5 Ways to Land the Best Airfare Deals in 2023 - The Newest Tricks
Please note: This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure to learn more.
How to find the cheapest flights to anywhere in the world.
Realize that the old tricks don’t work anymore.
Use the best methods to search for the cheapest flights.
Book your flights at the right time and the right way.
Use a few special tricks.
Check low-cost airline prices individually.
Sign up for free price alerts.
Build a relationship with the airline.
Watch for new routes & airline competition.
Our biggest recommendation: Book tickets directly with the airline and not through a third party site.
If there is ever a problem with your flight it is MUCH easier to deal directly with the airline itself rather than having to go through the third party vendor
Most credit cards will add in FREE Travel Insurance if you book directly with a carrier, some might cover you even if you book through a third party (check your credit cards benefits)
The Old Tricks Don’t Work Anymore
Most of the old tricks have little or no relevance to the way airline pricing algorithms work today.
WRONG: Buy tickets on Tuesdays at 3 p.m. EST
WRONG: Use Incognito Mode or Private Browsing
WRONG: Airfare Tracking will find the best price for you
“Airlines used advanced computer and pricing algorithms to determine prices and run sales based on the time of the year, passenger demand, weather, major events/festivals, time of day, competitor prices, and much more. Those old “tricks” don’t work anymore. The system is too smart. Throw them out. Let them die.” - Nomadic Matt
So, what can you do to get a better airfare deal? Well - GOOD NEWS - there are many ways that you can improve your chances of getting a steeply discounted airline ticket if you aren’t on a time constraint and are fairly flexible. NOTE: If you need to buy a ticket right now, to a specific location, and on a specific date - then there are only a few options that might work at getting your fare price reduced. However, if you aren’t the least bit flexible, you may not be able to score a deal flight at all.
The Newest Tricks to Landing the Best Airfare Deals
This list consists of all of the newest tricks to get the best airfare deals out there.
Researching & Booking Flight Deals
Flexibility with dates, times, and destinations (the #1 best way to save money on flights!).
Use the most comprehensive airfare search engines.
Airline error and sale fares - keep an eye out for special deals.
Watch for new routes and additional competition.
Search airfares as a single person - even if you have a group.
Our biggest recommendation: Book directly with the airline and not through a third party site.
Most credit cards will add in FREE Travel Insurance if you do it this way (check your credit cards perks).
If there is ever a problem with your flight it is MUCH easier to deal directly with the airline itself rather than having to go through the third party vendor.
You will almost always get the best price, or it will at least be the same as the OTAs (Online Travel Agencies).
Some airlines, like Southwest, won’t even show up on sites like Expedia or Orbitz, so you can’t compare their prices unless you look directly on their websites anyway.
Booking directly allows you to maximize on frequent flyer miles/rewards (you can generally earn 5-10% of your flight cost in points, meaning it could earn you a lot of free flights).
Of course, to book through the airline’s website, you first need to know which airline has the best prices. There are many travel search engines and OTAs that can help you find the best priced flight, so - after you locate the best flight for you - you will know which airline’s website to visit. Some OTAs even offer perks that might make it worth booking someplace other than the airline’s site.
HOT TIP: When booking on these airline and travel sites, we pay using the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card which earns us 3X points on all travel and dining purchases. It’s not the 5-10X points that you can get directly with a specific airline, but it earns the points on a much wider range of things and allows us to use any airline. Right now, this card has a huge 50,000 point sign up bonus. That’s worth $750 in travel purchases when used for booking flights, hotels or even car rentals through Chase’s travel portal. We’re not even affiliated with Chase, but it’s our go-to travel credit card and we want our readers to have the best tips!
5 Ways to Land the Best Airfare Deals
1. Ultimate Flexibility with Dates, Times, and Destinations
The good news is that there is always a flight deal out there somewhere, so, if you’re flexible, you’ll always get a great deal! Sadly, most people decide to pick their destination and flight dates before they ever do a single search. If this is you, then you are likely paying twice as much - or more - as you need to for your airplane tickets!
Flexibility is key to 95% of the savings that are available to you. If you can’t be flexible on both where and when you fly, at least try to be flexible with one!
