Flying around the world by plane may not be the most environmentally-friendly way to travel but, whilst they’re still piling up nuclear waste, it’s reasonable to suppose that taking a few flights isn’t going to make things too much worse.

No where is out of reach of a place these days and to travel to any given point on the planet your flight agent need only type in the initials of the airport on the computer. In one sense it’s a shame as in the old days of travel you really earned your journey; with a thousands bumps and jolts in buses and trains, the traveler met the locals, saw the scenery change slowly and by the time he got to his destination, he had already gone through a journey.

With the arrival of modern air transport, any idiot could arrive anywhere with no grasp of the local language, culture or protocol – the birth of mass tourism.

And while it’s still possible to travel much of the world by land, the prices of visas, trains and buses mean it often works out cheaper to fly. You don’t always want to go through mind numbing journeys or risk bandits in the wilder regions of the world that lie between you and your destination.

So modern travelers are likely to find themselves in airport on a fairly regular basis. Here are some tips of flying on the cheap and a guide to getting through airports and immigration without too much hassle.