It’s not getting any easier to find cheap flights to any travel destination nowadays especially with airlines consolidating and flights being reduced and limited to save on costs and at the same time increase the fees charged to each particular destination. Finding a great deal on your flight takes work if you want to find something affordable. Through years of flying and usually finding cheaper deals, these are my tried and true methods for finding those deals, give some or all of them a try and hopefully you’ll get a better priced ticket to your next destination.

 

Here’s how to find the best airfare deals

 

1) Have an open mind to your place or vacation

If you are open to various destinations, you may find lots of bargains to places that you have yet to consider where there are advertised promotions or sales currently happening. Check with various travel sites including airlines promotions to see what places are being promoted or offering special deals and you just might find something worth doing if it’s a bargain.

 

2) Sign up for Frequent Flyer Miles

Make sure to sign up for awards programs with airlines that you often use and stick with those programs. Most airlines will offer a joint credit card program with frequent flyer miles added as a bonus. If you use your credit card for most of your purchases through the mileage program, you may find that you can rack up those awards programs quickly. A few people have even started up more than one charge card to jump-start their mileage programs even faster with their chosen airlines.

 

3) Think about different locations for starting and ending airport destinations

Secondary airports for departure and arrival locations may offer cheaper deals if you are flexible with arriving or departing through a secondary place than your original choice. Try to check in using nearby airports in your search parameters and you will find more options on whats available and somethings at a better price.

 

4) Shop around everywhere

There is no easy way of finding those deals outside of shopping around through various sites. Check the regular consolidators like Tripadvisor, Expedia and Priceline and then check out other search sites like Cheapo Air, Cheap tickets and Vayama. Also used search engines like Google flights, Kayak and Travelzoo to put in your target profile so that they can easily be transfered to the various consolidator sites and you can easily check these sites quickly.

 

5) Check directly with the airline

Once you have done an initial online search, now check your preferred airline and see the comparisons. Also, look for any travel promotions that may be going on, and sign-up for any promotions programs that they can send you alerts via email. Many airlines will have a monthly calendar available for you to also view the cheapest days that you can book on their monthly calendar to and from a destination. This is the best way to check out the cheapest available seat and plan your trip in advance. The key is to be flexible with your flying timeframes so you can find a better priced deal based on what is available.

 

6) Shop the discount carriers

Look at the websites for discount carriers like Jet Blue, Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air in the United states for domestic USA flights. Many foreign country airlines will sometimes have a no frills budget carrier. Also there are   regional international carriers that focus on a geographic region like Air Asia, Ryan Air, Wiz air and Jetstar to name a few. Make sure to check out all their travel restrictions so that you can cost everything out and find out if it’s a good overall price before you book that flight.

 

7) Search online on specific these days

Many airlines will offer new flight promotions and incentives on Monday through Wednesday when they update their websites. Spend your active searching time early on those days and you just may be the first to lock into a better priced deal to a destination. Check often and you may find some amazing off-season deals or specially priced promotions.

 

8) Try split fares

Booking separate flights to a destination maybe a better and cheaper deal based on the places you transfer from to get to your destination. Split fares are usually two separate reservations to get to a specific destination, they can be relatively short lay overs and you also layover at the destination point as a break, try plugging different locations and hubs for your specific airline and you may find out that you can sometimes get a better deal through a split fare flight. When you combine split fares and different arrival and departure airports, you can increase the variables on prices.

 

9) Consider flight and hotel combos

Packaged deals also offered through various sites can be bargain deals when the promotion is a joint program from the airlines, hotel and car rental agencies. Take a look at some of these promos and you might be surprised that you might get free accommodations for the price of your airfare.

10) Name your own price

For those that are looking for last-minute or weekend deals, try websites like Priceline, Hotwire or Lastminute.com.  If you are flexible with location, hotel and even car rental agencies, you might pick up a fantastic deal that might be worth a weekend getaway.

11) Using a travel agent

Still not finding enough deals out there, maybe you should try your local travel agent. They may just know the right airfare deals to your location of split destination logistics to make those expensive flights more affordable. There’s no reason you can’t use a travel agent if they are really going to work and find you a better deal.

 

12)  Round trip tickets for One way directions

On more remote or not so well traveled destinations, it might be possible to check for a round trip flight price in your search even though you only want to travel one way. Some search algorithms set up round trip prices cheaper than individual one way flight. So experiment with this technique on some directions you may be looking for a cheaper flight.

 

 

 

13) Sign up for email, price alerts and newsletters

Many airlines will offer only specific deals they send out to their newsletters or email or price alerts so it is worthwhile to sign up for these alerts. If you keep an open mind about your destination and time frame, you may find some flights that will be too good to sometimes pass up.

 

14) Last minute trip deals

There are a variety of sites that you can check out offering last minute flight deals with well known Priceline leading the pack for these types of discounted airfares. If you have an open mind about weekend getaways or longer trips, check out the various consolidators that have a link to last minute deals on their airfares.

 

Caveats of airfare deals and cheap flights

Finding a cheaper flight to your destination is possible if you are willing to make the effort to search for it. Although with the methods used above, you also need to be very careful about any restrictions or rules that make the flight cheaper. No cancellations or refunds, added baggage fees and other add-ons can easily increase the cost of your ticket to the same price, so do to compare and read all the particulars and restrictions.

There is no easy way of finding cheap airfare deals. But if you search and use any of these tips above, you may be lucky enough to finding a better priced airfare for your upcoming travel.

Bon Voyage and I hope these Tips on finding the best airfare deals anywhere helped. Please do share this post with any of the social media buttons below if this has helped you out!

 

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