Be adaptable in terms of travel dates and times.
The cost of an airline ticket varies substantially based on the day of the week, the time of year, and upcoming holidays such as Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July. August is a popular month for European travel because everyone wants to vacation somewhere warm in the winter or when the kids are out of school.
In a word, if you want to fly when everyone else is, your ticket will be more expensive.
Make an effort to be flexible with your dates. For example, if you must visit Paris, travel in the spring or fall when fewer tourists and airfares are lower.
But what if you want to go in August? You’re out of options. Over Christmas in Hawaii?
Best wishes! Prices will be at an all-time high.
The solution is to fly during the off-season. Then, look for alternate dates to take advantage of the perfect day. The more rigid your plans, the less likely you will locate a bargain.
Furthermore, flying throughout the week is nearly always less expensive than flying on the weekend because most people travel on weekends, and airlines raise their prices accordingly. Prices are also lower if you fly after a major holiday, and early-morning or late-night flights are less expensive because fewer people prefer to travel at such times (who likes to wake up early?!). Fridays and Mondays are also the most expensive days to fly for business.
Airlines are not stupid. They are aware when a festival, holiday, major sporting event, or school break is approaching, and they hike their costs appropriately.
You’ll save a lot of money if you’re flexible with your dates and times.
Be adaptable in your travel plans.
If you can’t be flexible about when you fly, be flexible about where you fly. Of course, it’s best to be both, but if you truly want to save money and get a cheap flight for your vacation, you must be flexible with one or the other.
Airline search tools have made it quite simple to scan the entire globe for the cheapest ticket. You don’t have to go through the process of searching manually, city by city, day by day. Skyscanner, Momondo, and Google Flights all have explored tools that let you enter your home airport and see a map of the world with all the flights on it. This allows you to compare multiple destinations without thinking about every single choice. You might even discover some interesting destinations you hadn’t considered before!