Is it just me or are flights becoming more and more expensive by the day? I remember a time when we could fly from New York to Miami for $100 roundtrip. Now, $100 is only good for a one-way ticket, unless you spend hours online waiting for the prices to drop. What is happening to the world?! So..how CAN you find the greatest deals for your destination? Sure, we have flight comparison tools which SWEAR those are the lowest deals you could ever get; but is that really how low we can go? If you follow these tips, you can really save some serious bucks. Without further ado, here are my cheap flight hacks that have changed my life and hopefully, yours too!
Don’t Buy Tickets on Saturdays
Long gone are the days where buying a plane ticket the day of was the cheapest way to fly to your destination. The ’90s were such a great time. Try booking tickets Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 3 PM EST and fly out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays! Fridays and Sundays are no-go’s as they are the most expensive days to be flying. Also, book domestic flights 1-3 months in advance. International flights are best to be bought 4-7 months in advance. August is the cheapest month to book domestic flights; June is the most expensive. Book international flights in September & avoid June. Book at 6 am.
Use Skyscanner
Skyscanner has this amazing feature where you can set a price alert, which notifies you via email when prices drop, to your destination. All you have to do is click the “Get Price Alert” button, enter your email address and VOILA, you’re done! It’s really that easy.
Google Flights
Another alternative to Skyscanner is Google Flights. I’ve only used this once but boy, did it save me money. First, type in your destination and click search. Next, change the option from roundtrip to one way (sometimes they really are cheaper). Near the right side of the page, you will see a link that says “Price Graph”. What a price graph does is it shows you the cheapest flights available for that destination year-round. If you are able to be flexible with the dates, this is a great option to save hundreds!
Go Incognito
You can save yourself so much money by “going incognito”. When I say going incognito, I don’t mean buying a whole bunch of spy gear and hiding in some bushes. I mean, go under a hidden browser (like Google Chrome’s Incognito option) and try searching for flights that way. Airline websites are tricksters and if they see that we keep refreshing the page for the same flight again and again, they will raise the price. Clear your cookies before refreshing the page to try again.
Sign Up For Airline Emails
The people on their email list will most likely get the best deals first before they release them to the general public. If you wait too long, the deal could be sold out so make sure to always be on the lookout. Keep an extra eye out on major holidays such as Thanksgiving and Labor Day. Second, is when spring and summer are just starting out!
Follow Airlines on Social Media
Twitter is a great platform to announce deals (which are super random) so make sure you turn on their post notifications in order to avoid missing anything! Airfare Watchdog and Dollar Flight Club are the two most popular accounts.
If you enjoyed this post talking about cheap flight hacks or have any other tips I failed to mention, please leave a comment and share this post!
XOXO Tatiana
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