As the title of this post suggests I will give you free advice on how to get the cheapest flights. I know there is loads of sites out there that do this but I find them unspecific and lacking in ideas I don't already know. I have written down some of their main points but I have also left you with my foolproof guide to getting you to your destination for much less.
- Always be flexible with your flight dates, obviously mid-week can be cheaper than weekend.
- Okay a lot of sites find it easy to say choose indirect flights. I agree with this up to a point. Obviously again it comes down to how much time you have. Two flights to get to your destination is OK but three or more is actually usually quite expensive. Don't ask me why, they probably think 'this bloke likes flying so much he's going three times in a row, so he'll definitely pay for the privilege. (Airline people probably don't talk like this, in fact they definitely don't!)
- Finally just a little hint if you ever decide to use a travel search engine, say like cheapflights, kayak or expedia don't book it through that website. Find the cheap flight there if you have to but book it via the airlines website, its usually cheaper as some sites charge a fee and also gives a lot more scope to argue if anything goes wrong.
FOOLPROOF GUIDE TO GETTING A CHEAPER FLIGHT
1. Go straight to www.skyscanner.net right now, bookmark the website please. We'll use this site as a preliminary search site. You may or may not know about this website but I find most casual travellers don't yet know about it. It allows you to search all flights leaving your city and going EVERWHERE over a range of dates, a month, a year and you can choose the cheapest from the list. I find it very useful if you plan on flying into a country but don't care where you start. Just search from your city to say USA for the month of August and you will see all the cheapest flights for that month. So we use this site to figure out the cheapest dates to fly somewhere.
PS. This works best for Europe and some inter-continent flights. For internal flights in places outside of Europe for example New York to San Francisco it doesn't work as well but I'll cover it in the guide.
2. Now using the dates you found in step one go to www.momondo.com. This is great for cheap flights and budget travel. Just search the destination and dates you found earlier.
3. Now if you haven't found a cheap flight yet you must do the following. Wikitravel (a nice site) has a page where it lists all the cheap airlines associated with specific countries. Air Asia in South-East Asia etc. You can systematically go to each website listed if you wish or alternatively use a travel search engine, I like cheapflights, and search (or edreams). The problem can be that you have to pick specific dates but take your time to search through a few different days. Another good site is www.travelsupermarket.com. Also be sure to check trailfinders as they sometimes (very rarely) may have a cheaper flight.
PS. I haven't said this yet but when your searching for flights please select one way, I find it
easier to tell which the cheaper days are and also I much prefer flying in one place and out of another especially if your travelling around properly.
3. Now as soon as you have found a flight that takes your fancy using steps 1 and 2 hold your horses. Don't rush in yet. First take the time to go to a student travel website. go4less is one I use but a search on google and you'll find one for your country. Now it doesn't matter what age you are or if your a student or not you can still buy these flights. Every now and then they can have a cheap deal so search the dates and destinations you already found in 1 and 2 and see.
4. If 3 gives no additional results go to the airlines website and book your flight found in 1 or 2 there. There is no other search you have to make and you can be safe in the knowledge that you have the cheapest flight.
Finally here is a list of useful websites in addition to the one's mentioned above. Please do check them out. Please leave comments or questions you may have and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.