Is R10,000 a reasonable airfare? For London it's a bargain. For Mauritius, you're overpaying. That gap is the whole point of a new fare guide from Travelstart, which has crunched average return prices from South Africa to ten popular destinations and set benchmarks for what counts as a genuinely good deal.

The numbers are handy because most travellers have no anchor for what a fare should cost. Take Mauritius: the average return from Johannesburg runs about R11,500, so anything under R10,200 is a solid buy and sub-R9,500 is a steal. Zanzibar is cheaper still — R9,300 on average, with under R8,700 great and under R8,300 exceptional. Dubai averages R10,300, and fares dipping below R8,900 are worth jumping on.

Longer routes climb accordingly. Bangkok averages R10,700 return and Phuket R12,000, while Singapore sits at R14,700, with under R13,100 flagged as exceptional. Europe is pricier: Istanbul is the value play at R11,400 on average (flying into Sabiha Gökçen instead of the main IST airport can shave that down), Amsterdam averages R14,300, Paris R15,000 and London tops the list at R16,100 — meaning anything under R12,800 to Heathrow is an excellent fare.

One pattern jumps out of the data: February and November keep appearing as the cheapest months across destinations, from Mauritius and Zanzibar to Dubai, Istanbul, London, Paris and Amsterdam. October works for Bangkok, November for Phuket and Singapore. December, unsurprisingly, is peak pricing everywhere.

As for timing your booking, the guide's advice is refreshingly unglamorous: there's no magic day to book. Start searching a few months out, compare dates around your ideal departure, and move quickly once a fare falls into the 'great' range for your route. Fixed dates and school holidays mean booking earlier — December travel in particular should be locked in well ahead, ideally more than six months out even for the cheap months.

Fares move because of seat availability, seasonality, route demand and airline competition, so the price you saw last week means little today. Flexibility is the biggest money-saver: shifting dates by a day or two, comparing nearby months, checking what baggage is included and comparing airlines all help. And if a fare is already in the good range and your dates work? The guide's verdict is to book it — waiting often costs more than it saves.

For South African travellers planning a 2026 trip, this is a genuinely useful cheat sheet: know the benchmark for your route, and you'll recognise a deal instead of guessing.