[173] Booking a Flight

Learn New English Vocabulary – Booking Flights Online

 

 

Let’s talk about booking flights. Today I want to teach you one phrase, To Book A Flight. I also mention some new vocabulary when you are at the airport, for example: to check-in, to board a plane, to get a boarding pass, to buy a return ticket, or one way ticket. Another word for ticket is airfare. Enjoy! :)

Episodes mentioned

[172] English for Hotel Receptionists (Hospitality & Tourism Industry)

 

Transcript

Welcome aboard! This is your captain speaking. Today we are going to learn new phrases related to booking flights.

So buckle up and enjoy your flight!

[Insert music]

Hey guys you are listening to the English Made Simple podcast, this is episode number 173, number one hundred and seventy-three, numero ciento sesenta y tres.

Welcome amigos y amigas to another episode of the English Made Simple show, my name is Milena from www.englishmadesimple.net. yes that’s my name. Milena. Today someone called me – M-ilena (Mailena). Last week my yoga teacher called me Melania.

Hmm…Melania sounds very familiar, where did I hear that? It was on TV I am sure. In the news maybe haha

Look, it’s fine I don’t mind what you call me as long as you remember that I am the one from www.englishmadesimple.net (englishmadesimple punto net)

Cool, cool bananas!

So I trust you’ve been well. I hope you learnt some new phrases from last week.

Today we are going to carry on from last week. The topic is still Hospitality and Tourism. However, today we are going to talk about How to Book flights.
And, I will also share a personal story, a rather embarrassing story of how I missed my flight to Cuba. So stay tuned till the end of the show!

Let me begin by asking you this question:

When you organise your holidays – How do you book your flights?

Do you:
Go to the travel agent and ask them to book a flight for you.
OR
Do you do it yourself? You go online, on the Internet to book the flights yourself.

Some of you might talk to a travel agent to organise your flights, which is fine. I prefer doing that if I was travelling internationally.

However, if I were to travel domestically, – which means from a city to city within my country – then I wouldn’t mind doing it myself.

I would go online and search for different airlines that do national flights and then I would book a flight myself. I normally wouldn’t have any luggage to check-in, just a carry-on luggage with essentials.

Ok let’s quickly talk about the vocabulary I used here.

To book a flight – it means to buy an airfare and travel by plane.
Flight is a noun and it is spelled as F L I G H T. So many silent letters in that one! We only pronounce 3 of those and then we just put some random ones in there haha

According to Weon Inteligente or the Online dictionary (he is making an appearance in almost every episode now) FLIGHT means: the action or process of flying through the air.
In Spanish is vuelo.

And the word ‘airfare’ means the plane ticket. How much was your airfare from Santiago to Mexico City?

Ok by now you should be familiar with the verb to book.

I also mentioned that when I go to book flights myself, I would go on the Internet and search for different airlines that offer domestic flights.

Airlines or carriers are companies that transport passengers (people like us) or sometimes they transport freight, stock or goods, parcels, packages things like that.

The national airline of Australia is called Qantas Airways.

The national airline of New Zealand is Air New Zealand.

The national airline of Singapore is called – Singapore Airlines

In the UK they have an airline called: British Airways.

Ok there are many other companies out there. So these companies that fly people from one location to another are called AIRLINES.

The staff who navigate the plane are called PILOTS, the main pilot is a captain and the captain’s assistant is called a co-pilot.

And men and women who work inside the plane, who make you feel comfortable, bring you drinks and food and demonstrate safety procedures are called cabin crew. They are also called Air hostesses, steward and stewardess.

I hope that is clear.

You know guys, I don’t travel as often as I used to. It’s because, in my opinion, the air travel, nowadays has become really stressful. It’s not fun to travel anymore. This is my personal opinion.
So maybe some people will disagree with me, which is fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

I used to be excited to go to the airport and board a plane. Now it’s just become a drag. It came to the point that I am not sure what to pack anymore. What is allowed to take on-board, and what I need to take out of my bag and so on. I had so many humiliating situations, where I had to open my bags and take stuff out. So annoying.

There are so many rules I can’t keep up, at least in Australia that’s the case.

Oh and not to mention that it is also not cheap to travel, again at least that’s the case in Australia and New Zealand.

I heard that it’s cheaper to travel anywhere in Europe. There are cheaper flights in Europe… but in Australia and New Zealand… it’s not so cheap.

Let me give you an example, if I were to fly from Adelaide to Melbourne on a return flight, this would cost me about $300 Australian dollars, I think this is equivalent to $250USD or something like that.

