Airfare is one of the biggest expenses on any international trip, and depending on where you’re flying to, it can account for roughly half of your total travel budget. That’s why it’s worth putting in the extra effort to find cheap flights. Finding good deals on international flights isn’t hard, and these tips will help you find the cheapest fares.
Some basic suggestions
Before you start looking for the cheapest international flights, there are a few things you should know. When planning a trip, it’s best to avoid traveling to any destination during the peak tourist season. If you want to go to Europe in August, fares will be expensive, you’ll be lucky to find reasonably priced flights.
Next, if you’re looking for the best flight deals, you’ll also want to be flexible with your travel dates and destinations. Sometimes, pushing your travel date back a few days can get you a better deal. You should also be willing to travel to and from nearby airports. For example, in Europe, you can take a cheaper flight to Amsterdam instead of flying directly to Prague and then book another flight to your destination or go overland. However, if you have to fly to Delhi first and then take a flight out of the country, that may not work in India. The busier the airport, the greater your chances of finding a cheap ticket. Obviously, finding a good deal is possible, but it also comes with some inconveniences. It’s up to you to decide whether the trade-off is worth the cost difference.
Another good tip is to sign up for an airline’s frequent flyer program. With international travel, you end up earning a lot of miles on your round trip, which ultimately leads to a lot of perks like free flights, ticket upgrades, priority boarding, higher baggage allowances, and more, some of which can make up for it even if you don’t necessarily find the cheapest ticket.
We also recommend not clearing cookies or using private browsing mode when looking for flights. According to reports from multiple websites, these methods are unlikely to find you a cheaper fare. You might try using a VPN to get cheaper fares (sometimes airlines offer lower fares in certain currencies), but this method is too cumbersome for most people. Also, last minute deals are a myth. Few airlines will offer lower fares if you book a flight at the last minute – most fares will increase to make business travelers pay more.
Beyond that, here’s how you can find great deals on international flights.
search engine
If you’re looking for great deals on air tickets, flight search engines are your best friend. We’ve listed the ones worth checking out and described their unique features in one sentence.
- Google Flights: Google Flights is perhaps the fastest way to check flight prices around the world. The interface is great and you get results quickly.
- ITA Matrix: This service is owned by Google and powers Google Flights. However, ITA Matrix is ​​great if you want additional search options (such as allowing airport changes) and are willing to wait longer for results to load.
- Skyscanner: Skyscanner is a popular flight price comparison website. It has a clean interface, displays results fairly quickly, lets you set price alerts so you don’t miss the cheapest flights, and is also available via a smartphone app.
- Momondo: Momondo is also very good at finding the cheapest flights, rating each result out of 10. The higher the score, the higher the flight’s duration-to-price ratio. You don’t want to take a 31 hour flight (normal time 10 hours) to UK just to save rupees. Return ticket is 2,500.
- Priceline: Priceline is another excellent flight search engine that has a neat sidebar that displays the lowest fares for each airline to quickly help you understand which of your favorite airlines currently offers the cheapest fares.
- Kiwi: Kiwi.com sometimes offers lower fares than any other search engine and is worth checking before booking a flight.
These methods put the onus on you to do all the work, but if you don’t want to do that, you can always use some services to find you the cheapest flights.
Services to find the best flight for you
We’ve found a number of services that will notify you of really good flight deals via email. The companies we list rely on subscription funding to keep their businesses afloat, which means they focus on finding great deals rather than the flights that will earn them the best commissions. These services will again send you alerts based on your region, so if you specify that you want alerts for flights departing from Asia, you will receive emails only for flights from that region.
These services can be very useful as long as you are flexible with your schedule and destination airport. If you have a US tourist visa valid for 10 years and you want to visit the country anytime this year, this service can alert you about offers and you can plan your trip accordingly. We recently saw return flights from Colombo to Milan priced at Rs. 20,000, and other transactions through some of these services.
- Scott’s Cheap Flights: They email you flight deals from your area. The free tier has some ads sent via email and you get fewer offers, also around 30 minutes after the premium tier. Premium subscription costs $39 (approximately Rs. 2,500) per year. This service shares more Asia-based offers than others we’ve tried, so it might be more suitable for Indians.
- Flystein: Looking for more personalized advice? Flystein will help you find the cheapest flights for any given travel date. You tell them your destination and dates and their team will find the cheapest alternative. The thing is, the service charges on a per-request basis, so each round-trip or multi-city itinerary for which you want to get flight deals will cost you $49 (roughly Rs. 3,150).
We’ve also found a number of other services, such as Take Me to Europe and I Want That Flight, which may better suit your needs if you’re looking for the cheapest tickets for travel to Europe and America or if you live in Australia.
About Hidden City Ticketing
Hidden city ticketing is a risky proposition and sometimes you may make an extra stop or two on your trip to find the lowest fare possible. The easiest way to explain this term is through an example. If you want to fly from Mumbai to Delhi, sometimes the cheapest flight can be Mumbai-Lucknow flight via Delhi. Hidden city ticketing is when you book a Mumbai-Lucknow flight and depart from the airport in Delhi.
This method only works if you have carry-on luggage, as checked luggage will be carried until the last leg of the journey. We don’t recommend trying this unless you’re extremely short of money. Please note that airlines frown upon this practice and they may ban you from flying or revoke your frequent flyer privileges. If you can afford the risk, sites like Skiplagged can help you find the best options in these types of deals.
What are your favorite tips for finding cheap flights? Let us know in the comments.
