Booking Airfare & Flight Deals
are you interested in saving money on flights? Good! you have found yourself in the right place.
This handy-dandy guide offers general tips to book cheap airfare, outlines what the best flight search engines are and provides a few sites that will allow you to score flight deals.
general tips
when to book
Domestic | 2-3 months in advance
International | 5-8 months months in advance
when to fly
Wednesdays and Saturdays are the cheapest days to fly as they often fall in the middle of vacations. Flying on a Tuesday can also be cheaper.
myths
Price Decreases | Once upon a time, Tuesday afternoon was the time airlines released flight deals. This is not common practice with the availability of the internet and the ability to adjust prices with the touch of a button.
Cookies | With internet privacy being close to non-existent, word on the street is that prices increase because “they” know you are searching for specific flights. To avoid this, it is suggested to search on a private browser. In practice, however, this method has not proven to show cheaper results.
booking airfare
Google Flights
Best for international flights
Google is an absolute powerhouse and their flight search engine is no exception, particularly when booking international trips. Their selection of tools and filters make finding cheap airfare easy, such as the Date Grid (pictured below), which can help find the best rates for different combinations of dates. They also suggest nearby airports that may have lower prices.
If you are looking for cheap domestic flights, be aware that they do not advertise all airlines, particularly smaller ones (i.e. Frontier Airlines).
Book with Google Flights
Hopper
Best for mobile users
The upside? Hopper is visually pleasing, easy to navigate, and they predict price fluctuations - advising you to book or wait for the best rates. The downside? It is only an app, so you can’t view it on a desktop. The other upside? You can set price alerts as a phone notification and book then and there.
Download Hopper
Kayak
Most Comprehensive engine
Personally, I find their site to be very “busy” on the eyes, and the tendency for several pop-ups to open when you click one thing, can be annoying. One second you’re on Kayak and the next you find you’ve been re-routed to a different site altogether. That said, they offer easy-to-use filters and often have the lowest prices.
Book on Kayak
Skyscanner
This is a classic, but like Kayak, I find the SkyScanner desktop to be a bit clunky, but though their app is easier to navigate.
Book on SkyScanner
book direct
Some airlines can be cheaper when booking directly on the airline’s site, such as when I once saved $100+ by booking on Frontier’s site directly. Some smaller airlines don’t pop up in searches so if you know there is an airline hub in a city (such as Frontier and Denver, CO), it may be worth a peek.
It’s also good to keep in mind that some airlines, such as Southwest, are not found in large flight search engines.
scoring flight deals
Secret Flying
best for flexible travelers
This site is run by a team of travelers that scour the internet (with what time, I don’t know) for price drops and error fares. Essentially, when a fare is misprinted, it is honored, and Secret Flying is all over it.
If you have a flexible schedule or destination in mind, you may find a ridiculous deal. Last year, I wanted to go somewhere in Europe for a few weeks and popped over here to see what deals were out of Seattle. I got to Amsterdam and back for $400!
Search on Secret Flying
Scott’s Cheap Flights
Scott’s travel team finds the best deals, and they are actually worth the value. To get started, you can do a Limited Membership (free), which offers a sample of deals, or a Premium Membership ($49/year), which gets the best deals and mistake fares.
How it works: You select a few departure airports and you will get email alerts when flight deals pop up - often heavily discounted!
Sign up for Scott’s Cheap Flights