Searching for affordable airfare is like an orchestrated dance where a combination of incognito browsers, clearing of cookies, visits to multiple search engines and comparison of prices all twirl together to churn out a smile-worthy plane ticket that won’t leave your wallet turned inside out. Airfare is the most expensive part of travel-and while hotels, food and activities can be customized to be as expensive as we make it-airfare prices sometimes are stubbornly high priced and inflexible. Finding a cheap flight can mark the difference between dreaming about your next adventure and actually going on it; and it is with that in mind that I tend to scour the internet in search of the latest travel hacking tips to save BIG on flying. Often I am asked how am I able to travel so often? While travel writing does help shave dollars through travel perks, my best trick to traveling is being savvy to the ways on how to make seeing the world affordable. When it comes to searching for flights, I have come to know and love some go-to tricks that help me find a plane ticket that won’t have me counting pennies while abroad. Below, I share my ultimate guide to saving on airfare in four easy steps that I use each time I am planning a trip.
Step 1. Clear your Cookies & Go Incognito
Many travel bloggers and hackers swear by this trick of clearing your browser cookies and opening an incognito window before searching for flights. Search engines tend to store your search information, so that the flight to Marrakesh you are looking at today might prove $50-$100 more expensive when searched tomorrow. Before you begin searching for flights, clear your browser cookies and open a private window to fool the search engines into showng you lower prices. Easy enough!
Step 2. Picking the Right Flight Search Engine
When starting my flight search, I begin by using search engines like Skyscanner, Momondo and Google ITA Software that will pull up smaller, budget airlines at lower price points than the Expedias’ and Kayaks’ of the world. Compare prices across these three search engines to get an idea of the price point of the flight you are looking at. Also, sometimes using a “fake location” can help lower price points even more. To see this, if you have found a flight on say Skyscanner to Colombia via LAN Airlines that you are ready to book, take a moment to check out the airline’s direct website. In this example, try changing the country on LAN Airlines to Colombia which should also switch the currency from dollars to Colombian Pesos; many travel hackers tout this trick as showing up significantly cheaper flights when prices are changed from dollars to the local currency. The combination of comparing prices on Skyscanner, Momondo and Google ITA and then double checking prices on direct airline sites will leave you with a flight that will undoubtedly always prove cheaper than if you had just searched and purchased the first trip you spot on Expedia.
Tip: If you’re still deciding on a destination, Skyscanner allows you to search from where you are to “Everywhere” and will pull up results by price, to give you an idea of where you can afford to fly!
Step 3. Figuring Out the Best Time to Travel
Recently, the interenet exploded with research from CheapAir.com on when is the cheapest time to fly and book a ticket. The results are in and the unanimous days to fly are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays (with Sundays proving the most expensive day to fly). When figuring out when to travel, I like to use Hopper, which pulls up a color coded calendar where days that are affordable are marked in green vs. expensive days to fly that are marked in red. In addition to when to fly during the week, it is worth flying during “off-peak” seasons to better take advantage of affordable travel. The secret to affordable airfare is to essentially fly when no one else is! Red-eye flights? Mid-week flights? Saturday departures? If the flight is at an off-time than you’re more likely to snag a cheap ticket, so being flexible with when you can fly is key.
Step 4. Knowing When to Book your Flight
Knowing when to book your flight is becoming just as important as learning the cheapest days to travel. The general consensus is that booking a flight 6-8 weeks before a trip is when flight prices will be at their cheapest. I like to use Kayak to help me determine the best time to buy a plane ticket; Kayak’s prediction tool helps suggest when you should buy or wait to purchase a flight by analyzing data to determine if ticket prices are likely to rise or fall in the next week. Of course, booking a flight is not an exact science and when it comes to holidays you should always throw the 6-8 week rule out the window and book immedietely-if you wait to buy that trip to Europe for Christmas, you’ll cringe at the flight prices come November!
A combination of knowing how to search, when to fly and when to book your flight will shave dollars off your plane tickets and help make those bucket list trips and dream vacations that much more attainable. Whenever I search for flights, I like to lean on these four steps to help find myself reasonable airfare; but if you come across an amazing deal or flash sale then feel free to throw these steps out the window and purchase your flight! At the end of the day, finding affordable flights is a process that is customized and owned by each travel enthusiast hoping to make globetrotting affordable. Travel hacking is all about bringing the world to your doorstep and proving that exploring new cultures is something that can be enjoyed now.
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