How to find a cheap flight?

The best ways for booking a cheap flight

Flights do not have to be expensive. That is why I collected some useful tips to make your next flight cheaper.

I was quite bored yesterday during the day, and when I am bored, I either eat too many snacks, take a nap, or browse the internet for future travel ideas or cheap plane tickets. And guess which one of these things I did yesterday. I was looking for cheap plane tickets, of course, but more out of curiosity than with an intent of actually booking a trip. But I ended up purchasing four plane tickets for two weekend trips in the American west. Well, I admit it, I also ate a couple of snacks during the process, but that is a little irrelevant.

Since I can say I am a pretty experienced traveller by now, I would like to share with you some of the tips for finding cheap plane tickets, because this is exactly how I afford to travel - I am flexible on dates (as much as I can be at least, since I have a full - time job now) and I do not really care about comfort on the plane. Because, you know, the cheaper the ticket is, the worse the plane will be.

When browsing the internet for cheap deals, I always have my passport ready - after all, these deals usually disappear in minutes!

Travel hacking

If you are lucky enough to be from the United States of America, you can take advantage on the so - called travel hacking. But what is travel hacking? It is basically taking advantage on different credit card offers where the credit card company gives you either points or airline miles as a ‘thank you’ for applying for their credit card. And you can use those points or airline miles for cheap (or even free) trips. Unfortunately, most of the credit card companies in Europe do not offer such credit cards. And even in the United States of America, it is not as easy as it sounds.

Because you will only get that travel credit if you are, first of all, approved for that credit card, and secondly, you have to meet the minimum spend. What is a minimum spend? For example, one of the credit card companies’ offer will look somehow like this: Get 200 USD in travel credit. And then, in fine print: If you meet the minimum spending amount 3000 USD in the first three months. This is an insane amount of money to spend in three months, unless you are planning a trip. In that case, you can spend that much money on plane tickets, hotel reservations and so on.

Also, if you decide to get into travel hacking, do not just expect to be able to open hundreds of credit card accounts and take advantage on all their offers. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. There is a thing, called the 5/24 rule, which means that you cannot open more than five credit card accounts in the span of twenty four months.

Subscribing to newsletters

There are several websites that publish daily (or weekly) cheap flight deals, and if you do not feel like browsing their websites for a perfect flight deal, you can join their newsletter. Most of them will let you pick your desired destinations, so you will only receive newsletters with flight deals to these destinations.

This is my favourite website for flight deals, but they are not as active now as they used to be, and they will only publish a good deal every once in a great while. But in 2013, I was able to fly from Munich to Barbados for 199 Euros round trip, thanks to that website!

Endless web browsing

When I have enough time, and more importantly, when I am bored enough, I will sit down in front of the computer and abuse the heck out of a flight search engine, meaning, I will enter every possible destination I am interested in during every possible date I can travel, and try to find a good deal. This can be very time consuming, and it is not very useful if you already know where you are going, but it can be great if you have a few destinations in mind, but cannot decide where exactly to go, and you would just like to visit the one where flights are the cheapest..

Pure luck

Do not rely on luck when searching for cheap flights, please. But sometimes it works. It happened to me a few times (also when I was bored) that I entered a desired destination and a date when I could travel there, and I found an incredible flight deal. It does not hurt to try and hope for the best.

Error fares

One of my favourite kinds of flight deals are definitely error fares. Sometimes, airline employees will forget to add a fuel surcharge or taxes to the total ticket price when they are putting it into the computer, and the result will be a ridiculously cheap plane ticket. I am talking one hundred dollars from Europe to the Caribbean for a round trip ticket!

But there is a catch. A very big one. Sometimes, when the airline company finds out about the error fare, they will cancel it. Do not worry, they will refund you the money, but you will not have a plane ticket anymore. But in some cases, airlines will admit it was their mistake, and they will honour you the ticket, and this is when you should start booking accommodation at your destination.

So do not book any accommodation or tours at your destination until you actually get a flight confirmation! In fact, do not even start telling everyone: Hey, I am going to Jamaica next week, the ticket was only one hundred dollars from Europe! Because you do not want to put up with pitiful looks from your friends after telling them that you are not going to Jamaica after all because the airline cancelled your error fare plane ticket.

Last minute deals

Some airlines would like to completely fill up the empty seats in the plane just before the flight, meaning they will be selling plane tickets at crazy prices. Sounds good? It does, but these sales usually happen just a few days before the flight. Which is great, if you want to fly somewhere on a three day notice, but hard if you have to take days off work, which is probably impossible to do in three days.

The catch with these last minute deals are usually also the visas. As you probably know, you are required to have a visa to enter certain countries, and sometimes, getting a visa requires an appointment at the consulate, which is also nearly impossible to do in just a few days. And let's not forget finding an accommodation on such a short notice.

Using your Frequent flyer’s miles

If you fly a lot, you might want to start collecting airline miles. How does it work? Every time you fly with a certain airline or its partners, you will earn airline miles. And when you have enough miles, you can use them for free flights. Yes, I am serious. Well, it usually takes quite a few flights to be able to have enough miles for a free flight, but if you travel a lot, this is certainly a good option.

Fly to an airport nearby your destination

Sometimes, flying to a smaller airport close to your destination can be much much cheaper than flying to a big airport in the middle of everything. For example, in June, I am going to a pretty cool amusement park, called Six Flags Great Adventure, which is situated in New Jersey.

The closest major airport is in New York and the flights there would cost me almost three hundred dollars, plus the expenses I would have with getting from there to New Jersey. So I decided to fly to the Philadelphia airport instead. It is a smaller airport, but about as far from the park as the New York airport. And guess how much I saved by doing that? Over two hundred dollars!

Travel with just a carry on

Low cost carriers are cheap for a reason - they earn money from other things, such as paying for oversized or overweight luggage. Or paying to have a luggage in the cabin. So if you would like to save around fifty dollars per trip, consider putting everything in a small backpack that fits under the seat in front of you.

In the past, some of the low cost airlines would allow you to even have two pieces of a carry on luggage free of charge. Then, they reduced it to one, but you could still use the overhead bin. Nowadays, most of the low cost airlines will only let you bring your carry on luggage in the cabin for free if it fits under the seat in front of you.

For domestic flights in the United States of America, this is the backpack that I usually use. It is a 20 litre backpack, and I can fit everything that I need inside.

A few words for the end…

Travel does not necessarily have to be expensive, and for me, the plane ticket is usually the most costly part of the trip. But with some knowledge, and a little bit of flexibility, you will be able to score some great flight deals.

If you are lucky, a meal will be included on your flight. Well, air plane food is not the best, but when you have to eat, you have to eat.

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