The summer holiday hacks that saved us hundreds of pounds
BBC News has been speaking to people who have used money-saving hacks to slash the price of their summer getaways.
If there are issues you would like to see covered, you can get in touch via Your Voice, Your BBC News.
Laura Strang, 25, from Oban, Scotland saves money by booking at the last minute.
She even booked her honeymoon just two days before they flew.
"We got married on the 21st of June and waited until the 23rd of June to book a holiday for June 25th.
"We had two weeks in Mexico because it was cheaper than two weeks in Europe."
Laura and her husband Sam Gledhill, 27, paid £1,200 each for 14 nights all-inclusive in Cancun.
"I would say we saved thousands of pounds, based on reviews," she says.
"Ten nights in Spain was coming up the same or more expensive. It's a 10-hour flight over to Mexico so it's a little bit crazy, that."
She says she and her husband have previously booked holidays within a few days of flying to Tenerife, Salou and Marrakesh and have saved money each time.
"Choosing not to go all-inclusive can save money but that depends on the country," says Laura.
"We found Mexico quite expensive when going out and about [so all-inclusive made sense], but you could probably save money in Spain by going half board."
Nathan Hart and his fiancee Cassie Farrelly estimate they saved £3,300 by searching for a holiday that offered a free child's place and going outside school holidays.
They have booked a 10-day all-inclusive holiday in Spain's Balearic Islands at the end of September with their three-year-old twin daughters Alba and Luna.
The couple from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales recommend using the filter option on some of the biggest travel agency websites.
"When searching you can see which places offer one free child place, choose a range of locations and sort by lowest price," says Nathan.
"We found an exceptional hotel for £800 per person plus one free child place, so that's already an £800 saving.
"As well as that, on the booking page you can see a calendar showing the difference in price for the holiday on different dates."
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Six ways to save money on your summer holiday
Nathan says when he compared the same holiday in August it was double the price.
"That would have been completely unaffordable for us.
"I now completely understand why parents with older kids travel inside school term time and it's absolutely something we will have to consider when our girls are older."
Parents who take their children out of school for holidays during term time risk being fined, and repeat offenders could face prosecution.
May Burrough works in central London. But her flat is too small to have lots of people to stay, so last October she invited some close friends to a five-bedroomed villa with a pool on the Costa Brava, Spain.
She estimates it would normally have cost around £3,500 to rent a house like that. But she used a home-swapping site and only paid €100 (£85) - for the cleaning fee - plus around £250 on transport.
Although she saved money on the villa, May and her friends did splash out on food and drink, such as oysters and wine from the region.
"We really had a lush time at the house because we were like, 'well, we're not paying for the accommodation!'"
Because finding someone to do a straight swap with can often be tricky, the Home Exchange site she uses allows her to earn credits by letting people stay in her one-bedroom flat, and then spend them elsewhere.
"It does take a bit of effort. I put valuables away, you have to change the bedsheets, cleaning every time. But it is fully worth it," says May.
She says the site is a bit clunky to use, but she loves what it allows her to do, for an annual fee of around £170.
Recently she booked a one-night stay in Vienne, France so she could go to a concert.
"A hotel was going to be mega-expensive. So I booked a room in someone's home and left in the morning."
Ebrahim Paruk, 35, from Nuneaton near Coventry in Warwickshire saves money on flights by saving up Virgin Atlantic credit card points.
He does his best to collect as many points as possible.
"I pay for everything I can with the card," he says, including his bills, weekly petrol, and weekly groceries.
"These are day-to-day necessities that you have to buy, so you might as well get a reward," he says.
Describing himself as "the biggest football fan you will probably ever find", he started doing it as a way of going to the major international tournaments.
The best saving he made with the points was a return flight to Düsseldorf to watch Germany v Denmark in the 2024 Euros - he saved £400 on his £800 flight.
To add to the saving, he won the match ticket and hotel accommodation in a competition, meaning the whole trip cost him a total of £500.
Now he uses the same method to save money when booking holidays for him and his wife.
Annmaree Bancroft is a single mum of a three-year-old and has been house sitting with him 11 times.
Their first time was looking after two dogs for a week in a house in Scarsdale outside New York City.
This year they will be going back there for a few days, this time as friends of the homeowner. Then they will stay on for three more weeks in the US, without paying for any overnight accommodation, thanks to further housesitting stints in Connecticut and Brooklyn.
The cost of the holiday will be the £1,435 she is spending on flights, plus travel between cities and spending money.
"A lot of parents think that once you have a child, you can't travel," says Annmaree.
"That is just not true. There are these alternative ways now to travel and make it affordable."
If you do choose to house sit, it is recommended that you use a reputable site. Annmaree uses the online platform Trusted Housesitters, which charges a membership fee for sitters of £99 to £199 a year.
House sitting may also be an option for those choosing not to go abroad.
Kayleigh Pennel-Price lives with her partner, two children, aged two and four months, and their golden retriever Kofi in Wiltshire.
