Airplanes * Domestic Flights Airplanes * Domestic FlightsDomestic flights are much more expensive than ground transport, but can occasionally be worth considering. If you make a practice of it, you will not only increase your budget, but miss out on all the scenery and hubbub in between. In the Philippines, where air transport is a common alternative to slow shipping between the many islands, fares are within the reach of local businesspeople, and worth considering. A similar situation exists between islands in Indonesia, but the prices are higher.
Some flights are the alternative to very difficult overland routes. You will still be missing out on an adventurous journey -- no doubt the source of many new Road Tales -- but if it means the difference between going and not going, then check out the air fares. Like trains, flights usually leave infrequently, and are often booked up. Unlike trains, flights are often canceled, sometimes for days at a time, so don't necessarily choose them for speed. Don't count on internal airlines being much safer than the train system. They are still looking for the flight that disappeared en route to Gilgit, Pakistan, two years ago.
Expect serious security precautions, and since they may not have metal detectors, this often means a thorough search of your bags, at least once. In some places you are required to identify your checked luggage, on the tarmac as you board the plane, before they will load it. For some historical reason, some local airlines will not allow you to carry any type of batteries onto an airplane; you must put them in your checked luggage, or lose them.
Unless you have a round-the-world ticket, or a round-trip to your single destination, you may end up buying several international air tickets along the way.
Reservations
Don't put blind faith in your reservations. If you have an onward ticket, reconfirm with the local airline office soon after you arrive; if they have never heard of you, it may require some negotiating that you don't want to put off until the day before the flight. Then reconfirm again three days before your departure; make sure you do so. Plan to leave some city sightseeing for the last few days when you will have to be in town to reconfirm anyway.
As long as you hold a valid ticket which has "OK" in the status box, and you have reconfirmed by telephone twice with the airline, you shouldn't have any problems getting on. That's right, I said "shouldn't". You may still wish to visit the airline office personally and ask for a printout of your confirmed reservation.
If you want to change your reservation in any way, or if your ticket does not say "OK" in the status box, I strongly recommend that you go into the official airline office, have them reconfirm your reservation, and make sure they put an official sticker on the ticket indicating the new reservation or status. This should be initialed, and perhaps stamped. You can make the reservation by phone, but be sure to go get the sticker later. If you go to the airport with a ticket that does not show a confirmed reservation for your flight, your chances of appeal when your name does not appear on the passenger list are not worth considering!
Changing your reservations can be difficult. If you are out in the bush, you may have to travel back to the city in order to give yourself an extra week of relaxing in the countryside! The best situation is if your international ticket is with the national carrier of the country you are in, because no other airlines are likely to have offices throughout the country. This will not always be practical, but consider the benefits of using Thai, Pakistan, Philippine, Indian, Mexicana, and Varig (Brazil) airlines if you plan to spend a lot of time in the far-flung areas of these countries. They have offices in any city with a domestic airport, and they can usually reconfirm or change international reservations for you, supplying the official stickers. This peace of mind can easily be worth a little higher fare.
At the Airport
Before reaching the check-in counter, you often must pass your large bags (at least) through an inspection. If you only have a carry-on, you can usually go directly to the check-in counter, avoiding the inspection lines. At the check-in counter you must show your ticket, passport, perhaps a visa for the next country, and pay the airport tax.
The ground staff will rip out your ticket for the flight and hand you a boarding pass. This is now your ticket to the airplane; if you lose it (yes I did!) it will cause some problems. At this point you say good-bye to your checked bag, so make sure you have no film in it, and be certain to get a baggage claim ticket for each bag.
Baggage
It is common to have a weight limit on the luggage you check onto the airplane, and this should be written on your ticket under "baggage". This is typically 20 kilograms (44 pounds) for cheap tickets, and 40 kilos or more for first class. In many places they seem to take little notice of the weight and number of your bags, and many people fly with "excess baggage" without much trouble. But if they choose to be strict, the airlines can charge you plenty for your excess baggage. One fellow in front of me in Singapore saw his life dissolve when they told him how much he would have to pay to get his 43 kilos of luggage home; it was astronomical!
You could ask another traveler to check some of your baggage in with him. Since you are honest, this is no problem, but don't ever do it for anyone else! This is a common way to smuggle drugs or bombs onto airplanes. You may be required to identify your checked luggage on the runway before boarding the plane. If they have already examined your new friend's bag and found it to contain drugs or explosives, you can imagine how popular you will become when you come up with the claim check for it!
Should you carry your bag onto the plane, or check it in? You will move faster going into, and definitely faster getting out of the airport if you carry your own bag. You will also avoid the possibility of the airline losing or delaying your luggage. Don't forget the possibility of thievery from your rucksack, especially if it cannot be locked. On the down side, you will have to run your bag through the carry-on inspection at least once, and if you have any fair-sized knives, or even batteries inside, they may not be allowed on with you. Of course you will have to lug that bag around with you all over the airport.
