I get asked A.L.L. T.H.E. T.I.M.E. how we afford to travel as much as we do AND with as many kids as we do. Some ask out of sheer curiosity, others seriously don’t know how we manage the kids but I think the majority of people are really saying how the heck do you afford it?
Travel isn’t cheap and while we certainly make it more of a priority than some families we also have a few tricks up our sleeves including how to book cheap airfare. Lucky for you I have put together a fantastic guide to help you SAVE BIG on your next airline booking.
Cheap Flight Tips that don’t work!
Let’s get rid of the tips that you are told that will just waste your time and not save you any money
Clear Your Cookies & Use an Incognito Browser
Yes, Companies are paying BIG BUCKS to follow your search patterns in hopes of being able to up their prices when they see that you want something (by continually searching for that item) this includes airlines. However, it is going to take more than one person searching for a flight to alter the price of flights.
So, save your time and don’t worry about the incognito browser, just go ahead and search for your flights.
Book your flights on a Tuesday
There used to be a common saying that airlines dropped their prices on Tuesday. False. Airline prices vary all the time and airlines don’t just change prices on Tuesdays. In facts, prices typically can change 3 times a day.
Tips that do work!
1. Use Google Flights to search for ticket prices
Google flights is the best search engine for airline prices. It covers almost every airlines (excludes southwest) and it will show you all the airlines hidden fees, such as bag fees, seat fees, etc…
2. Find the BEST Time to Travel to Your Destination
If you have a MUST SEE destination you will want to find the BEST possible time to travel there. This is typically in between their high and low seasons (also known as shoulder season) which offers you the best of both worlds.
It is easy to find the best time-frames by searching with Hopper.
You simply type in your destination and it gives you the averages for ticket prices.
You can also use the ITA Matrix Software to narrow down the best days in the month to travel. *The ITA Matrix is only a search engine and you will have to find the flight and book it through another site like Orbitz, Expedia etc…
3. Flexibility is Key
If you are serious about travel then you MUST learn to be flexible. If you don’t mind when or where you travel to I suggest checking in with some travel deal sites like: Johnny Jet, The Points Guy, The Flight Deal and TravelZoo.
If you have a budget in mind you can wait until there is an INCREDIBLE deal to somewhere that interests you and POUNCE on it!!
4. Know When to Book
CheapAir.com hosted a survey which analyzed over 560 million flight searches. They concluded that the optimal time to purchase plane tickets was on average 7 weeks in advance (for domestic flights).
For international flights, Cheap Air found your best bet to be 11-12 weeks prior to departure.
The absolute WORST time to book is within 14 days of flying. You can also be penalized by booking to far in advance (5+ months).
UPDATE: Kayak has an awesome tool to help you figure out the BEST time to book a flight. Check out the When To Book Tool here.
5. Departure and Arrival Day Trends
Studies show the BEST days to fly out are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
In my own experience I find that departing on a Saturday and returning on a Monday for domestic flights is typically a lesser fare. And, for international departing on a Tuesday and returning on a Wednesday hits that magic spot.
7. Travel to Where the Deals Are
Different DMO’s (Destination Marketing Offices) work with airlines directly to lower rates coming in to their market. They do this as an attempt to lure in more tourism. Why not take advantage of it?
The BEST way to find these deals is to use one of the following search engines: Kayak, Google Flights or FareCompare to see a worldwide map for inspiration on where you could go along with costs to fly there.
8. Utilize Stopovers and Multi-City Tickets
Sometimes you have to outsmart the system. Let’s say you want to get to Paris but direct flights are incredibly high. If you use the map feature as explained above you might find that a direct flight into London and then take a train ride to Paris is MUCH cheaper.
If you use a multi-city ticket option (as available in Google Flights) you can fly into London, take the train to Paris and then fly out of Paris back home.
9. Check the Airlines Website & Be Friends
After browsing your options on search engines make sure to check with the airlines own website before booking. You should also become friends with them on social media (like Facebook & Twitter) and sign up for their eNewsletter to see if you can find any deeper deals or discounts that way.
10. Be Inconvenienced
The HARD truth is sometimes we forgo comfort to save money. This means flying red eyes, including multiple stops and or extended layovers. Sometimes its worth the extra money (especially when traveling with kids) to book direct but when you just can’t wing it a long travel day may be the only option.
BONUS- Frequent Flyer Miles
Of course knowing how to get the most out of your frequent flyer miles is also key to cheaper airfare so make sure to follow The Points Guy and JohnnyJet for their best tips on the subject.
It is also important to know the airline alliances. The 3 major ones are: SkyTeam, STAR and OneWorld.
SkyTeam: Transports more than 400 million passengers every year to over 845 destinations. Members include: Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, Aeroflot, Aeromexico, Continental Airlines, Czech Airlines, KLM, Delta Airlines, Korean Air + a few more. The alliance covers a large number of cities in every continent of the world.
STAR: This alliance transports over 455 million passengers every year to over 900 destinations. Members of this alliance include: Air Canada, Air China, Austrian Airlines, BMI, Lufthansa, South African Airways, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International airlines, Turkish Airlines, US Airways and United Airlines.