Some websites and apps will show you flight prices for entire months at a time, so that you can see which day is the cheapest. Others will allow you to search which destinations are within your price range during a specific month. These tools are the best ones out there to find the best rates and give you the best options.
We recommend using Skyscanner because it allows you the ability to search for One-Way flights to “Everywhere” and at “Anytime.” It also lets you switch your passenger list after it does the search so that the correct passenger details gets transferred to the airlines. See #2 below for a short walk-through on how to use Skyscanner.
Other sites and apps, like Kayak and Momondo, have these kind of trackers as well, but most of them don’t work very well, forcing you into Round Trip flights, even if you select “One-Way”, and 1 Adult tickets, even if you select multiple passengers - without allowing you to change the details afterward!
Again, we recommend using these tools to help you decide on which airlines and flight dates are the cheapest. But after finding the cheapest airline and dates that work for you, we also recommend going to the websites of those airlines and booking your tickets with them directly.
What if I’m just not that flexible? If you aren’t this flexible, here are some semi-flexible options that can still help you save some money:
Flexible Travel Dates: Check flights that are 3 days before and after the date you prefer - this feature is available on most search sites now.
A single day can mean saving hundreds of dollars and sometimes more than half the price!
When to Travel:
Fly Off-Season: January through mid-May or September through early December.
Flight Days: Leave on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday for the cheapest fares.
Flight Time: Early morning and late night flights are cheaper than mid-morning, afternoon, or evening flights.
When to Avoid Traveling:
In General: If you are trying to travel at the same time that everyone else is traveling - like spring break, summer break, holidays, or weekends - then you are going to pay much more for your trip.
Peak summer: mid-June through mid-August is usually the most expensive.
Seasonal Holidays or Festivals at your specific destination: St. Patrick’s Day, Chinese New Year, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, or the Fourth of July.
NOTE: If you must travel for a holiday or festival, consider arriving at least a week in advance and/or returning at least 2-3 days or up to a week, after the holiday festival has ended.
Most expensive days: Usually Friday and Sunday.
2. Use the Most Comprehensive Airfare Search Engines
All of the search sites are different in their own ways, but most of them do about the same thing.
Some inflate prices more than others (like Expedia - but you can earn Expedia points and combined with Rakuten cash back you may save money).
Some keep their prices lower, but suffer with poor customer service (like CheapOAir).
Some cover many airlines from around the world, while others cover only a small amount of domestic airlines .
Despite the price differences, we still recommend that you book your flights directly with the airlines themselves.
If you’re using a search site, you’ll want to use the most comprehensive and useful ones. We believe that these are Skyscanner, Momondo, Google Flights, and Kiwi because they also include more international carriers that many U.S. based booking sites don’t include.
“Momondo… searches all major AND budget airlines, non-English websites, English websites, and everything in between… Momondo is one of the most comprehensive booking sites out there, they have the lowest price 99% of the time, and it’s the search engine all the other travel experts I know use too.” - Nomadic Matt
Note: Momondo and Nomadic Matt have an affiliate deal where he gets paid for recommending them. However, they are still an excellent source to search with - despite the fact that there are a few flaws to their app, just as there are flaws with almost every search tool out there. With Momondo and Kayak, it’s the fact that they allow you to search “Everywhere” for a travel deal, but they force you to search “Round Trip” flights only (no “One-Way” flights with this feature) and always default to a single adult as the passenger (and don’t allow you to change that before passing you on to the airline, where you also can’t change it). You don’t have these flaws with Skyscanner, however sometimes you may receive the wrong individual or group prices in the final quote!
Check low-cost carriers individually: It is important to search the low-cost, budget, and local airlines because many of them either aren’t listed or don’t allow their pages to be listed on the search engines for one reason or another.
These are airlines like Southwest, AirAsia, Ryanair, and Norwegian (although we’ve had an interesting start to our adventures on Norwegian!)
Always check for extra charges such as carry-on or checked baggage fees before booking!
OUR METHOD
If you have the flexibility, here is the method that we use to search for flights and destinations with Skyscanner. Using this method, we know you’ll be able to find a much cheaper flight:
Use the “Everywhere” and “Anytime” features on Skyscanner to do a primary search.
In the app, use the “Explore” icon on the bottom of the screen - or, on the website, click the “To” field.
