cheap flights Archives - Salty Sweet Journeys

How many times have you started looking for flights online and you just get confused and overwhelmed? There are so many flight options, prices, add-ons and the list continues. How do you get the best price? I’ve got you covered! These are my Top 5 Tips on How to Book the Cheapest Flights Online.

Use a search engine

search engine to find the cheapest flight online — Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

Use a website like Skyscanner to get an overall idea of cost and airlines that fly to your destination. Skyscanner will bring up all the search results from cheapest to most expensive. Look at stopover options and see if it’s worth getting a flight with additional layover time. Consider budget airlines but make sure you add up all the extras when booking!

Read more super useful tips on how to find out if you are Really Getting a Good Deal on Skyscanner HERE in my other post!

Compare different airports

comparing different airports can save you money when looking at booking flights — Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

It’s worth checking all the flights that depart from ALL your closest airports in the country you are flying from – and do the same thing in your destination. If you don’t mind adding some additional travel time, adding a train, bus or a budget connecting flight could save lots.

Adding on a low cost flight

Think of Europe for example where the countries are all fairly close. If you book early you can snap up fares on budget airlines for less than $100 AUD / $60 USD one way. If you can’t get an affordable fare to the exact city you are after, fly to another city and tag on a budget flight to where you need to go! Just make sure that you have accounted for luggage fees and the correct airports for the connections. This is so that you don’t end up having to pay costly transfers between airports.

Buses and other land travel are a way to save money when travelling — Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Add on some land travel

The other option is also taking land travel like trains or buses to get to your destination. If you are travelling in Europe to the south of Spain to Seville for example – you might find that flights to nearby Malaga are more affordable at the time of travel. You can then reach Seville with a bus for less than 10 EUR / 10 USD in a few hours! You can read more of my Tips HERE on How to Save Money when Travelling around Europe.

Get in early

booking early is another tip on how to book the cheapest flights online — Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

Book early! Especially for international flights, as a general rule at least 3+ months before flying. Leaving a flight booking very last minute hoping to get a cheap deal – is very unlikely to work out for you. You will generally pay more the closer to the departure date. Compared to booking hotels where during off season you can probably snap up a bargain last minute, it doesn’t really work like that with prices for airfares.

You also have to think that for certain destinations eg. Europe, there is still a massive backlog of people wanting to travel due to the borders being closed for so long for the COVID pandemic. That means that especially for peak season, demand is high, availability is limited and prices reflect that, by being $$$.

europe in peak season — Image by Jose’ Soto from Pixabay

A good practice is to look well in advance and to set up airfare price alerts like this one on Skyscanner. The alerts will give you an indication on when the prices fluctuate.

If you are looking at flying specifically for a large international events eg. World Cup / Grand Prix – look and book much more in advance, potentially once the dates for the events you want to attend are released.

Be flexible with dates

being flexible with dates, a top tip on how to book the cheapest flights online — Image by Károly Váltó from Pixabay

A bit of a no-brainer on How to Book the Cheapest Flights Online is to be flexible! Airlines price their seats based on supply and demand. Flights prices change multiple times a day, every single day. Across one week you can find more often than not, the exact same flight has different prices every day. So how do you find the cheapest day to fly?

How airlines price their seats

A lot of factors affect the pricing of airfares and it’s mainly driven by searches and seats sold. Economy class seats for example are classed in many more different ‘subclasses’, even though they are all economy seats. A certain amount of seats are allocated from cheapest to most expensive subclass. Once the cheapest subclass allocation is exhausted – it goes to the next subclass that cost more and so on, you get the point.

pricing seats understanding is important when looking at booking a flight — Image by Stuart Bailey from Pixabay

Check shoulder dates

If you are searching for particular day to fly – definitely check a day before or after too if you can. You might see that there is a difference with the cost!

Cheapest days of the week to fly

Flights on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday are usually the cheapest to fly domestic and international.

On the search engine sites eg. like Skyscanner, when selecting your dates you can also see a heatmap showing the cheapest days to fly within your chosen month. That is extremely helpful to pick the cheapest dates if you are flexible.

Book only from reputable sources

When you are looking at fares and are ready to book, have a good look at the booking sites and make sure it’s a reputable source.

