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
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
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.
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
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 $$$.
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