Tap on the image that says “Explore Everywhere” in the app or “Can’t Decide Where?” on the website.
This is a list of images, that represent countries that you can visit, in order from cheapest first.
Enter your Departure Airport and leave “Everywhere” as your destination.
Change Date of Travel to “Anytime” in the app, or select the “Whole Month” feature on the website to find the cheapest dates.
Change “Roundtrip” to “One-Way” - here’s why you want to search One-Way:
It lets you find the cheapest dates to fly to your destination.
With a separate search, it lets you find the cheapest dates to fly back home or onward to your next destination.
You can then combine the dates that you found in both of your searches to build your Round Trip or Multi-Leg tickets.
Look over the list for the destinations that appeal most to you, and select them to see if any of the dates will work for you.
Next, compare the flight deals that Skyscanner provided to you with those from Momondo or one, or all, of the other alternatives below.
This search method will allow you to find the cheapest airfares just about anywhere in the world.
Great Comparison Options:
Other Options to Consider Checking:
Hitlist
The Flight Deal
Secret Flying
Expedia
Priceline
ITA Matrix by Google
3. Airline Error and Sale Fares - Keep an Eye Out for Special Deals
Sign up for some of these lists and you will be updated on all the last-minute and 24 hour deals that are going on. But jump on these deals as soon as they pop up because they disappear quickly! This is one of the best ways to get a super cheap flight. These five websites are the best to track travel deals:
Airfarewatchdog – Great for searching US flight deals.
The Flight Deal – Great for global flight deals.
Holiday Pirates – The best for European flight deals.
Scott’s Cheap Flights – The BEST for US flight deals.
Secret Flying – A great site for flight deals from around the world.
4. Watch for New Routes and Additional Competition
When a new airline enters into another market, it generally enters with highly discounted fare rates to compete with the current airlines in that area. This is generally more effective if:
a route didn’t exist in the past - requiring you travel quite far out of your way to reach your destination.
only one or two other airlines service that route and the prices are still quite high.
When the new route is added, it can greatly decrease the cost of making it from point A to point B, even for connecting flights. Alternatively, if one airline is charging high rates for a specific route and then a new competitor airline adds that route to their schedule as well, you will usually see a price war - causing prices to drop by 20-50% of their current cost!
We’ve landed amazing deals this way - such as our flight from Taiwan to L.A. (USA) which was less than $595 for our entire family (2 adults & 1 lap infant)!
You can keep up to date by checking out these outstanding pages:
5. Search Airfares as a Single Person - Even if you have a Group
Did you know? When you search for airplane tickets as a group, airlines like to find the most expensive seat in that grouping and charge you that price for all of the seats instead of adding up the individual ticket prices!?
TIP: If you first search as a single person, you’ll be able to learn which flights, on which dates, are actually the cheapest ones out there. Then, you can go to the airline’s site directly and select your seats during the checkout process to get a lower cost for your group of people.
Additionally, if you’ve waited until the airplane is mostly full before you started looking for your tickets, and you don’t mind sitting apart, you can book individual tickets - or seats that are not together - to save even more money. However, if you book early enough, you should still be able to find seats that are next to each other and with the cheapest available pricing.
BONUS: See 11 more ways to help you book the best flight deals below!
11 Additional Ways to Help You Book the Best Flight Deals
Use budget and local airlines - But make sure you check for extra baggage, seat selection, and meal fees!
Book as early as possible - About 3 months in advance for Domestic Flights, or 3-9 months for International Flights.
Use travel or airline credit cards to earn points and free flights.
Book connecting flights yourself for less - Don’t always fly direct.
Mix and match airlines - Mix and match budget/local airlines.
Hidden city ticketing - This may not work as it has become a more tricky and problematic as of late!
Buy airfares in bulk - Buying multi-leg tickets (even with many months in between).
Paying in other currencies - We generally save $5-$25 each flight by booking in a different currency (our credit card also has 0% foreign transaction fees - which is vital for this method).
Student discount flights.
Last minute flights & standby flights.
Mystery city flights from travel agencies - occasionally travel agencies offer cheap vacations to a mystery destination.
If you’re interested in learning more about any of these tips, feel free to send us a message! We love helping out our readers!
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