Do you want to make sure that you are getting the best possible price? Read our top 10 tips that will teach you how to find cheap flights.
1) It helps to be flexible with dates and time It also helps you get the best deals!
2) You may want to consider travelling outside of the normal holiday season. Apart from the more affordable prices, this will improve your experience in every possible way, travelling off season you will not have to deal with a flood of other tourists getting into your pictures.
3) The best departure times Once you have decided on the season it helps to remember that the cheapest flights are usually in the middle of the week and at inconvenient times such as in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. On the other side, Friday after work is the most expensive time to fly.
4) Consider the airports nearby An airport nearby may be just as good but considerably cheaper. For instance, if you plan to visit a certain city, consider flying to a neighbouring city and taking other means of transport. Another example would be a road trip through Asia - you could choose the starting location according to the cheapest available flight.
5) Book tickets at the right time It turns out that flights are cheapest about 6 weeks before takeoff. Even though you may be excited to fly away, try not to book too early. By the time 3 weeks remain, the price will rise considerably.
6) Use your browsers private browsing mode If you keep checking the price of a specific flight, again and again, prices may go up simply because the airline will understand that you are interested in that particular flight. Airlines can use browser tracking features in order to keep track and analyse your behaviour. One way to avoid any such scenario is to switch to a private browser window before you go check tickets. For Chrome the hotkey is CMD+SHIFT+N and for Firefox CMD+SHIFT+P.
7) Use a Watchdog to keep an eye on prices A great way to keep up to date on ticket prices is a Watchdog. Several services exist but one that is particularly practical is an APP from Skyscanner. Using this iOS app / Android app you can keep track of ticket prices no matter where you happen to be when prices hit rock bottom.
8) If you are a student, make sure to check for discounts Good news for everyone still studying - it's not just museums and public transportation that offer student discounts. Sometimes you just need to take a break from studying and fly to the other side of the world. Sites like statravel.com or Flight Centre will help you find those tickets.
9) Do not purchase tickets in larger groups Should you buy tickets for a group, you might want to buy the tickets individually or in smaller groups. Airlines will often attempt to seat groups together, which may be nice for families, but may result in higher prices. This is because some seats are more expensive than others and the larger your group is, the more likely it becomes to include some of these seats.
10) Budget airlines There are a lot of budget airlines these days and some of them also offer long-haul flights. In Asia, you can board an AirAsia flight to a neighbouring country or tourist hotspot for less money than you would spend for a taxi ride back home.
This concludes our advice on how to find cheap flights. If you are uncertain about where to start looking for flights, we recommend that you try out a meta search-engine like Skyscanner. A meta search-engine will quickly give you an overview of available flights. We have also integrated a widget below to help you get started.