If you are packaging the flights with accommodation sites like Expedia and getting a great deal with your points for example, you are dealing with a well known global company. But, if you are looking at a site that may be a few hundred dollars cheaper and you have never heard of them, I would hold off handing over the credit card. There could be hidden fees that only appear once you are at the checkout page that might take you by surprise and, who do you contact if you need support or if something goes wrong?

parked plane — Image by Tobias Rehbein from Pixabay

Benefits of booking directly with the airline

There might be a number of specific reasons that you are choosing to book with other companies rather than the airline directly and that is very much down to the individual. If you are choosing to book directly with the airline, these are some of the benefits:

If you have an issue with your ticket or need to amend something, you can contact the airline directly and they can solve the issue for you immediately.
If you have booked through a third party (that includes online travel sites), generally any amendments will need to be done via the third party. If you call the airline, they will not be able to help you as the reservation is held by someone else. They could be hard to get a hold of and you might be stuck waiting for a while for a change to be made. They also may need to go back to the airline to get approval for changes.
The fare rules should be displayed clearly by the airline for the airfare you are booking. If you have to cancel and get a refund for example – the airline would generally have a set fee. The third party may have additional fees that they take. Again it might take a while for any refunds to be processed when there is a third party involved.

calculator and pen — Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

To sum it up

Hope you found the above Tips useful on How to Book the Cheapest Flights Online! To sum it up:

Do your research and use a search engine to compare airlines and travel times
Check different airports to see if the prices are better
Book early
Be flexible with your travel dates
Book from reputable sources – you will be thankful if something goes wrong!

Ready to book? Jump on SkyScanner HERE and start researching your next holiday!

Found this post useful? Read more on my other post Are you Really Getting a Good Deal on Skyscanner HERE.

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Want to grab yourself a good deal on a flight and are looking on a search engine like Skyscanner? There is a lot more to it than just the price you see when you are seeing a cheap airfare advertised. This is what you need to know to make sure you are really getting a good deal on Skyscanner.

Why use a search engine to search for flights

Using a search engine like Skyscanner is a great way to get an overall idea of cost and to see what airlines fly to your destination. In my article on How to Book the Cheapest Flights Online there are also a few more tips you can read on the topic. With Skyscanner you can search for ‘whole month’ in the depart and return fields, to get an overview on what are the cheapest dates to fly. If you have some flexibility with dates, this is a super handy tool rather than having to look at individually day by day at fares. It will also save you loads of time instead of looking at each date on different airlines websites!

Skyscanner generally will surface all the search results from cheapest to most expensive airlines. Note that no different to any other search engine – some airlines might be paying for that top placement on the list. So even if they are not the cheapest, ensure to adjust your filters for the price or keep scrolling till you have a look at all the available options.

Adjusting Filters: Stopovers or Direct Flights. Are you really getting a good deal on Skyscanner?

On Skyscanner, an important step is to adjust your filters to the left. These are mainly around the stops (if you want to fly direct or with a stopover) and the trip duration. Have a think about your trip and how many hours you want to fly to get there.

Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay

Consider this – you might save some money if you do a layover and it takes an extra few hours – but, it may also mean that extra hours at the airport = more purchases, like meals, airport lounge and, lets not kid ourselves.. shopping. Getting to your destination later, might also mean you miss a day at your destination and you end up paying for a night in a hotel that you only use for a handful of hours which would be a waste. Add all those things up and work out if it’s worth it based on your budget.

airport lounge. is the long layover time mean you are getting a good deal? — Image by Stela Di from Pixabay

Calculating total costs: Airlines Add-Ons

In the search engines, budget airlines will usually appear at the top of the searches as the cheapest but consider that there may be some additional expenses that are generally not part of their basic fare that is displayed. Some of the most common add ons on are:

Meals and drinks
Luggage
Entertainment including wi-fi access
Seat allocation fees
Processing fees to pay with a particular credit card type
Flexibility and higher fees for changing dates / refunds
Airport Check-in fees

Note also that in recent years many full service airlines are also now adopting this model of offering a lower cost basic fare – but many inclusions like seat allocations that you might think are included are now a add on.

Ryanair plane flying. Are you really getting a good deal when you see the price? Consider the extras — Image by Dirk Daniel Mann from Pixabay

Downsides of using a search engine to compare fares

There are two downsides to comparing flight prices with a search engine:

You cannot see the final price with all the extras: The search engines will usually only display the airfare cost – but again, what airlines include as part of their ticket offering differs greatly. The only way to see the absolute final price you will pay – is by going in the site you choose and pretending you are making the booking right up till the final booking screen (before clicking Pay of course) which will display the final price with all the extras and processing fees.

It cannot work out fares or makes it difficult to compare when it’s a complex itinerary: Search engines start to get a bit more complicated to use if the itinerary is a complex one that involves multiple stops. Once you also start going across more than 2 continents, the ticket is technically a Round The World ticket. For these you are probably better off going on a Round The World site like One World to check fares.

Around the world flights - are you really getting a good deal when searching on a search engine — Image by Alexas Fotos from Pixabay

If it all gets too confusing – it is also worth going to a local travel agent to check how you can get to your destinations. They will know what will be the best way to organize and break down your itinerary and give you an idea of price, so you will then have a better starting point to do your research.

Which are the best flight search engines

Aside from Skyscanner, which is my favourite search engine when looking for flights, there are also some other great ones that you can check out!

Hope you found these tips useful to find out if you are really getting a good deal on Skyscanner!

If you liked this article, check out my other post – How To Book The Cheapest Flights Online.

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