This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if you use them to make a purchase.
You may have heard of hacks like searching for airline tickets on Tuesday afternoon, or seen TikToks with crazy flight deals you have to book RIGHT NOW. But how do you actually find cheap flights when you’re planning a trip?
If you’re like me and trying to fit travel into your busy life, you need a strategy. The key to getting cheap(er) flights is looking ahead, doing basic research, and finding opportunities to save. In this post, I’ll go step-by-step through my process.
And if you want to find even cheaper flights, I have a few advanced strategies at the end.
Start with basic research
Step one of finding your cheap flight is to get a feel for the price range of flying to your destination. How much does it usually cost? It helps to know when you’d like to travel, but you can always take a guess and explore from there.
I usually use either Google Flights or Skyscanner. Start with estimated travel dates and then look around at other options. Let’s check out an example of flying from Chicago to Paris, France.
Once you have a route and dates, you can click on the dates and a calendar will pop up. Google Flights allows you to view the current lowest prices for that route as you select different dates. You can click the arrows to see other months.
You can also check out the price graph and look at the price trends over time visualized. (The “Price Graph” button is below the dates on the right side.)
In this example, you can see that flights to Paris in September cost around $620. Not bad! The prices trend a little lower moving into October.
Choose an affordable city to fly to
Based on supply and demand, larger cities tend to have cheaper flights. Airlines use large airports like Chicago O’Hare and London Heathrow as hubs for many different flights. You can often save money by flying into one of these major hub airports instead of flying to a smaller city with a smaller airport.
To find out which cities might be cheaper, you can use Google’s Travel Explore feature or search for a wider area on Skyscanner. I actually find Skyscanner easier for this task, but we’ll continue with Google Travel/Explore here. Type in your desired country or continent and you’ll see a map that allows you to compare fares in the area.
Continuing with our example, let’s say we want to visit Paris and Strasbourg on our trip to France. Look at both cities. In this case, it’s a lot cheaper to fly into Paris than into the smaller city of Strasbourg.
Of course, if you’re set on reaching the destination that’s farther afield, you’ll have to add in the cost of ground transportation. We’ll consider that next.
Go with round-trip tickets
Generally speaking, a round trip ticket is cheaper than buying one way tickets or booking a multi-city itinerary. Are there exceptions? Sure, but that’s why you should do a little research!
I often find myself deciding between a round trip ticket and a more convenient multi-city ticket. Here’s an example of how you can estimate the costs to find the cheapest and/or best option between those.
For our example trip to France, we have basically 3 options. We could fly to Paris for about $650, we could fly to Strasbourg for just over $800, or we could book a multi-city ticket where we fly into Paris and out of Strasbourg. That multi-city ticket price splits the difference at around $730.
Next we should estimate the costs of ground transportation. How much does it cost to get between the two cities? For this, I like to use the site Rome2Rio. With a quick search we find that train tickets from Paris to Strasbourg are only about $55.
So based purely on cost, the Paris round-trip ticket is still the cheapest option. That said, it might be worth paying a little more for the convenience of flying out of Strasbourg instead of returning to Paris. Cheapest is not always best.
Find the cheapest time to fly
Once you have your route figured out, it’s time to dial in exactly when you want to go. Remember the price charts? Moving your trip around by a couple of days could get you a much lower ticket price.
There are a few general rules to bear in mind. First, flying offseason is almost always cheaper. Most destinations have a high season where demand drives up the cost, so you can find some savings by flying at a different time. Second, flying midweek is usually cheaper than the weekend. With so many people tied to the Monday-Friday work schedule, demand is usually higher to fly around the weekends.
With these in mind, you can search around for the cheapest time for your trip on Google Flights or Skyscanner. It’s easy for round trip flights. If you’re flying a multi-city itinerary, look up the price information for each leg separately to get an idea for which days are cheapest.
Let’s say we’ve decided to book the multi-city trip to Paris and Strasbourg. Now its time to find out which days in our date range might be cheapest. Google Flights’ Date Grid feature is really helpful for this.
There are no charts for multi-city itineraries, but you can look at date grids for similar round trip tickets. Do each search separately and check the date grids for each one.
Departures are listed in rows across, return flights are listed in columns down.
