to get a better idea of what the general public think. The JFC Facebook group is always a good place to start. We also have our own guide to US airlines and UK/EU budget airlines for a little extra info.

Does the airline have a good track record of departing on time?

It’s not always only about airport/onboard service. Knowing that a certain airline has a notorious reputation for delaying flights (*cough cough* WIZZ) may make all the difference whether you end up booking with them or someone else.

Online travel agencies (OTAs) are especially reactive to the ever-changing flight market, meaning sometimes it’s hard for Google Flights to keep up. This can result in outdated calendar prices.

Unsurprisingly, it can seem a little confusing when we find a recent price drop, but Google Flights' calendar is still displaying the old, higher price.

How to overcome this issue

Usually, when we notice this discrepancy, we will pop a note in the ‘Finding trips’ section that will look something like this:

Although this can be the case with the actual airline’s fares, it usually always applies to OTA prices. For example, below shows a search for London to Aruba on the 9th-16th May, and it suggests the cheapest price is £448 return.

Once you click the 'done' button, select your departing flight, then your returning flight. This will take you to the final page, where low and behold, the price drops to £400 return.

As mentioned before, this is an OTA price which was not displayed earlier on the Google Flights calendar. To book at this price, you will need to scroll down to view your options and select the one you prefer.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that sometimes you will have to click all the way through to the booking page on an OTA or airline to get to the final price. Although we’ve shown an example of fares that drop, sometimes the price increases when you click through to book.

So, whether the best rate is with an airline or an OTA, It’s important that you click through to the final page to ensure you are looking at the most up to date and accurate price.

When you receive one of our emails and want to find flight dates for yourself, you’ll often start by looking on Google Flights. To do this, you'll click the blue button at the bottom of the email to go to our starter itinerary.

If you’re after a different departure or destination we mentioned, edit those in the top row. Now, open the calendar view by clicking one of the date boxes.

The prices you see on the calendar that pops up are for trips of the same length that are currently chosen (in this case, six days). If you check different trip lengths, you're likely to find more departure dates at the price you’re looking for.

On mobile, you have to select new dates to change the trip length. Once you do, the prices will refresh for all the departure dates. We changed our example to 3 days, revealing a new departure date at the £353 price point on the 17th of November.

On bigger screens, Google Flights lets you change the trip length easily by clicking on these arrows at the bottom of the calendar.

If you don’t see the price we mention in the month you want to travel, it’s always worth checking a few different trip lengths to dig up more hidden possibilities.

When you load up Google Flights, your search will usually be defaulted to ‘Round trip’. You can change this by clicking the small down arrow and selecting ‘Multi-city’ from the drop-down menu.

Then, go ahead and add your first departure and destination to the boxes as shown below. You can click on the calendar to adjust your dates. Desktop users will also see some additional arrows that can be used to quickly change days.

You will initially see only two flight boxes to fill in, however you can add another by clicking the 'Add flight' button in the bottom left

After adding each new flight and selecting the departure date, the fares listed below your search will update.

Tips for finding the best multi-city trips

• Get to know popular routes. For example, Scoot is a low-cost airline with cheap-ish flights to Asia, however they don't operate in the UK. They do, however, have departing from Berlin and Athens. Knowing this, you could start looking out for cheap Ryanair flights from the UK to one of those two cities, then onwards Scoot flights to Asia. You may find the website Flightsfrom.com useful, as it lists all the airlines' flight routes and their schedules.
• Keep an eye out for round trips with a long layover at a cheap price, as this suggest you may be able to get a decent multi-trip out of it
• Consider a multi-city trip if you're flying to somewhere fairly small, for instance an island. An example of this could be the Azores. Flying there direct can be pretty pricey, and airlines like TAP love to throw in long layovers in Lisbon.
• Typically, multi-city trips are more expensive than round trips, so if you can find one for the same price or even cheaper, you know you're on to a winner!

FYI, if you're looking for a more in-depth guide, check out our multi-city trip article. Or watch our video demonstrating of how we found a multi-city trip :-)

If you plan to add checked luggage with Lufthansa, SWISS, Brussels Airlines or other partner airlines, it's cheaper to select the fare class that includes it, rather than add it as an extra. By selecting the ‘Economy Classic’ fare, you will usually save around £20 by avoiding adding a bag as an extra later on in the booking.

How to do this

By clicking ‘Book with Lufthansa’ on Google Flights, it will take you to takes you to the Lufthansa website with a list of departure times with different prices.

You'll often have to hunt for the cheapest flight, as it's not usually the first one on the list. Once you select your flight, a box will appear allowing you to select the fare class. ‘Economy Light’ is always the cheapest and the class you should choose if you do not want a checked bag.

However, if you plan on taking checked luggage you should select ‘Economy Classic’ which includes 1 x 23kg checked bag and 1 x 8kg carry-on bag.

You will need to repeat these steps when selecting your return flight (unless you only need a checked bag on one leg).

Essentially, it’s a year-long membership for €39.99 / £34.99 which gives you:

• €10 / £7 off fares over €19.99 / £17.99
• €5 / £4.30 off a 20 kg/32 kg checked bag

A regular member can also apply these discounts to one other travel companion as long as they are travelling together on the same booking.

