Book Cheap Flight Tickets
Whether you have plans to vacation in South America, Europe, or elsewhere, here I have a couple of my favorite tactics to book cheap flight tickets.
With flight ticket rates changing by the minute, nowadays you're far more likely to overpay for flights without even knowing!
If you're tired of overpaying each time you fly somewhere, learn a few tactics and discover how to find cheap flight tickets and save a lot of money.
8 Ninja Tactics to Find Cheap Flight Tickets
1. Find out what are the cheapest days to travel
Certainly, it's almost impossible to begin booking a vacation with endless dates floating in your head, but if you could be just a bit flexible, it could make an enormous difference.
Opting to travel within the week is cheaper as opposed to weekends, and days like Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and even Saturdays are particularly great for discounts as they happen to be unpopular days to fly.
Many airline websites have removed the barrier for identifying cheap days to travel by providing a calendar view booking method which permits you to see flight rates across the entire week you're looking for.
The comparison website Skyscanner has streamlined this process by showing flight ticket prices in a cute little graph and revealing which days are the cheapest to travel.
In addition, consider carefully in regard to the time of day that you book the flight for. It may just turn out to be cheaper to get that 6:00 am flight, but seriously think about reaching the airport at that particular time prior to deciding. Some public transportation services may not be available that early.
2. Check which destinations are available
It's good to know that peak season in Europe in general isn't always peak season somewhere else around the world, for flight rates could differ depending on which location you're traveling to.
This tactic is intended for the genuine adventurous flyers; if you are those who are not so picky about where you might end up traveling to and are prepared for an adventure, try this clever little tactic.
1. Go to Skyscanner
2. Enter the airport name you would want to leave from
3. Click on the destination field as though about to input something and soon a box should show up with an "Everywhere" choice
4. Pick this, then choose your dates and press search
5. You'll be given a list of all available flights departing from your selected airport on that specific date, ranging from the cheapest to the more expensive
This is a fabulous tactic if you could not be flexible with your dates, but are willing to go somewhere completely different. Don't let the places you have never thought of before discourage you; conduct a little research online so you can learn if the destination has all the sand, sea, and sun and much more you're searching for.
3. Utilize flight rate search engines
You are perhaps tired of reading this by now, however, as with almost everything you buy, shopping around and conducting research is still the best route to make sure you're actually booking a great deal.
The good news is that there exists a ton of practical websites that help make airfare comparison a lot easier and even far less time consuming.
Try utilizing websites like Hotels.com or Expedia to find out if you could book a great deal as a bundle such as flights and lodging before going to airline websites to learn if it turns out cheaper to book individually.
The best flight comparison websites are:
- Momondo offers a graph displaying the cheapest days to travel surrounding the dates you have looked for. In addition, you could change the search to concentrate on the fastest route if that happens to be a major priority to you.
- Skyscanner
- Travel Supermarket
- Kayak
4. Since last minute deals are not always cheaper, book early!
Although last minute deals are reputed to be a cheap option, they rarely are. When was the last occasion you waited till the last minute to buy your flight ticket to a destination and were happily shocked to learn the ticket price was much less than they were previously? Yep, never happened to me either.
The other approach is to book flights early--up to a whole year ahead. Seats on airlines usually are cheaper when they are initially released around a year prior to the actual flight, so go online when flights become available to the public.
Although the flight prices will perhaps sink again prior to going up in the last couple days before the airline leaves, that's probably not the kind of risk you want to take since there's no guarantee that prices won't drop at all.
But, if you are a little more flexible, then it's surely worth exploring websites such as lastminute.com, for they publish flights which suddenly dip in price while the departure date nears.
If you wish to know if it's worth departing late, check out the Hopper app. Only enter where you would like to travel from/to, and the app will give you a prediction when flight ticket prices are likely to go up and drop, based on the rates of millions of flights occurring through the past years.
5. Beware of additional charges on budget airlines
When booking airline flights, especially with low-cost airlines, don't let prices that appear unexplainably cheap deceive you.
Several promotional price points conceal extra charges. From air taxes, seat selection to baggage fees--there's an entire host of things which might increase the price.
Know that air taxes frequently consist of the bulk of the rate of any flight ticket, so don't be fooled by all the low-cost airlines promoting their flights at outrageously low prices.
Ensure you make it a priority to check what is included in your booking prior to pressing the final button to book the flight. Airlines could be especially underhanded by adding stuff such as travel insurance automatically without even asking if you need it first.
Also, try to fly light if possible. Hand luggage is generally free. Avoid getting penalized by weight and dimension limitations; just weigh and measure your bag prior to going there.
Do not get the idea either that low-cost airlines can't be a good value after you've factored in the additional charges; so don't become too excited right away. Think of all the potential additional costs, and be careful about being penalized at the airport, for that's how they make their profit.
6. Go incognito while booking flights
Remain anonymous, the more the better, during the searching phase is perhaps one of the most critical keys to booking the cheapest flights.
Flight ticket rates fluctuate depending on supply and demand. But this means that you may learn that when you've had your heart set on a specific flight and have been returning just to see the price constantly rising, this may be due to the airline knowing that you're prone to book it so naturally are attempting to squeeze a couple more dollars out of you.
Thus, erase your search cookies and then see what occurs to the price after wiping clean your browser history.
Another way is to search always in an incognito browser by opening a new window or tab. This option completely hides your identity and location from airlines to prevent their prices to be influenced.
7. Purchase flight tickets with your credit card
Use your credit card wisely and you can save a load of cash.
The fabulous thing about most credit cards is they protect the customer when making bigger purchases; so, if you pay more than $200, you will not lose any money if the airline company goes bankrupt.
Since debit cards aren't protected and you can in fact pay off the whole credit card balance at the end of the month, choose the credit card option. Plus, credit cards are far better for shopping abroad and offer better exchange rates as opposed to a debit card.
Know that you could in addition earn air miles with some credit cards which will reward you miles for each dollar spent, and several credit cards also give you cashback every time you fly. This means that even if you just spend a little more on your current flight, you may see some return.
8. Connecting flights could be cheaper
Whenever booking long-haul flight to anywhere, it'll almost always be cheaper to book a flight having a connection somewhere instead of a direct one. Although this will eventually prolong your traveling time, it does provide the opportunity to stretch properly.
Uncheck the "direct flights only" field on comparison websites to learn if prices are any cheaper.
Be fully aware that you can run the risk with this option: if your first flight is delayed, this can cause you to miss a connecting flight.
If you're not in a hurry, it may be a good idea to consider a layover to help reduce costs. Search individually for connecting flights to learn if it'd be cheaper to stay a day or longer somewhere else in route; think of it as just another mini vacation.
