How to Find Cheaper Airline Tickets | Matt-Gibson.org About Portfolios Published france river tour cruise loire Work Transitions Abroad Huffington Post Baraaza Guides france river tour cruise loire Action Asia Magazine Compass Group Cranbrook Daily Townsman Taiwan Today Xpat Magazine Bunk Magazine Highway 11 Services france river tour cruise loire Writing france river tour cruise loire Photography Blog stories news videos Interviews Photoessays Guides Africa Asia Australia Philippines Europe Bulgaria France Malta Portugal Spain North America Canada Travel Hacks Buy Good Cheap Gear Find Cheap Plane Tickets Maximize Your Airmiles Contact Advertise How to Find Cheaper Airline Tickets 09 Apr 2012 by Matt Gibson 5 Comments tips , travel hacks Tweet Tweet
When I first started traveling (and was very broke) I would spend hours, france river tour cruise loire sometimes even days, searching websites for the best deals on tickets. Over time I learned france river tour cruise loire a few tricks. I talked to other travelers and travel professionals about how they found cheap flights. After a while I came up with a formula for finding the good prices on plane tickets. Now I spend on average 2-4 hours searching for a ticket, but I pretty much always a deal that s significantly cheaper that s what most people pay. Not long ago I booked a ticket from San Francisco to Taipei for $516 during at time of year when the vast majority of websites produced tickets that cost from $700 $1000 or more. That s about 25 50% cheaper than an average ticket and that s a pretty good example of the price that I usually pay compared to the norm. These are seven simple things france river tour cruise loire that you can do to keep your flight costs as low as possible without wasting too much time searching for tickets. 1) Fly Tuesday Thursday
Ticket prices are set according to demand, so the cheapest tickets can be found on the days with the least demand. Most people, especially business people, fly on Mondays and Fridays, so those days tend to be the most expensive, while midweek flights are usually france river tour cruise loire cheaper. I've had the best luck flying on Wednesdays (and occasionally Sundays), but it's always good to check flights france river tour cruise loire on several different days before purchasing a ticket. 2) Be Flexible france river tour cruise loire About Flight Dates
If your flight dates are flexible, you may be able to find a much better price checking prices in a range of around three or four weeks. The prices of flights can vary dramatically from one week to the next. Waiting an extra seven days has saved me hundreds of dollars on a single flight before. france river tour cruise loire 3) Be Flexible About Airports
If you are in or near a large center, check schedules that leave from all of the nearby airports. Small budget airlines often don t fly to major airports, but to nearby secondary ones. Those budget airlines are often much cheaper than the bigger ones. 4) Check Prices Early on Wednesday Mornings
This tip is not my own, but I believe its effective. According to Nora Dunn , a certified budget travel expert, airline companies usually set prices on Tuesdays around midnight, and that they sometimes post special temporary seat sales at this time. 5) Check Local Budget Airlines
Most regions of the world are served by budget airlines that don't show up in big search engines. Which budget is a search engine that will tell you which budget airlines fly the route that you are looking for. Check those airlines websites for normal and special fares. They often have amazing deals. I have flown from Taipei to Manila round-trip for less than $50 on a local budget carrier before (mind you, the flight landed at Clark International Airport near Angeles City, rather than Manila International Airport, as I mentioned in tip #3). 6) Check All Possible Booking Options
Different flight booking websites usually charge different prices for the same flight. To save time, I use price meta-search engines, like Booking Wiz and Fare Compare, that compare several booking websites at the same time. After I have found a few flights that look promising, france river tour cruise loire I check the airlines' websites to see if they offer a better price for the flight or have any special deals. Sometimes the airline website is cheaper. Sometimes the booking engine is. Airlines also have different websites france river tour cruise loire to serve different countries. If you ve found a flight that you re interested in buying directly through the airline s website, try logging into a the same airline s website france river tour cruise loire for a different country (Canada, or the UK for example). Sometimes in the rounding up or down or prices and the exchange of currency you ll find an even better deal. 7) Track the Flight s Price
Yapta is a flight france river tour cruise loire search engine france river tour cruise loire that allows you to track changes in ticket prices over time. Just search for your desired route, then find the tickets you re interested, and click on Track Price Drops . You will have to enter your name and email address. france river tour cruise loire After that, Yapta will send you an email every time the price of one of your selected tickets changes. That way, if the airline drops the price for some reason (it happens regularly) you can snap up the ticket right away. Alternatively, if you have already purchased your ticket you can still track the price and request the airline to refund you the difference if one day you see the price drop below what you paid. Conclusion
I m not the most talented travel france river tour cruise loire hacker out there, but I don t aspire to be. I don t care to spend more than a few hours looking for a cheap flight. After that I prefer to spend my time doing fun things, rather than trying to whittle france river tour cruise loire an extra $30 off my ticket. If you re like me, then this guide should be all you need to save a bit of money without wasting too much of your valuable time. Did you enjoy this article? Get my free adventure photoessay eBook You'll get 71 pages of my best photography and writing from around the world. Just sign up here! About the Author, Matt Gibson
Matt Gibson is a the owner of Matt-Gibson.org, a blogger for the Huffington Post, a columnist for Transitions Abroad, and a freelance writer and photographer everywhere. 5 Comments Jeremy Branham ( @budgettravelsac ) 24 Apr 2012 12:04 pm
I like these tips. As a budget traveler, I often research stuff on airlines. A while back, I created a post called 6 travel tips to find the cheapest flight. I agree with these tips but would add that people need to pay attention to taxes and fees and also how many stops/airports france river tour cruise loire on the itinerary. Many times, flying to the border in a country and crossing over by car or train can save hundreds france river tour cruise loire of dollars as it prevents international fees and airport taxes.
Excellent tips (a couple are common france river tour cruise loire knowledge, though), Matt! You need to consider the cheaptickets brand (cheaptickets.sg, france river tour cruise loire cheaptickets.hk and cheaptickets.th) too, especially while travelling to Asia! Especially since you use farecompare. I have found that their fares tend to be competitive most times! Reply Matt Gibson ( @Twitter ) 27 Apr 2012 12:04 pm
I just took a look at the cheap ticket france river tour cruise loire websites. They only seem to list big airlines, and none of the budget carriers. All the tickets I found there could be bought for nearly half the price flying with Air Asia or Cebu Pacific. Budget airlines are super cheap in Asia. I've been meaning to add a better list to this article. Thanks for reminding me!
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