Cheap flights.

[Stupot]

What do you guys know about cheap air travel?
I've dug myself into a bit of a hole.
I've decided to come home to England from Japan at the end of September, but I can't seem to find a flight I can afford.

the flight here cost me 360 pounds, but that was booked well in advance, so I gave myself a budget of 500.... this was a gross misjudgment. The cheapest I found was about 700 but most were in the thousands.... this is too expensive for me.

Does anybody know any little known cheap-air websites or tips or secrets that could help me shave the pounds off the cost of my flight back?   And don't say "yeh, book earlier".  I'm in deep shit if I can't find a cheap flight.

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.

[Nikolas]

This may sound stupid, but if Sep. is expensive try Nov. In all honesty (I know this from flights to Greece), there are certain companies that are just dead cheap for... the first 10 tickets.  After that the price just goes up...

But Japan-UK is a huge trip, and at least some expenses make sense. I can't expect to find a return flight bellow 350£ or something.. (don't know the prices just posting). In short, either:
a. Pay the money if you really need to be there (for example, your sister's getting married).
b. Go later

Thing, with these things, and especially interent booking, is that prices go up even in 1 hour. Hessitate and the price is gone! Through the net, you can't (yet) book tickets. You buy them! while with an agent you can book them for a few days (at least I always do, cause we are in love (!!!!! ) with my agent! She's a family friend, and I still book tickets through Greece, although I live in London)

[Hudders]

Buy in yen, from a Japanese company.

As soon as you're buying in pounds, they factor in a foreigner-stuck-abroad tax, that's why it's always cheaper to go somewhere than to return, (this might also have something to do with local airport taxes which are probably higher in the UK than elsewhere).

[radiowaves]

Maybe traveling via several flights turns out more cheaper?

[Tuomas]

700 pounds does sound ridiculous. I've always taken my flights at last minute, from cheap airline companies. They have a need to fill every plane in order to make some profit. So basically I've always had my tickets really cheap. I wouldn't fly with a price like that, but sure, it's a different country, different money etc.

[scotch]

Last minute usually isn't as cheap as early, even real last minute, but sometimes you're lucky.
Airlines are really funny about one way flights btw. Try searching returns even if you don't need them. For example when I just searched you could fly TYO-LON on the 25 sep on Thai airlines (via bangkok) for SGD 1406 (£462) including a return in October, according to Zuji.com.sg (I use the singapore site because it lets you search flexibly unlike the others). It might take some long hours of shopping around but I expect you can get within your budget.

[Stupot]

Hmmm that sounds interesting... so its possible to get a cheaper return ticket, and just not return.... I'll have a look into it... thanks for your suggestions/comments guys, keep m coming if you think of anything else.