Do you want to fly for cheap, even during peak travel months like June, July, and August? My wife and I have been avoiding high-cost flights for years and we have a few helpful tips and tricks on how you can save the most on national & international flights!
Here’s a pre-tip: be flexible, it’ll save you the most in the long run. 🙂
Tip #1: Use Google Flights!
Automatically Google Flights finds you the best deals. Will you be flying first class sipping champagne? Uhh, no, but you’ll be saving HUNDREDS of dollars just by using this search engine. Will they always be super convenient flights? Not always, but you will get to your destination at the fraction of the cost! For every flight we have purchased in the last 5+ years, we have used Google Flights (this is not an ad, we promise).
Tip #2: Fly out of/into high-traffic areas (for example, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, LA, etc.).
Typically, Tuesdays are the cheapest days to buy and fly, but more recently there’s been a bit of a shift, so look ahead at different days to fly if you can be flexible. This also applies to international flights. You can open up the map on Google Flights and zoom out and find hubs to fly into and from. You might have an additional flight or two, but it’s worth it if you’re saving $500-$1,000.
For example: We flew to Paris in June for $800 round trip by flying with Icelandic Air. We flew from Detroit to Iceland, Iceland to France, and France to Portugal. Did it take an extra three-hour layover? Yes. But did we basically pay half of what you normally would to fly? Also yes.
If you don’t live near an airport hub, you could opt for flying into a larger airport closer to you and book a flight from that airport. Sure, it’s more work, but ultimately you can save BIG by doing this.
We flew to Athens from Detroit for less than $500/person. First, we flew to one of the biggest hubs in the USA: Newark, NJ and worked our way over fro, there. We saved a $1,000 by not booking a flight simply from Detroit to Athens. Since Detroit only sometimes has good deals internationally.
Tip #3: Play around with one-way flights!
It goes a long way to book a $30-100 one way flight to a hub airport and only then purchase international flights. It ended up working out to book a one way from Newark to Paris then Paris to Athens. We were able to spend LESS time in the airports since we choose our own connecting flights giving us only 1-3hr layovers vs. 5-10+ hr layovers that can occur.
Also, sometimes you might not find a good deal on a round trip from, for example, New York to Paris for anything less than $1000 during a busy season, but you might find a one way from New York to London for $350, then London to Paris for $50, then a one-way from Paris back to New York for another $300. Sure, you’ll have a VERY full travel day, but hey, you save $200 bucks that could go towards like, 100 croissants! Bonjour savings!
Tip #4: PACK LIGHT!
You’d be surprised at how much you DO NOT need on trips. We have saved HUNDREDS of dollars by not checking bags. Bring a backpack and shove as much as you need into it and call it a day. Not having to check a bag means you don’t wait at baggage claims, deal with lost or delayed luggage, and if you have a close connecting flight you don’t have to worry about going out of security.
Ultimately, it just takes a bit of playing around with Google Flights to find the itinerary that you’re most comfortable with. But if you take the time and do a little bit of research and looking around on different days, you’ll be on track to save hundreds of dollars!
Happy flying!
David & Cosette
