10 steps towards booking cheaper flights

Why is it that some people are finding cheaper flights and you’re stuck buying them at a premium? Well, I’m here to tell you there is a science for discovering cheaper flights.

By following these simple 10 steps, your make finding cheaper flights a breeze.

1. Buy between 8-6 weeks in advance

Makoto Watanabe, an Economist from Japan did some research around when is the best time to buy, you can read about his findings here. In a nutshell, his research showed that During the last week of sale for any given flight the price can increase by 40%. Any earlier (apart from public holidays) the price was at a premium. However around 6-8 week before taking off the price can be found at its lowest as this is when the airline is most vulnerable to sell seats to make profit. What I like to do is look into the future when I have to fly to a destination, then 8 weeks before leaving myself a Calendar reminder when best to book the flight. This ensures I never miss the window and get the best price for my flight, it’s a really effective strategy and it’s saved me a lot over the years.

2. Sign up to mailing list

All airlines will announce sales first via email lists, by doing this will allow you to spot the best deals before anyone else, so those super low flights can be grabbed before they are gone.

3. Keep an eye on holiday pirate

Holiday pirate is great at spotting extremely cheap flights normally due to travel companies needing to shift unsold spots or when they have made technical errors or just extremely crazy deals, signing up to the email list will ensure you never miss a bargain.

4. Follow airlines on Twitter

More frequently I have noticed airlines use twitter to launch power hour sales for those lucky enough to follow, this is also where airlines normally announce new routes with promotion price and competitions for free flights.

5. Collect air miles

Sign up to all 3 airline alliances air mile scheme and for every flight you take with one of their carriers you will receive free air miles. It’s that simple and costs nothing extra to do, so why not? A flight to Australian return is equivalent to a free London to Amsterdam return in air miles, all you simply have to do is sign up and collect, it costs nothing to do just a little time.

6. Choose the best seat for free

Using Seat Guru you can locate the best seat on any given aircraft for free, it’s based on user reviews and you can scout the best seat to park yourself for your next flight. This means you could grab a premium economy leg room without the extra cost due to an emergency exit, worth checking out!

7. Don’t fly on Sundays

Sundays are the most expensive day of the week to fly, everyone wants to get home for the weekend and the airlines know this, by flying back on a Monday Morning can dramatically cut the cost of your holiday.

8. Incognito mode

Airline websites can change prices up to 3 times a day, clever technology using your personal IP address can see if you’re constantly looking at the same flight with dates and times and will up the price if you’re not careful, shop in incognito mode and they will never find out who you are, the price might not increase.

9. Buy on a Tuesday

Most airline offers are more frequently found on Tuesday, during the week than on the weekends or Thursday/Friday when most flights are booked. Tuesday is often a low booking day so this is when airlines will mostly want to boost sales.

10. Alternative airports

Try and play around with alternative airports to reach your destination, many cities have multiple airports which might be cheaper to fly from, also a nearby city might have more cheaper flights and only adds an extra hour bus ride to your trip which might come out cheaper. Play around with this and see what you might find. Do keep in mind the cost of the bus as it might be cheaper to fly to an alternative airport, but the bus cost to reach your final destination might not be the case.

What do you think of the above 9 tips? Have they worked for you in the past? Do you agree with them? Any more tips to add? Feel free to post in the comment section below: