Paying for flights can be the most expensive part of any travel plan. While prices have dropped significantly in the last decade, it can still sometimes mean a big chunk of your holiday budget is spent on plane tickets.
However, if you know how to manage it, airlines offer a ton of fantastic deals all the time, and finding a cheap flight can be easier than you think. Here are some of our best tips.
Airline tickets pricing is highly volatile and can vary based on several factors. If you can be flexible and fly in off-seasons, you’re far more likely to find cheaper tickets. Flying mid-week instead of the weekend is another trick that can help you save some money.
Many explorer tools allow you to simply add your home airport and find a map of the world with flights to and from the place. You can easily compare several destinations – some you probably haven’t even thought of before now.
Gone are the times when all you had was a handful of airlines who could command steep prices to go almost anywhere. Today there are tons of budget carriers servicing short, medium, and long haul routes. These days you can fly almost anywhere inexpensively if you’re willing to sacrifice a little comfort of paying a little extra for a few upgrades.
Keeping your ear to the ground for great deals is another easy way to grab a cheap ticket and be on your way. Consider signing up for airline newsletters, last-minute deal websites, and, if you can wing it, frequent flier bonuses.
Finding a cheap airline ticket is about searching multiple websites or apps. While each of them have their own sets of pros and cons, we’d recommend starting with the ones that list all major and budget airlines first. Searching non-English and English websites is another way experts stumble upon great deals.
The best travel hackers will also advise you to search for single-person pricing. You can most often pick seats next to each other at checkout. Finally, leveraging student discounts, taking the long route to your destination, or mixing and matching airlines can help you travel the world without breaking the bank.