Are you into saving money on flights? Then you should have several search websites bookmarked for finding cheap international flights.
And an important thing to remember is this, be ready to act! You can play the game of watching and waiting which can reward you, but it can also frustrate and cost you.
The best way is to have a price YOU are comfortable with.
On some flight search websites you can sign up for email alerts of a price you’re willing to pay. When that price is available, or lower, then jump on it. That way you can be satisfied that YOU got a good deal, and you won’t have regrets.
Always have your radar ears on for last minute deals as well.
Some tips and strategies to get your cheapest fare…
Start Searching As Early As Possible – Preferably at least a month in advance as most deals involve making your reservation 21 days in advance! Best time is usually 6-8 weeks prior to departure.
Be Flexible With Your Dates – give yourself the best chance to capture any of the cheap flights when the prices fluctuate.
Adjust Your Times For Flying – Taking the red-eye, or flying at unpopular hours increases your chances of getting flights cheap.
Use The Same Airline For Both Directions – Because round trips can be about the same as one-way, it doesn’t make much sense not to!
Use Your Age – Ask about student discounts at STA Travel.
Fly To Secondary Airports With Low Cost Carriers (LCC) – Most major cities have a secondary airport, or a city nearby.
And LCC fly into these because of cheaper landing fees. Just make sure the transport costs from these outer areas to your intended destination don’t cost more than actually flying direct!
Fly On a Mid-Weekday – NEVER fly on weekends!…Tuesdays and Wednesdays are usually the cheapest times.
Consider a Longer Layover – Flights with longer layovers usually have lower price tags.
Avoid Holiday Periods – Try not to fly within 7 days before or after a holiday.
Go Directly To The Airline Websites – Once you look at all the various websites and search engines, as a LAST resort go direct to that airlines own website. Many of the airlines have lower fares that you can only get when you book online at their site, or buy an e-ticket.
Sign Up To An Airlines Mailing List – Special airline promotion codes can knock up to 50% off your fare. These codes are offered directly by the individual airlines.
To find these codes, sign up to any type of communication your airline is running. e.g newsletter, e-mail, twitter feed etc. You can also be notified of last minute deals in this way.
Be Careful of Re-Fundable Tickets – If they cost more, don’t buy them! Especially if your travel Insurance policy has trip cancellation coverage anyway.
Join a Frequent Flyer Program – earn point towards cheaper fares, free upgrades, bonuses, and free companion tickets.
It may take a while to accumulate points, and it may cost you slightly more to fly with your particular airline or it’s partners, but they CAN pay off big time if you fly a lot – which happened to me in 2006.
I was able to fly for free round-trip from Raleigh, North Carolina to my brother in-laws wedding in Cape Town, South Africa.
Fly into the Largest City on the Continent – Then either travel overland or take a cheap connecting flight to reach your destination.
Don’t Over Pay For Luggage – Make sure your luggage is not over sized or overweight. Check individual airline sites for rules, some charge for a carry-on now.
How Can I Find Cheap International Flights?
Here is a list of flight search websites and to start searching for your air travel discount.
Kayak – compares hundreds of sites at once. It’s a true search engine, not an internet travel agency!
Skyscanner – provides instant comparison on flight prices for over 670,000 routes on over 600 airlines.
STA Travel - discounts for students
Airtreks- around the world flight ticket experts.
CheapFlights – price comparison for cheap flights
Webflyer - a good awards site.
Airfarewatchdog – hooks you into time – sensitive airline deals too difficult to track on your own.
It’s good to shop around online and try and find the best price. Prices can change even up to the last hour before the flight leaves.
Love your site – well done
I’m surprised that you don’t list expedia.com in this place.
One big advantage of their flight search is that you can plan for longer stop-overs on the same ticket! As far as I know it’s the only flight search which offers this option. Eg. on our last trip we booked Germany – Turkey – Malaysia – Australia all with Malaysian Airlines on a single ticket, but stayed in Turkey over 3 weeks, in Kuala Lumpur (cheap shopping) 6 nights. Compared with booking this trip in separate legs (one ticket from Germany to Turkey, then another ticket form Turkey to Australia) it worked out about $900 cheaper per ticket. And I love to get horizontal for a night or two on long trips, so I tend to break a flight to Europe into 2, and sleep for a few nights in hotel in Asia.
Hi Juergen. That sounds like a great deal you got. Thanks for sharing. I love long stop-overs. I used to always travel like that.
Getting ready to book our RTW this week. First, going to give Airtreks a chance to stick with their online quotes. However, if that doesn’t work out, I will definitely be looking more into Travel Nation & roundtheworldflights.
Thanks for this information because I had never heard of them before.
You are welcome Jenneil. Let us know how you get on and what deals you score
I always use CheapOAir. It has given me the best prices over the years for my travels
These are some really great tips! I’m planning to go on a trip to Curacao this summer and I prefer to fly low budget. Great post!
Great list of travel sites. When I was in London I used Easy Jet and it was the best deal ever. I was able to go from London to Rome and Spain for $100. Super cheap!
That is a great deal. Easy Jet always come out with the goods. Thanks for sharing
This is a great reference. I hope to do a hotwire deal for a last minute getaway someday. Just have some time off work, book the travel to an interesting destination, pack my bags, and take off right away. It will be a total change of pace for me because I’m a big-time researcher and planner.
Sounds fun Mary. Love spontaneous adventures like these. Go for it
So glad I found this post as we are in the process of getting our tickets to Indonesia. We’ve been using Tripeedo to aggregate all the airline sites. Our big question is we don’t necessarily know when we are coming back so how will a roundtrip return ticket work?
Just get the round trip ticket for a years return (or when you think you might come back) and then you should be able to change it later or just let it go if you don’t intend to come back at that time. Always check your ticketing conditions in case they don’t allow for flight changes. It is always hard plan an exact flight return as things happen when you are travelling. As long as you get an open ended return you should be okay. They may charge an extra $100 when it comes time to change- check that though.