How to Find Cheap Airlines
We've all had the same tedious searching experiences whenever attempting to find very cheap airlines to take you from point a to point b. But with so many search engines and constantly fluctuating flight rates, the road to budget airline booking is nearly always a nightmare. If you want to save time, many frustrations, and above all money when booking airlines, use my 5 top secrets.
5 Top Secrets to Book Cheap Airlines
1. Always keep your searches incognito
You're not insane for imagining that a flight ticket price has changed only after searching it a number of times using your web browser. Due to the cookies in your web browser, airline ticket prices in fact do increase when a certain route is often searched, for the website wishes to frighten you into buying the flight fast prior to rates rising even higher. Make it a high priority to always look for all flights in incognito to check the cheapest prices.
Incognito is possible by pressing Command or Control with a PC in Google Chrome or Safari. For Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, press Command or Control with PC. This will open a new browser window where your current information is not recorded, therefore not boosting prices while you search.
Your cookies are again reset every time you re-open an incognito window. If you wish to begin with a clean slate for every flight search to avoid being remembered and skyrocketing prices, shut all your incognito windows, open a new one, and only then start performing your new flight search.
2. Use great flight search engines
Keep in mind that all search engines will provide inflated flight costs due to taking a cut from the airlines. Because certain search engines often inflate a lot higher than most, it's worth familiarizing yourself with sites which offer much better flight prices. Use the following to book:
- Skyscanner
- Skiplagged
- Airfarewatchdog
- Kiwi.com
- Momondo
- Google Flights
- JetRadar
Know that no one search engine is constantly perfect. And because of this fact you might need to attempt a mix of search engines to be sure you're not overlooking any significant results.
3. Identify what day is the cheapest to fly out
Although several theories surround booking particularly on a Tuesday, the truth is that there exists no such thing to substantiate exactly which days happen to be the cheapest for traveling. But often it's cheaper to depart on a weekday, although this is not always the case. So, the best tactic is to attain a fast visual of ticket prices for an entire month to check what days are lowest for your particular route. Here's exactly how:
Step 1. Go to Skyscanner
Step 2. Type in your departure and arrival cities
Step 3. Pick "one-way" (even if traveling round trip, for you're only trying to figure out the cheapest days to fly out)
Step 4. On a computer: press "Depart" but instead of typing a date, choose "Whole Month," and next "Cheapest Month" in order to search all dates to check which is the lowest. Press "Search flights" to see which date is the lowest.
In the mobile app: Tap the departure date, next change the view to "Chart." You could swipe either left and right to locate the cheapest day, and press one of the bars to check the price.
4. Travel for free with points
Since the cheapest flight you can get is free, the best way to achieve this is with points. But if you have none, just sign up for one travel rewards credit card and reaching the minimum spend could provide you with significant bonus points, frequently enough to qualify for a free flight.
You could sign up for any airline rewards card which earns you points with a certain airline. As a novice, you are advised to try Chase Sapphire Preferred Card which allows you to earn up to 60,000 bonus points if you spend $4000 in the initial three months after opening your account.
You are recommended to use your card for daily shopping, treating it like cash, using the money you got in the bank, and most importantly, paying off your balance every month. This is how you will not get charged interest and you'll be rewarded points for free.
5. Befriend low-cost airlines
Low-cost airlines provide much cheaper tickets as opposed to their full-service rivals. Although obvious, this benefit comes with certain drawbacks like less leg room and no free food.
If you are thinking to use a budget airline, here are a few important tips:
1. See where the airport site is, for some low-cost airlines do fly to airports located further out of the target city.
2. Be sure you have booked and paid for your luggage allowance. Follow the limitations on height, weight, and number of bags permitted. Certain airlines will charge a high fee if you exceed.
3. Read the fine print. In summary, always read and follow instructions to avoid paying extra fees.