OneWorld: Reaches more than 600 destinations and transports about 320 million passengers every year. The members of OneWorld include: British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN, Qantas, Japan Airlines, Malev and Royal Jordanian Airlines.
The reason you need to know about the alliance members is most will allow you to share air miles within their alliance making it easier for you to add up frequent flyer miles quickly. The alliances do block some sharing so you need to check out the details. OneWorld although the smaller of the big three is known to have better redemption for international and domestic first class awards. Read more here.
Want to know more about traveling on SouthWest? Trips With Tykes has an awesome guide right here.
Pin for Later-
Do you know some tips I missed?
Leave them in the comments I love learning new tips!
For more of my BEST Travel Tips check out these articles:
- 21 Best Kauai Restaurants for Every Occasion - October 2, 2024
- 50 Amazing Disney World Tips (You’ll Actually Use & Love) - September 27, 2024
- 41 Awesome Matching Disney Family Shirts [+ Weird Ones!] - September 12, 2024
Great info! This choices me hope for traveling with my herd!!
I swear I didn’t know any of this! Thanks for sharing this information!! 🙂
The timing of this article is perfect, as I am trying to plan several trips for this year and there are a couple where the flights are on us. The cost of flying (especially overseas) with a full family is always so crazy! Pinning this so I can remember to check back again soon. Thanks for the great tips!
Awesome… I know it adds up SO fast! Definitely,follow The Flight Deal and Secret Flying on twitter too. They are great at picking up mistake fares and insane deals.
Great, solid tips for finding cheap airfare! We travel internationally often, so I know first hand that the above tips are right on target. 🙂
Thank you! I am on the lookout for ways to save on flights and this post is life saver.
Aren’t we all 😉 Glad to be of help!
Great advice! I pinned to my travel page!
It’s crazy to think that simply CLEARING YOUR CACHE will make a difference! So weird!
This is perfect. I never seem to have all the information at my fingertips, and this puts it right there! Thanks!
Awesome to hear Susan– that was what I was going for. An quick reference guide 🙂 Thanks!!
Great tips! I love using Google Flights It helps me get ideas on when to travel. I haven’t used HipMunk, so I’ll add that to my list to check next time.
Google flights used to be my go to… that and the matrix. However, more recently I open HipMunk and Momondo and can usually score something good. That and Secret Flying… they post amazing error fares on twitter if you don’t mind grabbing the deal and going somewhere you might not have thought of previously. Its a fun game 🙂 I scored Australia from LAX with return for $415. And, LAX to Prague and back for $363. Had no intention of going previously but jumped on the deals 😉
Love all these tips – so useful. I think it’s sometimes hard to accept that cheap flights may be inconvenient, but if you accept that, I think there are so many options ahead of you. The incognito window is a brilliant one too – I’ve been stung by that before!
Great tips, Skyscanner is my go-to site, I spend hours browsing on there!! 🙂
Me too!! Although, lately Secret Flying and The Flight Deal get ALL my attention. Crazy good flights are posted daily there 😉
Great tips, I’m pinning this. What I always find difficult is the ‘be flexible’ part. When traveling with school-going children we are bound to school holidays (we live in Belgium and here they are really strict about it). Christmas break is the most expensive time, but it’s also the case for the spring break and summer holidays… Therefore we book our flights as soon as possible and it works for us. Just out of curiosity I sometimes check what similar flights cost 6 months, 4 months, 3 months before the flight, and I never – not once – found a cheaper deal than what we paid by booking well in advance. But I’m sure it’s not the case during other periods. When the kids were younger we used to wait for the special deals and could fly much cheaper.
This is an incredible article! I learned a few things!!! Thank you!
Excellent tips for finding cheap flights. It is indeed cheaper to use multiple destinations. I recently find a deal by using a budget airline to cover one trip leg, instead of using the same airline for all flight legs.
Great tips! I find these all to be true too, as well as clearing cookies and searching in incognito mode! Look out for good search engines like Skyscanner, Momondo or Kayak.
Have you actually booked a flight to Europe through Momondo? It goes through kiwi.com and I’m just wondering how reliable it is. Saying it will take your payment then ~30 minutes later you should receive a confirmation email about flight/booking information. Seems a little sketch
Hello Alex, yes we have booked through Momondo. But, Momondo is an aggregator so you never book directly through them. They just find and post the deals for you using their algorithms. That said I looked up Kiwi.com and they seem very reliable. You can read reviews here- https://www.trustpilot.com/review/kiwi.com. As always please use your best judgment as I only post information that I find online. I have not used kiwi.com directly and so I cannot speak for their service as I have not had any experiences with them yet. Best of luck 🙂
[…] Book Cheap Flights- flights are most likely one of your biggest expenses when it comes to traveling as a family. Especially, if you are heading overseas. I have written a walkthrough guide of exactly how I book the cheapest flights every time we travel that you can find here. […]
Find tips for booking Cheap Flights:-
1. Go for offseason ticketing
2. Go for mid-week flight tickets
3. Opt for a red eye flight
4. Skipping event/festival dates