This is a 1 hour flight each way. Less than an hour, 40 minutes.

A return flight means – both directions
One way – means 1 direction

One -way ticket to Melbourne from Adelaide means, going to Adelaide and not going back to Melbourne. Unless I book another flight.

When you go online to book a flight you will see options do you want to book a Return flight or a One-way flight.

Depending on your budget you can fly Economy class or First class. Well I always select the cheapest option as I don’t have a big budget. I wish I could travel First class at least once in my life.

Cool, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Alrighty, so you can book a flight online. That’s the phrase I want you to learn today.

To book a flight.

When you get to the airport, you have to check in.

You have to find your airline desk and check in your luggage if you have any. You also have to check yourself in if you don’t have any luggage.
This is important to do because you can get something called, a ‘boarding pass’

The boarding pass looks like a piece of paper that contains information about your flight. It has the Flight Number, it has the Seat number (where you will be sitting) and it also has the Gate number. Basic information so you know where to go to board a plane.

So many new words here!

By the way, in Australia and New Zealand you can check in electronically. You can organize your check-in from a computer or a phone. So you don’t have to queue at the airport. You only need to go through the customs. This saves you a lot of time when you are in a rush or stuck in traffic and you don’t have time to queue at the Airline desk.

I prefer to use the electronic check-in whenever possible.

A check-in is a term used with Airlines, basically it tells the Airline you are there!
Hello everybody, I am here, just checking in. It tells the airline that you are going to board the plane. You will be there to take the seat on that plane.

If you do not check in, the Airline thinks that you will not be flying at all. For example, you could miss your flight because you couldn’t get to the airport in time.

Let me stop here and ask you a question:

Have you ever missed a flight [before]?

Have you ever booked a flight and never boarded the plane?

I am asking you this, because this very thing happened to me!

Let me tell you a funny story about what happened to me. It was so embarrassing. I am sure I am not the only one. People make mistakes. That’s what makes us human.

This one was an expensive mistake and as you can see, it still hurts.

Oh my goodness, missing a flight is not a pleasant feeling at all! It’s not a nice feeling.

I was looking forward to visiting Cuba and I booked my flights, I booked it through an agent actually. Because I had to organise a visa. So I had it done through an agent. I have a New Zealand passport and we need visa for Cuba.

Anyway, I double checked my ticket, then I triple checked my ticket and it said on the ticket, you fly on Wednesday at 5 minutes past midnight. The departure time was showing as 00:05 – 5 minutes past midnight on a Wednesday.

I didn’t click, I was having a blonde moment, I didn’t click at all – meaning I didn’t think what this meant actually. My first thought was I have to get to the airport on Wednesday. But that wasn’t true, I had to be at the airport on Tuesday and then wait until the clock hit Midnight because that’s the start of Wednesday. Duh!

I learnt my lesson there. Now I wanted to share this story with you so you can really take care next time you book your flights. Take time to check your tickets especially for the flight that takes place early in the morning, like midnight, 1am, 2am etc.

Well you’ve been warned. Don’t make the same mistake I did. I hope this story helps you not to make the same mistake I did.

What’s your story? Did you do anything this ridiculous when you were booking your flights? I hope I am not the only one!

Before we end today’s show, let me just explain a couple of more phrases I used before I told you my story.

Ok so I mentioned, check-in. You get to the airport to check in or you can do an electronic check in.

Once you check in you get a boarding pass – I have explained what a boarding pass is – contains all the details about your flight.

To board a plane means to get on the plane. You use the same word when you go onto a ship, a cruise ship for example.

To board a ship or to board a plane – to get inside the plane.

Once you are there, you take a seat. Seat is spelled as SEAT, it’s a noun. The verb is to SIT – to sit.
Have a seat or Take a seat – you can say either of these.

Seat and to sit (shorter sound ‘i’)

The boarding pass will tell you what seat you should be sitting in.

Cool, I hope this makes sense now!

Lots of new vocabulary today! Hopefully you were able to follow me.

We are approaching the end of today’s show amigos y amigas.

Remember, you can listen to this podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or Podcast Republic app if you are using Android phone, or YouTube. Whatever you prefer!

And don’t forget you can read the transcript at www.englishmadesimple.net/podcast.

Thanks for joining me today!

Thank you for listening to yet another awesome episode of the English Made Simple show, you’ve been an amazing audience, and you’ve been jamming with Milena from English Made Simple. Have a great rest of the week. Until next time. Hasta la proxima!