As a traveler, you must have experienced the tiresome, repeated searching when planning to visit international destinations. The increasing number of flight ticket booking platforms and continually fluctuating prices make it difficult for the travelers to grab best deals on the flight tickets.
As an avid traveler, I have been to multiple international and domestic tourist attraction places and the best part is, I have never spent more than $400 on any round-trip ticket.
And I would like to share with the readers some useful tips to save you time and money when booking your next flight.
Before you start your hunt for the best deals on flight tickets, keep in mind that the research is the best way to grab best prices on flight tickets. Best deal can be grabbed on the right time, so be ready with all the information regarding the flight ticket prices and trends on your desired route.
Research… but secretly!
As I mentioned above, research is the best policy for best prices on flight tickets. However, it doesn’t mean you should do it openly. By open research, I doesn’t mean searching for best deals in public, but in the general browser window.
Whenever looking for the best deals on flight tickets online, make sure to use incognito window to keep your search top secret.
Believe it or not, but the ticket booking websites use your browser cookies to display prices, which are based on your previous search history.
This means, every time you search for the same route flights, it’s going to be higher. The reason here is the websites would want to scare you with increasing prices. So, make sure to use private window or incognito mode when searching for flight tickets.
Each time you open an incognito window on browser, your cookies are reset. So if you want to start with a clean slate for each flight search, close all your incognito windows, open a new one to grab the best deals.
Best is always the best!
Majority of the online flight ticket booking platforms display inflated prices as part of taking a cut from the airlines. It pays you to befriend with the websites that offer the best prices. You have multiple options available for flight booking such as:
- Booking.com
- Cheap Flight
- FareKingdom
- Google Flights
All the above-mentioned platforms offer a broad range of flights from almost every airlines company. If you want to be 100% sure though, go through all the search engines to be sure of getting the lowest prices on international flight tickets. After all, no single platform is consistently perfect.
For better results, you may need to try a combination of search engines to be sure of best prices.
Befriend with budget airlines
If you are a budget traveler, then high-end airlines companies should be out of your radar as their prices are quite high in comparison to budget airlines. They are significantly cheaper than their full-service counterparts. Of course, you may need to compromise with the space, comfort, free WiFi, free food, free beverages, leg room, etc. But believe me, the flight ticket prices are amazingly low for these airlines companies.
Below are a few budget airlines companies you may want to know:
- Air Canada Airlines
- Spirit Airlines
- JetStar Airlines
- Scoot Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- Frontier Airlines
- Porter Airlines
Also, you may consider searching for the regional airlines companies as their prices are relatively lower in comparison to others. Use social media platforms to check their webpages to stay informed about the special offers before they sell out.
Wikipedia has more details about these airlines companies along with some in-depth information as well. If you’re going to a specific country, make sure to check so you know all your options for budget airlines.
Flying with group? Book solo
Booking a hotel in a group can be a great choice to grab the best deals, but when you are looking for flight tickets, it is always suggested to book solo in order to grab the best flight ticket deals. And the reason here is that nearly all the airlines companies have some special seats reserved for special customers who may want to buy these seats at additional cost.
For the additional cost, they get more leg room, window view and many other perks, but if you are a budget travel and if you are concerned about the budget, make sure to book solo so you can pick your own seats and avoid paying for these paid seats.
It’s never a bad deal of you can save $50 on a return trip just because you booked a middle seat and can’t enjoy the window view or the additional leg room. After all, your sole purpose is to reach your destination on a budget. The saved amount can be used on other important tasks as you reach your destination.
Book early… but not too early
Finding a great deal on international flight tickets at the last moments could be a matter of past when the airlines companies would sell their unreserved seats at throwaway prices.
These days, the scenario is changed as usually most flight seats are booked in advance. And the reason here is that the airlines companies pay you to book in advance by getting cheaper tickets.
I’ve grabbed best deals on international flight tickets by booking in advance. And believe me, I have saved nearly 50% of the ticket price that I would pay if booked one week before the flight date. Surprised? Believe me because I have grabbed it myself.
No matter how better discount offers the airlines company will launch, booking early has always proved to be the best way for me to get discounted airfares.
Book with airlines company websites
This might sound just like the point I have mentioned above, but it’s something different in nature. Whenever booking flight tickets, it is always suggested to book with the airlines company website itself to be sure of getting best price.
This is because the flight booking portals display inflated prices that include their commission as well. Booking with flight booking portals may be always easier but these websites always make you pay a bit more than the airlines company website.
When you book with the ticket booking portals, you are displayed same price as the airlines company website, but as you opt to pay for tickets, they add additional charges such as convenience charges, service charges at the time of preparing your final bill.
So, the nest time you plan to book flight tickets online, make sure to stay away from the flight booking websites or else look for the best one you can trust upon.
Avoid directs… make connections
Direct flights may seem impressive as they help you reach your destination much before the time, but what is main concern to you –time or money?
If you are on a budget travel, then saving on flight tickets should be your focus point and not the time. With connecting flights, you can eave 40% of the flight tickets. Of course, you may need to wait at the airports for a few hours, but it should be seen as an additional benefit as you can explore the city without any extra cost.
You can simply walk out of the airport, move around the city, enjoy local food, and get back to airport… isn’t that great?
It is important to keep in mind that you don’t book tight layovers. I repeat: do not book tight layovers. This is very helpful in case your flight gets delayed due to any reason. And book with the same airlines company as this comes as a stress buster. In case of flight delay or cancellation, the airlines company will do every possible effort to help make the journey less stressful.
Use flight points
If you fly quite often, you must have some free points available on your online account. These free mile points can be used to save on flight tickets easily.
Almost every airlines company offers free points to the frequent fliers to help them save on future flights and stay connected with the airlines company. These free points come as life-saver for the passengers as they can save a lot on their flight tickets by paying as a combination of money and free points.
Tuesday… the best day
You may have heard, there’s no best day to grab best deals on flight tickets. It’s a myth. You can save a lot on your flight tickets by booking on Tuesdays. A study claims that Tuesday is the best time to buy airline tickets and shop for travel.
The reason here is that the airlines companies launch their offers on Tuesday early morning, so you can grab the best deal as soon as it’s launched. And since you’re already researching about the best deals on flight tickets, you’d know when you come across the lowest price.
So, go ahead and grab best deals on international round-trip flight tickets now.
