Since flights can represent the biggest part of your trip expenses, finding that hidden cheap deal can be just as important as finding the right destination, the right tour company, the right backpack, or the right place to stay. After all, if a flight is too expensive, you aren’t going anywhere – and today I am going to help you master how to find a cheap flight. These are the exact steps I follow. If you follow them too, you’ll never be the person on a flight who paid the most for their ticket!
First, know that there are many reasons why flights are expensive. Bankruptcy has meant that airlines, which are under pressure to make a profit, can’t reduce fares as much, and limited competition gives them less incentive to do so. Additionally, since airlines have slashed routes and capacity, they are flying full planes. Fuller planes also means less incentive to reduce fares. And though oil prices have fallen substantially, airlines aren’t going to lower fares, because for the first time in a long time, they are making money and they don’t want to stop! (More: Why your airfare is so expensive.)
But that doesn’t mean the deck is fully stacked against you. Every day the airlines have thousands of killer deals – from mistakenly published cheap fares to normal deals to slashed prices to compete with another airline. Cheap fares are out there if you know how to find them.
1. Ignore the myths
There are many myths online about finding cheap flights. They will lead you astray. The first thing to know about finding a cheap flight is there is no magic bullet or one secret ninja trick. So let me first say: it is NOT cheaper to buy airfare on a Tuesday, there is NO evidence that searching incognito leads to cheaper deals, and there is NO exact date or specific time period in which to book your airfare.
2. Be flexible with your travel dates and times
Airline ticket prices vary depending on the day of the week, time of year, and upcoming holidays, such as Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July. August is a big month for traveling around Europe, and everyone wants to go somewhere warm in the winter or travel when the kids are out of school.
If you are going to fly when everyone is flying, then you’re going to pay higher fares. Try to be flexible with your dates. If you are dead-set on visiting Paris, go to Paris in the spring or fall when fewer people visit and airfares are cheaper.
Moreover, it’s always cheaper to fly during the middle of the week than on a weekend, because most people travel on the weekends and airlines hike their prices then. Prices are also cheaper if you fly after a major holiday. Early-morning or late-night flights are cheaper because fewer people want to travel then (who wants to wake up early?!). The difference of one day can mean hundreds of dollars in savings.
That is why this is my #1 tip on finding cheap flights. You’ll save the most money if you fly when no one else is flying. You may have always longed for Paris in the summer but so has everyone else and the airlines price accordingly. They know when a festival, holiday, major sports event, or school break is coming up. They aren’t dumb – and they raises prices accordingly.
Be flexible when you fly and you’ll start way ahead of everyone else!
3. Be flexible with your destinations
If you can’t be flexible when you fly, at least be flexible with where you fly. It’s best to be both, but if you really want to save the most money on a flight, you should at least do one!
Airline search engines have made it really easy to search the entire world to find the cheapest ticket – you no longer have to search manually. Kayak offers the “Explore” tool that allows you to put in your home airport and see a map of the world with all the flights on it; Google Flights also has a similar (and better) feature. If you are flexible with where you want to go (i.e., anywhere but home), these are wonderful tools to start your planning with. It looks like this:
Step 1: Go to Google Flights and click the map:
searching Google Flights for cheap airline tickets
Step 2: Put in your dates and home airport and enjoy all your options! Finding Cheap Flights Using Google Flights
The truth about airfare is that there’s always a deal to some destination, and if you’re flexible on where you want to go, you’ll be able to find and use that deal.
When you are locked into one place at one time, you are stuck with whatever price shows up. No voodoo can change that. BUT when you become flexible, suddenly the entire world opens up to you and you’ll find amazing cheap airfare!
4. Fly budget carriers
Years ago, if you wanted to fly between continents, you were mostly stuck with traditional expensive airlines. That’s no longer true. Budget airlines now service many long-haul routes, making it possible to bounce around the world for little money. Norwegian Airlines allows you to fly between Europe and Bangkok for about $250 each way. WOW air is introducing cheap flights to Iceland and Europe from the United States for as little as $99. AirAsia offers crazy-cheap deals around Asia and Australia for as little as $100 each way. You can find even tickets from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur for $30 USD. Indian and Middle Eastern airlines offer cheap flights throughout the subcontinent and Africa. You can fly most of the way around the world on a budget airline!
In America, there are only a handful of budget airlines. But in Europe and Asia, there are more, and competition has kept prices there low. Many times, these low-cost airlines offer no-fare tickets – you pay just the taxes.
Flying the budget airlines is a good alternative to flying “the majors” whenever possible. You get fewer perks, but you can save a bundle in price.
Just be sure to watch out for fees. That’s how they make money, so if you don’t follow their rules, you’ll get hit with a gigantic fee! Budget airlines will charge you for checked bags, carry-ons, printing your boarding pass, using a credit card, and anything else they can get away with. Be sure to add up the cost of the ticket AND the fees to make sure that the price is lower than a larger carrier.
Whenever I am not flying a long, overnight flight, I fly these airlines as much as possible. The best budget airlines are Southwest, Spirit, Ryanair, WOW, Norwegian, Tiger Airways, flyDubai, and AirAsia.
(Pro tip: If you aren’t a junkie like me and know which budget airlines fly where, visit your destination airport’s website to get a list of airlines that fly there.)
5. Don’t always fly direct
Not only does it help to be flexible with dates and destinations but try being flexible with the route you take, too. Sometimes it’s cheaper to fly to London and take a budget airline to Amsterdam than to fly direct to Amsterdam. There are so many budget carriers around the world that taking advantage of a good deal to another city and then hopping on a budget flight to your destination is sometimes the best way to go. I had to go to Paris once; the flight was $900 USD, but I could fly to Dublin for $600 and get a $60 flight to Paris. It meant more flying time, but the $240 I saved was worth it.