She had looked into a family holiday through the traditional means but calculated that it would cost around £3,000 to go on a foreign holiday for a week.
Instead, the whole family is going house sitting in a small village in Buckinghamshire for two weeks.
They will be staying in a home with a sauna, swimming pool and a private woodland, to look after two Yorkshire terriers, booked through the website HouseSit Match.
"We mostly plan to just stay there," says Kayleigh, who thinks the whole trip could cost £250.
"We love both abroad and UK holidays, but we don't like to leave our dog," she says. "And with the two babies, abroad is a little harder."
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In a confession, Wong said that he and three fellow would-be thieves had sold everything they owned to buy the tickets, figuring that the proceeds from the crime would be worth it. As historian Luis Andrade de Sa explains in his book 'Aviation in Macau: One Hundred Years of Adventure,' shortly after the plane took off from Macao, the four hijackers quickly sprang into action, with one storming into the cockpit and demanding that the pilots surrender control of the aircraft. According to multiple historical accounts, the lead hijacker, Chiu Tok, had taken flying lessons in Manila and planned to take over captaining the plane once the pilots were subdued. However, he hadn't anticipated that Cramer would refuse to let go of the controls, nor that there would be resistance in the main cabin. As one passenger tussled with a hijacker, a gun went off. McDuff swung at Chiu Tok with an iron bar. 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The Macau Air Transport Company, a now-defunct branch of Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific flagship airline, operated two of these Catalina 'flying boats.' As Macao didn't have an airport or land cleared for a runway, the planes could take off from its coastal waters. Flying became a popular option for businessmen going between the two cities, especially those who were bringing in items like gold, since Macao was the only open gold market in East Asia at the time. But then, on July 16, 1948, Miss Macao failed to arrive at Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport. Officials in Hong Kong quickly sounded the alarm, and local police began searching the waters between the two cities. The only survivor, a 24-year-old Chinese rice farmer named Wong Yu, was rescued by a fisherman and taken to the hospital in Macao. According to multiple news reports at the time, one of Wong's legs was broken, and he was wearing a life jacket he'd managed to grab as the plane descended. Although Wong claimed to be an ordinary passenger and explained that the plane had exploded in midair, inconsistencies in his story and his questionable behavior — including trying to escape from the hospital — led authorities and the press to a different explanation: The Miss Macao crashed into the sea while being taken over by 'air pirates,' an incident that the China Mail, a Hong Kong English-language newspaper, called 'unparalleled in the history of aviation.' On the day it last took off, Miss Macao had two pilots in the cockpit: American captain Dale Cramer and Australian first officer Ken McDuff, both former military airmen. In total, there were 27 people on board: along with 24 passengers, there was a single flight attendant, Delca da Costa, a Portuguese national from Macao who was also McDuff's girlfriend. Four of the passengers, though, had no intention of going to Hong Kong. In a confession, Wong said that he and three fellow would-be thieves had sold everything they owned to buy the tickets, figuring that the proceeds from the crime would be worth it. As historian Luis Andrade de Sa explains in his book 'Aviation in Macau: One Hundred Years of Adventure,' shortly after the plane took off from Macao, the four hijackers quickly sprang into action, with one storming into the cockpit and demanding that the pilots surrender control of the aircraft. According to multiple historical accounts, the lead hijacker, Chiu Tok, had taken flying lessons in Manila and planned to take over captaining the plane once the pilots were subdued. However, he hadn't anticipated that Cramer would refuse to let go of the controls, nor that there would be resistance in the main cabin. As one passenger tussled with a hijacker, a gun went off. McDuff swung at Chiu Tok with an iron bar. The hijackers shot both pilots, and Cramer's body landed on the plane's joystick control, sending the aircraft plummeting into the South China Sea. An August 1948 article in Time magazine described the scene in colorful language, writing that the four hijackers 'looked hungrily' at the rich passengers they were targeting. Wong was picked up by a local boat and treated for his injuries. His story about surviving a midair explosion was quickly disproven when pieces of Miss Macao's wreckage were recovered, punctured by bullet holes. Getting the true account of events out of Wong wouldn't be easy. He was in poor physical and mental health, so police were reluctant to use harsh interrogation. Instead, they came up with an unorthodox plan: they filled the hospital with sleeper agents. Dozens of Chinese-speaking undercover police officers posing as patients were tasked with befriending Wong, and they eventually got him to admit what really happened on board Miss Macao. He confessed that the plan had been for the hijackers to seize control of the plane and redirect it to a town in Guangdong province in southern China, where the passengers and crew would be robbed of their valuables and then held for ransom. No one was supposed to die. The hijacking of the Miss Macao was so novel that no one had ever applied the word 'hijacking' to such a situation — press at the time called it 'air piracy.' The concept of scanning passengers with a metal detector before they boarded a plane was still decades away. Only the most cursory of security checks were carried out, with some items of luggage opened and searched. The hijackers had prepared for that — they'd tied their guns to their legs with black string, and the China Mail newspaper reported at the time that one had hidden bullets in the hollowed-out sole of his shoe. Although Wong eventually told the