Occasionally, Wizz Air also offers a larger discount for members on selected fares.

When is it worth it?

If you have a travel companion, then this might actually pay off. For example, let's look at these flights from London to Faro.

The saving between the regular price and the member’s price on both departing and returning flights is not enough to cover the cost of a membership, but if you have a travel companion added to your booking, the saving becomes £36.

Now, the membership pays for itself, and you’ll still both receive a discount on checked bags. Plus, it lasts a whole year, so if you're you’re likely to fly with Wizz Air again, the savings can really stack up. So, the membership can be worth it, especially if you have a travel buddy. Remember to set a reminder to cancel it before it renews if you’re not going to keep using it!

Essentially, you can sign up for free and collect miles with every flight purchase. Once you have earned enough, you can then use your miles to buy upgrades and extras.

To sign up for free, you just need to click the small green sign up button on this page as shown above.

Careful not to click the ‘Club TAP Miles&Go’ box as this is something completely different that you need to pay for.

An additional benefit to the program is that you will also receive a €5 discount on the next flight you book after joining the programme. Annoyingly, TAP already advertises this discounted fare as if it’s the normal price, so it kind of forces you to sign up unless you're happy to pay extra.

Is it worth it?

In our opinion, you're not going to make any groundbreaking savings here. It takes a lot of flying to build up miles high enough to buy anything decent. Having said that, the €5 discount is a small but helpful touch and at the end of the day it is completely free, so sure, why not?

Just be careful not to accidentally click on one of their paid schemes, and never enter in your bank details unless you're actually buying a plane ticket.

Both Viva and Avianca will try to disguise their upgrade bundle as the regular fare by including it by default to your booking.

If you don’t need any luggage, you need to ditch that upgrade ASAP, so let’s go through how to do it.

Let’s look at this flight below from Miami to Cartagena for $192 when booked through the airline Avianca.

Once you click ‘continue’ you’ll be taken to the Avianca website.

Here you will see 3 fares in the centre of the screen, then hidden just underneath is the ‘XS’ fare.

We’ve highlighted it in green below, so you can spot it within Avianca’s red branding.

You will need to click ‘Continue without service for $xx.xx’ and a pop-up box will appear.

Simply click ‘Continue with XS size’ and away you go.

In fairness, Viva isn’t quite as deceptive as Avianca, but always make sure you're clicking the ‘Zero’ fare box to get the cheapest price.

When you click ‘Book with Copa’ on Google Flights, you’ll be taken to a page where you can select your preferred departing times.

Once you’ve made your selection, this is when the fare box pops up.

Unless you need a checked bag, Economy Basic is always the fare to go for. Although, don’t be surprised if they try and catch you out with a few more pop-ups, but just be persistent and click ‘confirm Economy Basic’.

Has it been a while since you remember seeing one of our flight tips? Chances are, we may be ending up in your junk folder. Not ideal, especially when we send out an elusive error fare, and you don't see it until it's too late.

But, fear not. We've put together a step-by-step guide to show you exactly how to navigate those picky spam filters, so all our emails are delivered safe and sound into your inbox.

Step 1

Firstly, load up Outlook on either your computer or from your mobile app. Click onto your junk folder and find one of our emails.

Bear in mind that the layout is a little different on the mobile app.

Step 2

If you're on a browser, you will now need to select the email by clicking the small circle to the left so that it is ticked. Then, click the 'Report' button along the top of the screen and click 'Not Junk' from the drop-down box.

If you are on the mobile app, click onto the email to open it up. Then select the 3 dots near the top of the screen and click “Not Junk” from the drop-down menu.

Step 3

Now, all that's left to do is to make sure Outlook remembers that you want us in your inbox. And to do that, you need to create a rule.

Open one of our emails, either from your junk or regular inbox, and then click the three dots near the top right-hand side of the screen. The menu is roughly in the same place on the app.

Select, 'Rules' and then 'Create rule' from the drop-down menu.

Then, simply select 'Inbox' from the drop-down menu to ensure all our emails are sent directly to your inbox.

And hey presto, you're all done!

So, our emails have been ending up in your junk folder. Not ideal, but it takes less than 5-minutes to change your settings to make sure our emails end up in your inbox where they belong.

Step 1

Firstly, load up Yahoo on either your computer or from your mobile app. If you're using a browser, click onto your Spam folder along the left-hand side and find one of our emails.

Mobile users will need to click on the 'inbox' icon near the bottom left of the screen, then select the 'Spam' folder and find one of our emails.

Step 2

Then, simply select the email and click the 'Not spam' button along the top menu bar.

This is the same process on the mobile app, although the layout is slightly different.

Step 3

Now, all that's left to do is to make sure Yahoo remembers that you want us in your inbox. And to do that, you need to add our email to your contact list.

To do this, the steps are exactly the same for both web and mobile users. Open one of our emails, click the three dots near the top of the screen and select 'Add sender to Contacts' from the drop-down menu.

And that's it! Now you can sleep soundly, safe in the knowledge you'll never miss another one of our flight tips again :-) .