Some countries are much better (read "cheaper") for buying international air tickets, and it pays to plan ahead. You don't want to buy a ticket in Japan if you can get the same route from Hong Kong. The best (read "cheapest") places in Asia to buy air tickets are Hong Kong, Penang (Malaysia), Singapore, and Bangkok, pretty much in that order. If you are passing through this area, you can get a good ticket all the way to Europe or the U.S. If you can find the few discount dealers in Nairobi (Fast Eddie), you can get cheap tickets to India, Egypt, Europe, and the US. If you make it to Europe (or start there) you can get good deals out of London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, or Frankfurt. Japan, India, and Australasia are not cheap and the routes out are long. There are rarely any good discounts in Latin America, even to the US.
This does not mean that you should plan your trip around air fares, or that you should never buy a ticket from an "expensive" country. If you do mostly overland travel and only buy short flights when you need them, you will still save money in the long term, and do a lot more interesting travel, the way you want to go, not just where the cheapest tickets lead you.
Bucket Shops
You can't just go to the airline office and buy a cheap ticket; you usually have to find a "bucket shop". At best, this is a "consolidator" of cheap blocks of group tickets, who then sells them individually; the laws (and airline rules) governing this business vary over time and from country to country. At the worst, it is an unscrupulous tout who knows a sleazy ticket agent who buys tickets through a real consolidator, maybe.
You often must pay a non-refundable deposit before they will buy the ticket for you. Aside from just stealing your money, the most common rip-offs are to present you with a different or more expensive ticket than you bargained for. You have to live with it, or give up your deposit. Even well-known bucket shops will sell tickets with more restrictions than what they promised you, and sometimes you won't find out until you try to use it, or change your reservations.
Definitely shop around with various agents before buying a ticket;
some have access to certain blocks of tickets that others do not.
Start early, asking other travelers where they bought their tickets
and if they were any good. The bulletin boards in traveler's hostels
all over the world are crowded with horror stories about rip-offs from
sleazy ticket agents. The 
Student Travel Association (STA)
has reasonably reputable agents all over the world with good deals not
only for students; the price won't always be the very lowest you see,
but the tickets should be real. (Visit their web site by clicking their
name above.) Do not buy a ticket without getting a
ticket! Don't buy a ticket that will be "waiting for you" at the
airport in a distant town; wait the few days it takes for them to get
the ticket delivered to their local office before you pay the final
price. And always get a receipt when you pay a deposit.
Which Ticket? Which Airline?
Most travelers choose their tickets based on price, and this is certainly a good criterion. But so many budget travelers demand only the cheapest flights, that agents often won't even mention other flights unless you ask. Sometimes you could pay only five, ten, or twenty percent more in return for some significant advantages but if you don't ask, they will never tell you.
Most cheap tickets will be non-refundable and non-transferable. That means that if your flight is delayed for two days, you will not be able to exchange your ticket for one on another airline; you are stuck with that airline. But if the ticket also does not allow you to change the dates of your flights, this will be a severe constraint on the flexibility of all your future plans. I definitely try to avoid such tickets, and I pay more for the privilege. Some tickets have a fee for each change of reservation; it may be anywhere from $20 to $100.
Next, look at the convenience of the flight times. Many flights are cheap because they arrive in Bogota, Calcutta, or New York City at two o'clock in the morning. Is that situation worth the extra savings? Some long-distance flights intentionally break your journey with an obligatory two-day stopover in places like Karachi or New Caledonia, without hotel accommodation. If that sounds like good fun, fine, but you must factor in the extra cost when buying the ticket. Finally, how frequently does the airline make your flights? If you want to change your reservations, will you have a choice of five flights a week, or only one every two weeks?
Another criterion for choosing an airline, after price, is punctuality. It doesn't matter if the flight is conveniently scheduled, what matters is when you actually get there! Most Third World airlines tend to be a bit late on most flights, and this need not be a problem, but when they continuously dump you in cities in the middle of the night, or delay their flights by one or two days at a time, these kinds of problems are not only fatiguing, but costly and hazardous to you.
Many of the cheaper airlines cannot be depended upon to help you during long delays. They cannot afford to give you free hotel accommodation, and may not even serve snacks. I was pleasantly surprised by the service I got on Royal Jordanian in such a case, especially since it occurred six days before the outbreak of the Gulf War. My flight was delayed in Amman, Jordan, (where the airport looked like a refugee camp) and although it was "only" for six hours, I was immediately given a hotel voucher and directions to the hotel bus. I got a nice room at the airport hotel, a free meal, and shuttle service -- without even having to ask for it. Thanks!
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