Former stewardess Skye Taylor eventually quit the industry after getting insomnia (Image: Skye Taylor )
A former Virgin Atlantic revealed simple ways passengers can save money – and there’s one simple trick to increase chances of free upgrades.
Skye Taylor, from Southampton, recently spoke about a and she is now sharing flying hacks. For those looking for a bargain, she encouraged people to avoid third party websites and also search engines when booking trips.
The content creator, who worked in the sky for 16 years, told express.co.uk: “For saving money I would always go straight to the site. A lot of people go straight to search engines for flights but go straight to the actual site.
“A lot of these sites, once you start searching for a light, it will then recognise you are searching a flight and then it will actually come back with higher amounts. Searching the site and booking your flight is sometimes much much cheaper.
Skye gives insight on all things flying on her social media pages (Image: Skye Taylor)
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“And you will get offers of upgrades which are much better whereas on these search engines they won’t do that. They will just bang out what they think is the cheapest and you will search the next day and it will go up by £300 or £400 because it recognises you are searching for them.”
But she said the “best thing” flyers can do – regardless if they fly frequently or just twice a year – is to join a flying program. Her old employers Virgin Atlantic has a ‘Flying Club’ where you earn points for every journey which can be used for things like reward seats, upgrading flights or for airline partners.
Explaining the benefits, Skye added: “Through and stuff, what we found was a lot of people in the flying program, maybe they only flew three times a year, but because there were a lot of spare seats, you will get the upgrades just by being in the flying program.
She gave up the job shortly after the pandemic (Image: Skye Taylor)
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“You will get them a lot cheaper and you will get discounts and a lot of people don’t do it. We used to push it a lot years ago but they really really are worth it.”
She continued: “Even with free upgrades, they will always look (for members), so many people don’t do it and it is just simple. Everyone seems to sign up for everything these days, your club cards and this sort of stuff, but I presume because they think they don’t fly a lot it won’t matter but it actually does and it makes a difference. I would always say that it is a really good thing to do.”
Many Brits spend fortunes on food at airports or during flights because they don’t realise they can bring their own, Skye also pointed out.
Skye is now a content creator after ditching her flying career (Image: Skye Taylor)
She said it was one of the biggest myths passengers had and she encouraged people to come armed with as many packed sandwiches as they wished.
“I think a lot of people panic about the very simple things like you can bring food,” she explained. “I find it crazy that people think they can’t bring food. You can bring as much bloody food on as you want. Do that, especially if you are travelling with children and things like that.”