Here we see that flying to Paris on Tuesday or Wednesday and leaving on the following Tuesday or Wednesday would be cheaper. The same goes for Strasbourg–gotta love those midweek prices! Now we can shift our trip to Tuesday to Tuesday and the price will be under $700.
Know your low-cost carriers
Wait! Before you book your flight, there’s one more thing to think about: low-cost carriers. If you’re flying within the US, it’s worth checking Southwest Airlines. They are stubbornly independent and don’t allow their flight prices to be listed on aggregation websites. Southwest also flies to some cities in Central America and the Caribbean.
For other low-cost carriers, the issue is that listed prices might not be what you end up paying. Some ultra low-cost carriers like Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Airlines offer very cheap tickets that come with a lot of restrictions. If you want to bring a carry-on bag, you’ll have to pay an extra fee. These vary in price, but often hover around $50 each way. That’s $100 more for your bag to fly with you!
If you want to quick comparison, check out this chart from AirfareWatchdog.
Switching to a new example here. Let’s check out Chicago to Los Angeles during the same time frame as the last trip.
The cheapest option to fly is $269 on Spirit Airlines, an ultra low-cost carrier. If you look up the baggage fees on Spirit’s website, they are $38 each way. So you’d have to pay $345 for that ticket if you plan on bringing a suitcase! In that case, it’s not much cheaper than the other options.
Book flights directly with the airline
This step is more about what not to do. It can be tempting to book a cheap fare through a website like Expedia, but I would not do that. The reason? Websites like Expedia are known as “online travel agencies” (OTAs), and they come with some restrictions in exchange for the slightly discounted tickets.
The problem is that OTAs generally won’t offer you the same flexibility as airlines if you need to change or cancel your tickets. Even worse, if your flight ends up delayed or canceled, you could be stuck dealing with the OTA’s customer service instead of getting help from the airline directly. Good luck with that!
The good news is that Google Flights and Skyscanner link you to other sites to actually buy the tickets. Just make sure your following the link to an airline’s own website.
Don’t wait! Prices usually go up
Usually airlines start with the lowest fare prices they can turn a profit on and then gradually increase them over time. As more seats get booked and demand increases, the prices go up. So when you find a price for certain tickets, it’s much more likely prices will increase as time goes on.
It is possible, of course, that airlines keep their prices low or even drop them a bit. If you’re really trying to get the best deal, you can use Google Flights to set a price alert. Start several months in advance of your travel dates. If you see the price drop, you’re probably getting a good deal!
Advanced savings strategies
This process works for finding cheap airfare prices and fitting into your overall trip planning process. But if you want to find cheap flights that are even cheaper, here are some ways to hunt for them.
Sign up for a flight deal site like Going.com
This section contains an affiliate link. When you follow the link and sign up, I may receive a small commission to support the blog. #ad
If you want to get the scoop on the truly epic flight deals, it helps to have a team of researchers doing the work for you. Going.com, formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights, constantly monitors your airports and destinations looking for low prices. They’ll send you alerts and tell you how to book the flights yourself. Easy!
Yes, a subscription to Going.com costs money, but you could easily make up the cost by booking even one of their deals. I’m always excited to get their emails and check out places to go for cheap.
Sign up for airline email lists
If you’re not convinced on joining a flight deal site, you can always sign up for emails from your preferred airlines. Every major airline has some type of newsletter or regular email list. When there are discounts or deals going on, you’ll be one of the first to know. I get emails from the Big Three US carriers: Delta, United, and American.
While you’re at it, make sure to sign up for the airline loyalty programs. They’re free, and you can start earning your way to free flights!
Pick your destination based on price
For a free-spirited journey into budget travel, you can let the ever-changing landscape of flight deals help you decide where to travel. Skyscanner is great for this. You can search “everywhere” and browse low price fares from around the world.
Use credit card points and perks
The cheapest flights of all are free! If you sign up for a travel credit card or an airline credit card, you can start earning your way to free flights. There are lots of possibilities depending on your specific travel goals.
I would start by looking at two categories of credit cards: travel credit cards and airline credit cards. Travel credit cards earn you points that you can use to pay for your travel expenses, including flights. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Capital One Venture card are two worth checking out.
Airline credit cards are helpful if you plan to fly with a certain carrier a lot. Cards like the United Milage Plus cards and the Delta Skymiles cards fall into this category.
Credit cards can also save you money on insurance, baggage fees, and more.
