The Quick Guide to Finding Cheap Flights [2023]
If I’m not booking a flight with my points and miles, then naturally I go on the hunt for the best flight deal possible. As someone who makes a living as a travel writer, I obviously spend a great amount of time searching for flights, and one of the most common questions I receive from aspiring travelers is “What websites do you use to find cheap flights?”
To be honest, there isn’t just one answer to that question. When searching for flight deals, comparing multiple websites is crucial. Almost all airlines use a dynamic pricing model so their fares can change hour by hour, every single day.
This can make things frustrating when searching for flights, as nobody wants to miss out on the low price or end up overpaying.
If you’re serious about finding cheap flights you need to be willing to put in the time to search and compare on different resources to ensure you’re getting the best bang for your buck. So here are a few tips to help you do just that.
Table of Contents
1. Be Flexible With Your Travel Dates (If Possible)
The single easiest way to save money on travel. Seriously.
If you’re flexible with the dates you can travel, or even with the destination you travel to, you can find incredible deals at a fraction of the cost that they would normally be. I once saved $400 by flying out to my destination a day early and flying back a day later, which more than covered the cost of the additional days!
If you can’t be flexible with your dates, then be flexible with your destination. Find out which countries have the cheapest flights for the days you want to travel, and pick one of those. If you have your heart set on a certain destination, then be flexible with your dates. Find out which dates offer the cheapest flights to that country and work around those.
No matter where you want to travel, or when you want to go, flexibility is king!
2. Avoid Peak Tourist Season
This one goes hand in hand with being flexible. Prices shoot way up during peak summer seasons when most people take their vacations. So, if you want to get a good price, this is something you want to avoid.
For countries in the northern hemisphere, the most expensive time to fly is usually peak summer from mid-June through mid-August. The cheapest time to fly is usually January through mid-May and September through early December.
These months are obviously flipped for countries in the southern hemisphere. So try to avoid traveling during peak months and opt for the shoulder season instead!
3. Layover Your Way to Savings
If you live near a small or mid-sized airport, there are often times going to be hardly any great flight deals out of your home airport. Sorry, I don’t make the rules – I just write about them.
So what should you do? Fly all the way to another airport just to catch another flight?
Yes. That is exactly what you should do.
Here is an example for you. If a roundtrip flight from Charlotte to London is $900, but a round-trip flight from New York City to London is $350 and you can book a round-trip ticket from Charlotte to NYC for $150, which is the better option? The one that saves you $400 of course.
When finding cheap flights, you can usually bet that the bigger the airport, the bigger the deals they will have. So, for international flights, try searching for flights out of cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., etc., and then see if you can find a cheap flight to connect you there!
4. Use The Right Websites and Compare Them
When it comes to finding great flight deals, oftentimes people are just using the wrong website. If you’re someone who just plugs your date and destination into a website like Orbitz and picks the cheapest option, you’re doing it wrong. But I’m here to help!
My three favorite websites to search for flights are Google Flights, SkyScanner, and Momondo. All three are great options and consistently deliver the lowest prices of any other flight search engine or online travel agency that I’ve used.
After you’ve performed a search on one of these websites, don’t stop there, check the others too! You always want to compare multiple websites to be certain that you’re getting the best price. Keep in mind that some carriers, like one of my favorite airlines – Southwest, do not list their prices on websites like Google Flights and SkyScanner. So you will need to check their website directly when searching for flights with them.
This might sound like a bit of a chore, but I know you compare dozens of options when trying to decide what to eat, or when trying to decide what to watch on Netflix. So put that same effort into your flight searches.
As Brittany once said, if you want to party in France – you better work b*itch.
5. Book Now Plan Later
Flight deals are not forever. They are here today and gone tomorrow.
But luckily, the US Department of State requires by law that all airfare purchases be fully refundable for 24 hours after they are purchased, as long as the flight doesn’t leave in 7 days or less. So if you come across an incredible flight deal, just book it! You’ll have the next 24 hours to determine if the timing works for you. If it doesn’t you can cancel free of charge!
Final Thoughts
Lucky for us, we are living in the golden age of travel where flight prices are just getting lower and lower and airlines try to compete for your business. But if you want to find the best flights, you’ve got to be willing to put a little work it.
Don’t think of it as tedious, searching for flight deals should be fun and enjoyable to you, after all, you aren’t just booking an awesome trip but you’re saving money too!
If you want really cheap flights you should be using points and miles! If you’re not sure which card is right for you, I offer free credit card consultations designed to help you determine just that!