full story of what happened on board Miss Macao, there was confusion over how to prosecute him — and who would do it. Portuguese authorities in Macao said that because the plane was owned by a British company, Wong's trial would need to take place in Hong Kong. But because the hijackers were all Chinese, British officials in Hong Kong said the case was not in their jurisdiction either. Finally, in 1951, Wong was deported from Macao to mainland China, where he died not long after, at the age of 27. He never stood trial for robbery, murder or piracy. Related video Boeing 747: How the 'Queen of the Skies' redefined the way we fly As for the two former colonial cities, their own air travel industries blossomed in the decades to come. Hong Kong became one of the world's biggest air hubs as its economy grew in the late 20th century. The city became a financial capital and the gateway to mainland China. It outgrew Kai Tak Airport, which closed in 1998 and was replaced with the larger Hong Kong International, which is consistently ranked among the best airports in the world. Meanwhile, Macao International Airport opened in 1995. These days, the airport has a small exhibit about important aviation stories that happened there — including the hijacking of the Miss Macao. The story of the Hong Kong-Macao hijacking quickly fell out of newspapers. Many people in the nascent commercial aviation industry saw it as a terrible one-off and didn't believe that plane hijacking — or skyjacking as it was called at the peak of its popularity — would become commonplace. There was also a fear that too much coverage of the story would scare off would-be flyers. When the United States established the Federal Aviation Administration in 1958 to regulate air travel, the legislation made no mention of preventing skyjacking, a sign that it was still not seen as a significant issue. But the social unrest of the years that followed, and the growth and increasing affordability of air travel, changed all that, historians say. From 1968 to 1972, the airlines went through what became known as the 'golden age of hijacking,' a phrase popularized by Brendan I. Koerner in his book 'The Skies Belong to Us.' 'Every five and a half days, there was a hijacking,' says Porat, the history professor. 'This is the time where the industry is trying to develop. And basically, (hijacking) becomes a threat.' Some of the incidents followed the same plan as the Miss Macao incident — a group of hijackers would take over the plane, land it in a third location, rob the prisoners, and hold the passengers and/or the plane for ransom. Other hijackers claimed political reasons for taking over airplanes, demanding passage to North Vietnam, Algeria or Cuba, all of which were at odds with the United States. It happened the other way in a few cases, too. Individuals from countries behind the Iron Curtain — often members of the flight crew — would demand to be flown to a non-communist nation where they could claim political asylum. Hijacking became so common that airline head offices kept large amounts of cash on hand in case they needed to fork it over to a would-be hijacker, Koerner explains in his book. William Landes, a US economist and emeritus professor at the University of Chicago Law School, estimates that during this so-called 'golden age,' hijackings cost the aviation industry $219,221 per passenger. According to Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Porat, the hijacking of a 1968 plane by Palestinian militants was 'largely agreed upon in scholarly circles to be the first international act of international terrorism (via) the hijacking of a plane.' Three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took over El Al Flight 426, which was traveling from Rome to Israel, and diverted the plane to Algeria. The non-Israeli passengers and crew were allowed to leave and board a plane to France, while 40 male Israelis were held for 40 days before being released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Although everyone on board El Al 426 survived, skyjackings had become too big to ignore. The cost to airlines was astronomical, and industry executives were fed up. As Koerner puts it, 'By the end of 1972, the skyjackers had become so reckless, so dismissive of human life, that the airlines and the federal government had no choice but to turn every airport into a miniature police state.' Porat agrees. Although there was initially pushback from travelers, there had been enough high-profile hijackings that safety had become a significant concern. And they acquiesced, agreeing to walk through metal detectors, have their luggage X-rayed, and more. 'We're so used to this being searched thing that it's quite incredible,' Porat says. In 1970, the UN Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, a multilateral agreement to proscribe and punish the hijacking of planes, was approved at The Hague. It called hijackings 'a matter of grave concern,' adding that 'unlawful acts of seizure or exercise of control of aircraft in flight jeopardize the safety of persons and property, seriously affect the operation of air services, and undermine the confidence of the peoples of the world in the safety of civil aviation.' In 1971, US President Richard Nixon appointed Lt. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. the country's first — and so far only — 'hijacking czar.' Davis wanted to impose strict screening procedures at airports but was met with pushback from the aviation industry, which believed that passengers would balk at the rules and give up on air travel. Still, in 1973, Nixon introduced mandatory metal detector screenings for all passengers in the United States and X-rays for all bags. And the 9/11 attacks, closely followed by the attempted bombing of a Paris-to-Miami flight with explosives hidden in a shoe, brought on the familiar grueling security checks of today — none of which, for all the industry's fears in the Nixon era, discouraged the public from flying. What happened on the Miss Macao was not a singular story. It was the first of many aviation incidents that would transform the way humans travel by air. Before 'the golden age of hijacking' or the September 11, 2001 attacks, one nearly forgotten seaplane set a new age of aviation into motion.
