With travel becoming more and more frequent after everyone staying home for over a year now, I thought it would be helpful to compile a list about how to find the cheapest flights.
Here are the 10 tips for finding the cheapest flights.
1. Ignore the Myths
When finding the cheapest flights, first and foremost, throw all the myths you’ve heard surrounding airline travel out the window. They may have worked in years past, but the system today is way smarter than we are and updates airfare minute by minute.
No, it’s not cheaper to buy tickets on Tuesdays or any day of the week for that matter. No, the airlines cannot track your specific cookies or computer search history. That’s illegal and if I had to guess, they don’t have that kind of time. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of shortcut anymore. It just takes time and research these days find cheap flights.
2. Get the Best Travel Credit Card for You
One of the best travel budget hacks to finding cheap flight is to get the best travel credit card. If you have good credit, apply for your favorite airline’s credit card. American, Delta, and United all have great programs. For every dollar you spend, you get miles back as a reward. Miles add up fast, and using miles is the number one trick to being able to save on airline travel.
3. Don’t Forget About Southwest Airlines
When finding the cheapest flights, don’t forget to check on Southwest prices. Since Southwest is the only airline that only lists their prices on their personal website. Since you won’t find them on Kayak, Google Flights, and other third party websites, people tend to forget to look at their options.
4. Search for One-Way Tickets
Compare when you’re shopping – sometimes it’s cheaper to buy two one-way flights than it is to buy one round trip flight!
5. Mix Different Airlines
Another travel budget hacks when finding cheap flight is to mix different airlines. Sometimes it’s cheaper to mix airlines. For example, a ticket from Birmingham to New York with a layover in Chicago would cost around $500 with Delta. If a flight booked with Delta from Birmingham to Chicago, it would cost around $200, and then, a flight from Chicago to New York would cost around $100 with Southwest, you’ll save $200.
6. Don’t Rule Out Budget Airlines
If you’re willing to sacrifice a little bit of comfort and some amenities in the name of saving money, don’t skip out on the budget airlines! For example, about a month ago, I was looking for ticket from Birmingham, AL to Orlando, FL. The trip was over $200 with Delta, and only $33 to fly with Frontier. While the flight won’t be as comfortable, it’s short and the savings were huge.
7. Subscribe to Price Alerts
Emails can be annoying, but signing up for price alerts is a great way to get the best deals. You’ll be notified when the prices drop and when it’s a good time to buy. Airlines will even honor the “lowest price match”, so if you buy a ticket and then the price drops, they’ll refund you the difference.
8. Check Airline Hubs
For example, Atlanta, GA is a Delta hub. That means that usually if you’re flying out of Atlanta, Delta will be your best bet. This one requires some research, but it works!
9. Student Flight Tickets
If you’re a student, make sure you check out student flight programs. The two most popular are Student Travel Agency and StudentUniversity. They offer pretty hefty discounts but you have to be able to prove that you’re an active student to be eligible.
10. Look for Flights Leaving on Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday
These are the cheapest days to fly – not the cheapest to buy the ticket – to actually leave for your destination. Obviously mid-week travel is much less popular. Also, Saturday is way less popular than Sunday travel because people don’t want to split their weekends. If your trip dates are flexible, check these days first.
There you have it folks! It really is easy to travel on a budget – sometimes it just takes a little bit of time and research.
