Until I learned how to fly for free, flights were often the most expensive part of my trips. Even though I only book economy class tickets, airfare is still stupid expensive! Here are my 5 best tips to save money on flights.
Be Flexible
This first tip is the hardest. In order to save money on flights, you need to be as flexible as possible. I know, I know – we all just want to book the flight we want when we want it. But to save money on flights, you need to compromise!
Dates
Most of us think our vacation needs to start on a Saturday and end on a Sunday. But does this have to be so? I have embraced the mid-week to mid-week vacation and haven’t looked back. You will save money on flights if you can travel mid-week, so look for departures on Tuesday or Wednesday.
You will also save money on flights if you travel on dates that fewer people are traveling. Find out what the off-season is of the place you are wanting to travel to and go then. You will also benefit from smaller crowds when you get there! Or look for shoulder seasons. This is the period of time between low and high season that typically offer better weather than low season but fewer crowds than high season.
Destination
Who says that you have to name the place you are vacationing this year? Instead, name a region or continent you want to visit and be ready to book deals! There are a lot of ways to find great deals. You can use Kayak Anywhere to search for deals from your home airport. Google Flights Explore also gives great suggestions. There’s also an online tool called FlightList that allows you to search by country or region for specific or open dates. For example, you can search from the U.S. to Europe for flights the custom date range you select. I just did this search with a date range of June 1-August 31 and learned that I can fly to Reykjavik from New York or Boston for many dates in August for only $195 one way!
Please note – if you use one of these online tools and spot a great price, make sure you are booking directly with the airline. Sometimes you may be booking through an online travel agency instead. You may save a buck or two when doing this. But if you need to make any changes, it can be incredibly difficult to do so since you book through a third party. If you find a great price on a consolidator, search for that same booking on the airline’s official website and book there.
Times
When you look at flights, you will notice that the most expensive flights tend to have less time hassles than those that are less expensive. But often if you are willing to leave at an ungodly hour in the morning or arrive late at night, you can save a buck or two. And you can definitely save money if you suffer through long or multiple layovers! Layovers aren’t always so bad. If you have the right credit card, you can enjoy relaxing in a lounge with free food and drinks. And long layovers can also give you a chance to explore the city you are passing through!
Track Prices
Another way to save money on flights is to track flight prices, both before and after booking. Obviously, you want to book the lowest cost fare in the first place. But even after you book, keep monitoring. Unless you are purchasing a basic economy fare, you can often get a flight credit for rebooking if the ticket price goes down. There are tons of tools out there to help you track flight prices, and most work similarly.
Google Flights
Before you book, check out the dates and price graphs on Google Flights. These will tell you if the dates you have chosen are the cheapest or if flight prices seem abnormally high for that time period. If you have a Google account, you can also set up the “track prices” alert feature for your trip. Simply toggle the button by the dates next to the Track Prices option, and Google will send you alerts to your Gmail account if the price goes down. All of these features work on both one way and round trip flights, but not on multi-city flights.
Kayak
Kayak works similarly to Google Flights but has a handy added feature. You do need to create a Kayak account to unlock it. Then you can conduct your search. Once complete, there’s a box on the left-hand side of the screen that tells you whether to buy now or hold off based on historical data. You can also toggle the Track Prices bottom to receive email alerts for when pricing changes. The benefit of using Kayak over Google Flights is that it searches online travel agencies that often have the best pricing. It is usually best to start with Google Flights to narrow down your dates and destination, and then use Kayak to ensure you are getting the best price.
Similar Tools
I think a combination of Google Flights and Kayak are sufficient for most people. But there are other tools out there that do similar things that you may prefer. These include Airfare Watchdog, Skyscanner, Momondo, Hopper, and many others. It doesn’t hurt to play around with the various options to see which you like best.
Remember my note above – no matter where you find your flight, ALWAYS go to the actual airline’s official website to book your ticket. Many times you can find the exact same pricing there as on these other tools.
Alert Emails
Another option is to sign up for one of the many services that send you emails or texts on great airfare deals. Most offer free and paid versions. If you are flexible and can travel spontaneously, then the paid versions will probably pay for themselves with the amount of money you will save on flights. I am not in a flexible phase of life, nor am I spontaneous at all. So I just sign up for the free versions. It is helpful to see what the prices are, what’s considered a deal, and when they usually happen. After a while, you can get a good idea of where to go and when to go there for the best deal.
Some popular services include Going, Thrifty Traveler, Ashley Gets Around, Dollar Flight Club, and Jack’s Flight Club. One word of warning – you are going to be bombarded with emails, so you probably want to limit yourself to 1-2 initially.
Know When to Book
Advice changes on when to book flights all the time, but here are the current best practice to save money on flights. Book flights on a Sunday about 40 days prior to domestic travel and 60 days prior to international travel. Travel domestically on Tuesdays or Wednesdays and internationally on Thursdays. Travel domestically in January and February and internationally in August for the lowest airfare.
Think Outside the Box
Sometimes saving money on flights requires creative thinking. Let’s say you signed up for one of the alert emails discussed above. An email alert comes in with a great deal on a flight to Paris on the exact dates you are looking for. Except it doesn’t depart from your home airport. You may find it worthwhile to take what’s known as a repositioning flight to get you to the departure city.
You will have to crunch the numbers to see if buying the ticket deal plus a repositioning flight saves you money, but often it will. And you will want to budget for an extra hotel night in the departure city. You will want to travel to the departure city the day before, just in case something goes wrong with the repositioning flight. Often you are repositioning to a big city, so make it mini-vacation and see a site or two when you arrive and before you depart on your “real” vacation!
You can also reposition away from your arrival city. Let’s say that email alert about a flight to Paris on the exact dates you want does leave from your home airport. Except you wanted to go to London. Buy the ticket, then search for a cheap flight or train ticket to London. Often it’s very cheap and easy to get from place to place in Europe or Asia once you are already in the region.
Another creative idea is to check fares for both round trip and one way flights. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes it can be cheaper to buy two one way flights than a round trip.
Travel Hack
My final recommendation is not to worry about flight prices at all by travel hacking! Booking flights with points and miles is easy and extremely lucrative. And I have a ton of posts that will help you get started earning those points and miles. It’s easy, fun, and just makes sense to leverage your everyday spending to travel the world for free!
What’s your best tip to save money on flights?
Tell us below! You can also contact us and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest so you never miss a post!
