15 Hacks To Book The Cheapest Flight Possible
This is how to get a rock bottom fare on your next flight
What would you rather have — a complimentary three course dinner at the Ritz Carlton complete with white truffle, or a savings of $1,000+ on your next flight? If you’re like me, it’s a no brainer. Not much can beat the satisfaction of feeling like you stole your seat. Maybe it’s my Mennonite heritage, but pressing the buy button on a super cheap flight hits me with a flood of endorphins. Like a drug high, but for a thrifty traveler.
So after booking hundreds of flights (20+ in the past year alone), here are my best cheap flight hacks divided into two sections. Hacks 1–9 include general tips and tricks, while hacks 10–15 include the sites I use to book flights. Happy travels!
Tips & tricks from airfare hackers ✈️
1. Sign up for Scott’s Cheap Flights. Before you do anything else on this list, sign up for Scott’s Cheap Flights. They are the best service I’ve come across for finding incredible deals on flights. All you have to do is enter your email and select your region. SCF will then send you periodic cheap flight alerts that both feed your wanderlust, and delight your wallet. Most people who follow their recommendations save hundreds on flights, and some save $1,000+.
2. Enable private browsing when booking a flight. Before you visit any flight booking site, be sure to turn on private browsing. Travel sites will often track you, and may raise their prices if they see that you’ve visited previously.
3. Look at prices on similar dates. If your dates are flexible, even if only by a few days, you may be able to save a ton of cash! I recently booked a one way flight from Florence to Vancouver, and was able to save $1,234 from changing my departure date by 1 day.
4. Setup fare alerts. If you’re not ready to book yet, or believe the fare will drop (check out number fourteen below), then you definitely need to setup fare alerts! Google flights, Momondo, Kiwi, and Hopper all offer free fare alerts.
5. Disassemble your flight itinerary. If you have one or more layovers, you may want to do a quick search to see how much your ticket would cost if you booked each leg individually. In the example of Florence to Vancouver, I also checked how much a one way ticket was from Florence to Frankfurt, and then from Frankfurt to Toronto, and then from Toronto to Vancouver. This does take a bit of work, and if you book on different airlines you may be left to fend for yourself if a flight is late or cancelled. Kiwi does something similar, and includes an insurance when you book through them. Check out number thirteen below.
6. Reserve an aisle and window seat when traveling with two people. If traveling with two people, be sure to reserve the aisle and window seat. That way if no one books the seat in the middle, you get the whole row. If someone does book it, just ask to switch seats.
7. Try alternate airports. Many major airports have smaller sister airports within 100km. Flying into these smaller hubs can provide significant savings. Do some research to find the sister airports in the area you are traveling to, and plug that airport code into the flight booking service of your choice.
I recommend checking out Google flights if you are flexible with your departure or arrival airport. They have an excellent map feature which compares flight prices across nearby airports.
8. Time your booking to perfection. In general, savings are usually the greatest the longer you book out. However, there are ways to see when the best time to book your flight is. The app Hopper (number fourteen below) analyzes past prices to accurately tell you when the best time to buy your ticket is.
Momondo put together this helpful guide on the best times to book a flight. Take it with a grain of salt though. The cheapest flight for you could very well depart on a Saturday morning and be booked with only two weeks lead time.
9. Use a spreadsheet. Before you move on to the next section and start booking flights, be sure to open up Google sheets or excel. There will be a lot of dates and prices flying your way, so it’s important to use a spread sheet where you can keep track of everything.
Use sheets to organize by airport / journey. If you want to implement hack number seven, put your various sister airport combinations in different sheets. Below you will see that I made two different sheets. One to research flights from FLR-YVR and one from BLQ-YVR.
Next, input the website, date(s), RT (Round Trip) or OW (One Way) and price along the top of the sheet. If you want to replicate the format I use, copy the cells in this Google sheet.
Sites used by airfare hackers 🖥️
10. Google flights. This is an excellent place to start your flight search. They comb through hundreds of airlines to find you the best fare. One of my favorite features is the calendar view which shows the fare prices on each day of the month. They also allow you to track prices (Google will email you if the fare drops on your selected dates), and search nearby airports for lower prices.
11. Momondo. Momondo compares flights across a variety of third-party booking sites. I always follow up my Google search by plugging my locations and dates into Momondo. I’ve booked some seriously cheap flights on Momondo on several occasions, and now always check them as I do my research.
12. Skiplagged. With Skiplagged you can take advantage of “hidden city” fares. In some cases it’s cheaper to book a multi-leg flight with a layover in your destination city, and not board your remaining connection(s). For example, if I wanted to travel from Vancouver to San Francisco, it might be cheaper for me to buy a flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles with a layover in San Francisco. The only catch is that you won’t be able to check any luggage as it would be routed to the final destination on your ticket.
I only recently discovered Skiplagged, however after a few searches I was able to uncover some great deals! I’ll definitely check them out the next time I need to book a flight.
13. Kiwi. My favorite Kiwi feature is the ability to see how much it would cost to fly to any destination from your origin city. After you input your first search you will see a dynamic map full of destinations with prices.
Another powerful Kiwi feature is the ability to book different legs of your journey on different airlines. With other booking services this can be problematic if a flight is canceled or delayed. Your next airline might not re-book you free of charge if you arrived on a different airline.
However, Kiwi offers a guarantee should one portion of your flight be cancelled or delayed. Kiwi writes “Kiwi.com guarantee protects you from flight cancellations, delays, and rescheduling. We’ll offer you an alternative flight to your destination or refund the affected part of your journey.”
14. Hopper. Hopper is a phone app which focuses on displaying the cheapest days to fly. This is something that Google flights, Momondo, and Kiwi also do. However, Hopper’s best feature is their price predictions. They tell you if you should book now, or if your flights are likely to reduce in price. I think this is an amazing feature, and I wish the bigger flight booking sites offered this.
15. Check the airline’s website. Lastly, once you find the flight(s) you love, be sure to search for that exact flight on the website of the airline you will be flying with. On some occasions they are able to beat a fare you find elsewhere.
Over to you! 🎉
- What is your favorite service for booking flights? Let me know in the comments!
- Wander over to thewanderlabs.com! Discover how fun it is to personalize meaningful travel accessories. ✈
