Covid-19 shook up the world, but thankfully air travel has moved back to near normalcy. Despite the crazy hike in flight prices, discovering cheap flights and traveling the world is an attainable goal that everyone, especially us millennials, are taking advantage of. But where should you look? Which apps are the best to use? Does purchasing tickets at a specific time of day or day of the week matter? What about booking flights through cheap third party sites? Don't worry, I've got you covered with ALL the answers you need.
1. Book your Flights on a Tuesday?
There was a well known tip in the travel community that the best day to purchase flights were on Tuesdays, and this was mainly due to Tuesdays being the day when airline companies dropped their flight promotions/deals, and this would force any competition to price match (ever hear of Travel Tuesday flight deals?). As of now though, booking a cheap flight can happen during any day of the week and at any time. What actually makes the most difference is the time frame of when you book vs. when you plan to fly out. Booking a flight a few months out will usually show you cheaper prices than booking a few weeks in advance, and if you're more of a risk-taker you can even find super cheap last-minute flight deals. Also, what DAY you fly out makes a huge difference; flying out during a weekday (preferably Monday-Thursday) will almost always be cheaper than flying out (or returning back home) on a Saturday or Sunday. In general, I prefer to use websites like Google Flights or Skyscanner to do the work of finding the best flight deals for me, and turning on their alerts for flights I'm interested in has been a Godsend, but I'll get to those details later.
2. Book a Trip During Your Destination's Shoulder Season
Buying tickets to your preferred destination during their shoulder season is a great way to save some coins. Everyone wants to visit Greece and Italy during the summer months (understandably), but ticket prices tend to skyrocket since that is high season for those countries. Booking a visit in say, September or October, will give you much lower price options, while still staying away from frigid temperatures. You could also book your trip during low season and will likely see the cheapest flight deals, but you may face little to no local business presence. Do your research beforehand on where you want to go, and when their high/low/shoulder seasons are. Plus, shoulder season typically means less crowds and I'd say, a decidedly better trip.
3. Try Flying Into a Different Airport/Cheaper Destination
Flying into an airport that is a little further from the city center of your destination will usually give you cheaper priced tickets. Just make sure to do the research on how far the airport is from where you plan to spend most of your time, and account for any additional costs to get to your accommodations (Uber/Lyft, public transportation, etc). For example, to get to Tokyo, you can fly into either Haneda or Narita airport, and while Narita will typically turn out cheaper flight prices, it's about an hour and a half away from the main center of Tokyo and will cost you a little extra to get to your AirBnb/Hotel.
Another tip for cheaper flights is to fly into a cheaper-priced destination, and then choose how you'd like to get to your final destination from there. This could mean flying into say, London, and then taking a short flight from there to Morocco, since it is much cheaper to fly from Europe than to do a direct flight from the USA. You can also utilize ferries and train systems to get to your final destination as well.
4. Check Flight Prices on a Private Browser
Yep, they're watching you! *waves to my personal FBI agent*; no but seriously, when not using a private browser, its easier to track the flights that you're considering purchasing (because of the cookies saved in your browser; but don't ask me about details on that because I'm not an IT guru lol), and this in turn will have the prices you're looking at spike upwards.
5. Purchase Your Tickets at the Airport
Now, in my opinion, this only really works (and is worth it) for budget airlines like Spirit and Frontier. Living close to the airport is also a plus. You can actually save upwards of $40 on a roundtrip ticket because you won't be charged the online booking fee that is added onto your ticket price for purchasing online.
6. Book Separate One-way Tickets
Sites like CheapOAir utilize this to find the cheapest fares for you, but you could also do this on your own! Sometimes, just by buying separate one-way tickets to and from your destination can turn out much cheaper prices for you. This is normally due to flying on different airlines for each trip, but it's definitely worth it with the money saved.
7. Utilize Flight Deal Predictor Sites/Apps
There are so many different options when it comes to websites and apps that will help you find the best flight deals. Here, I'll give a brief overview of my favorites, and a few you've maybe never thought to look into:
Google Flights - By far, my FAVORITE site to use to find cheap flight deals (you also have the option to look for hotel deals as well!) and there are so many different features that can help you plan your best trip while also helping your pockets. If you want in-depth explanations on how to best use all of its features, check out these youtube videos from fellow black girl travelers LivingLikeJ and Traveling With Niqua!
Skyscanner - This website/app is another one of my favorites! The Explore tab is the BEST for when you're not exactly sure where or when you wanna go; It gives you options to toggle through like Best Deals by Month, Popular Destinations, Quick Getaways, and Plan Ahead trips. The Explore Everywhere tab even gives you the best international deals from your preferred departure airport! Skyscanner also displays deals from third party sites, so just be sure to double check pricing on the actual airline site and review all policies around their bookings/cancellations.
Going (Formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) - An amazing email subscription to join! Great deals, super cool tips for each travel destination, and the Going team seem to really care about their subscribers. Currently the free subscription only gives you domestic flight deals. Join the premium subscription for international and more exclusive flight deals, and to set up alerts for specific destinations!
Airfarespot.com and Secretflying.com - I follow both of these pages on Twitter (I refuse to call it X) and they ALWAYS drop the best deals in the quickest time. Also subscribe to their email lists! You get daily updates on the flight deals that you might miss on your timeline and Secret Flying also has an app!
Momondo.com - I used to use this website/app ALL THE TIME (I have since transitioned to Skyscanner), but it is still a great way to check for cheap flights, especially on international airlines. They also have the metrics to let you know when the cheapest day to purchase your ticket is and shows you the best deals based on layovers, flight time, airport, etc.
Hopper - This app is great for getting ticket pricing predictions! Should you wait a while before buying that flight to Mexico? Or is the current price an amazing deal that you should snatch up now? Hopper will let you know.
StudentUniverse - Another benefit to being a student (or young adult). Exclusive discounts on things like flights, hotels, tours, & more! And if you don't fit either demographic anymore (like myself) no worries! A lot of the deals can apply to anyone.
Groupon/Travel Zoo - Don't sleep on the deals that are on these sites! They are legit. My father booked a trip package to Italy for us both on Travel Zoo and I've seen countless recounts of successful trips using GroupOn from trusted sources like Packs Light
cheapflights.com, cheapoair.com, and skiplagged.com - I haven't personally used these sites to book trips, but I have friends and family that swear by them! So it can't hurt to have some more options to save you some money right?
8. Finally, Flexibility is Key!
When on the hunt for the best flight deals, being flexible with your trip dates is the most important tip and can make a huge difference in the price you pay to fly. I normally have an idea of the month or season I'd like to travel to a specific destination, and from there use things like Hopper or Google Flights to determine when and for how long is cheapest to go where I want. Even better if you let the destination choose you! There are tons of options on sites like Skyscanner and Google Flights where all you have to do is choose what airport you're flying out of, and they will show you the cheapest destinations to fly to for any month you choose.
I hope this helped! There are SO many options for finding a reasonably priced flight out there, so use them! Happy wandering!
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