Ruby plans and books her holiday

Ruby is on a budget

Ruby is on a budget and is flexible when it comes to flight times and dates. This means she isn’t too worried about whether budget flights have rules around cancellations or changes as its unlikely she’ll need to change her flight once it’s booked.

She will book her plane tickets herself with the airline because she’s confident in the process. For everything else – accommodation, transfers, and a boat trip she wants to do on Milford Sound – she will use her local travel agent.

Using an airline website to find tickets

Ruby uses her preferred airline’s website to search for and book her flights.

She is going to look for a super-saver ticket, which is much cheaper than a regular ticket, but comes with less flexibility when it comes to changing the flight.

Ruby is aware of the fine print

The reason Ruby’s super-saver plane tickets are cheap is because they do not allow changes to flight dates. If Ruby can’t make the flight, she will be out of pocket.

She is also only able to get a refund if she cancels her ticket more than 20 business days before travelling.

How Ruby books her tickets

Ruby wants to avoid the crowded peak season so decides to travel in winter. She starts looking for tickets by entering departure and return dates in July into the airline’s search box. She also sets the website filter to sort tickets by price, from low to high.

When the search results appear, she sees a super-saver ticket at the top, leaving on 10 July and returning 25 July. Two weeks in NZ is perfect!

Checking the seat on the plane

Now she knows her flight, Ruby looks at what kind of plane she will be flying on. It’s a Boeing 737.

She then visits https://www.seatguru.com to check what the best economy-class seats are.

Seat 14A is near the window and in an exit row, so has extra leg room. She makes a note to select it, if it’s still available, when she checks in 24 hours before her flight.

Paying for her plane tickets

Ruby can use her credit card to pay for her tickets on the airline’s website. She’s confident that it’s safe to use her credit card on this site, because it is the official airline website.

Also, the website address starts with https:// and shows the lock symbol, which means her transaction will be encrypted for security.

Ruby reviews her ticket prices, and notes the departure taxes she has to pay. She’s happy with the total price, so clicks Pay Now.

Ruby receives her tickets

The term e-ticket stands for electronic ticket and simply means a ticket that is delivered to you via email or text message.

The airline will automatically email the e-tickets to Ruby, but she also ticks the box that offers to display the ticket on her computer now.

This appears as a PDF that she can print out and take away with her. A paper copy is a useful backup if, for some reason, she is unable to access the email from her phone.

Time to head to the travel agent

Ruby is happy that she’s booked her own plane tickets and at a good price.

For the rest of her trip, she is going to use her local travel agent. There are several transfers, a bus trip, accommodation, and her Milford Sound excursion still to book, and Ruby is more than happy for a travel agent to handle it all.

Well done!

You’ve come to the end of the Ruby plans and books her holiday activity. Well done! You’ve seen how Ruby used the internet at home to book plane tickets and get a great deal.

Up next, the Ruby’s itinerary and virtual scrapbook activity will explore some of the ways Ruby keeps all the information about her trip organised.