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The following tips will help you find the cheapest flights to, from and within South Africa, no matter what time of year you want to travel.



Tip # 1:  Use Airline Consolidators That Specialize in Africa to Find Cheap Airfares to South Africa

What are airline consolidators? They are travel wholesalers who buy large quantities of plane tickets on airlines. For South Africa and Africa you need to see if the consolidator has contracts with airlines like South African Airways, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Air France. These are some of the top airlines to Africa and if the consolidator has contracts with them, among others, they can pass on big savings to you. In the UK, consolidators, and the travel agents that they often sell through, are also known as bucket shops. They can save you a lot of money, especially on international flights to South Africa. Sometimes the savings are up to 70% off the airlines' published airfares.

Tip #2:  Once in South Africa Look at Low Cost, No Frills Airlines to Get Cheap Flights Within South Africa

Increasingly, cheap flights within South Africa are found on some of South Africa's newer, no frills or low cost airlines. Kulula, Mango, 1 time, all have cheap flights within South Africa.  But the no frills airlines aren't the only ones to look at. Because so much business has been lost by Comair and South African Airways to these airlines, both have had to fight back. So don't ignore South African Airways & Comair, they can often low airfare deals as well.

Tip # 3: Be Flexible! - Look at Traveling Through Another Country

Flying nonstop or direct from London or New York will cost you more. Look at flying through Dubai for example if you live in Europe, Canada, the USA or Australia.  And if you live in Europe, say Manchester or Birmingham or Dublin for example, you may find it is cheaper to fly through Amsterdam on KLM rather than via London on Virgin or British Airways.  This same principle applies if you live in Paris for example.

High and increasing airline ticket prices seem to be a fact of life. Lack of competition means finding discount airfare to Africa in general, and South Africa in particular will continue to be a challenge. Follow these tips to have the best chance of finding cheap airfares to, from and within South Africa.