19 TIPS FOR FINDING THE CHEAPEST ECONOMY TICKET
Search for the cheapest fare on the internet, and not through a travel agency as the latter will always need to be paid with a commission.
Use the airfare search engine Kayak, my personal favourite. The latter checks the price of your requested flight at tons of sites at once, including Orbitz and Cheaptickets, and allows flexibility in your travel dates. However, Kayak does not display all prices, so do not forget to check other online ticket-sellers as well: Hipmunk, Momondo, Hotwire, Skyscanner, Expedia, and Travelocity.
Matrix is the ITA software that powers Kayak, Orbitz, Cheaptickets and lots of airlines and travel agent’s tools. But you can skip all their ads and come-ons and search Matrix itself for the no-nonsense scoop of flying cheap.
Google Flights is a new tool that has the potential to help you tremendously in finding the cheapest ticket. It’s a very simple tool: you just enter your travel dates and destination (city or country), hit ‘explore destinations’ and Google Flights shows you a map where you can travel for the lowest price.
Search for cheap fares on the airline’s official website. This is an often-overlooked tip, but well worth doing as airlines can host private sales that are only accessible through their website.
Subscribe to the newsletters of your preferred airlines, so that you will be informed amongst the first about their promotional offers (with sometimes discounts of 25%).
Travel outside the school holidays.
Fly out early: the first flight of the morning is usually the cheapest.
Including a Saturday night in your trip may substantially lower the price.
Be flexible: adding a couple of days to your trip before or after peak travel days may lower the fare.