The cheapest flight ticket doesn’t necessarily mean the best ticket. You get what you pay for and buying the cheapest ticket doesn’t get you the best deal. In the end, you will have to pay for the seat, the drinks, and the luggage (including carry-on), with a very uncomfortable flight and the worst time to travel.
Instead, let’s find ways to look for the best tickets; the Best times to travel, the best airlines, and one stop at the most.
- Use applications like Skyscanner, hopper, and kayak to search for tickets within your expected scheduled, or if you have a flexible schedule search by month or even by the best deals to a certain destination. These applications have settings where you could search for the best time in the year to get to a destination or the best destinations at a specific time of the year. Also, hopper has a notification setting to advise you whenever a ticket is going to drop or raise in price. After you find your searched ticket, and you find a particular time, date, and price within your budget, go to the airline website and search for the same flight. Most times the price drops by 10 or 20 dollars. it is not that much but I will explain why it is best to purchase directly from the airline.
- Why is best to buy directly from an Airline.
Whenever you buy a ticket from the airline and you have an issue with your flight, the airline will be willing to negotiate with you since you purchase the ticket directly from them. - Consider alternate airports.
Some airports are cheaper than others because they are not as popular. For example, MCO is higher than TPA. Newark is cheaper than La Guardia. DCA in Washington DC has good deals in flights to Europe. Then take into account how much it would cost you to travel from your city to one of these less costly airports. Sometimes a direct flight from your city ends up costing you less than hopping from airport to airport. The whole idea is to look at your best options taking into consideration other airports around you. - Do your price research on weekdays and late at night on the timezone where you will be departing from. Another good time to find great deals is around the holidays in December when mostly everyone is focused on the festivities and not on purchasing tickets for the next year’s vacation. Early at the beginning of the year is also a good time to find cheaper flights with good airlines.
- Book a flight on a Tuesday and at certain times of the year.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are cheaper than Fridays and Sundays. I have seen this especially while traveling to Latin America. - Time of the year to book a flight
Certain months are much higher, for example, the summer months in the northern hemisphere are quite expensive vs the fall or the winter, but who would like to go to the Caribbean during the hurricane season? in that case, you have to book your flight 6 to 8 months ahead of time to get the best price. - Get the basic ticket first upgrade later
This is an option when you buy directly from the airline website. I do not think (I have not tried that yet) that purchasing a cheap ticket from Kayak, or Priceline could be upgraded, I use these applications as a research tool and not as a purchasing tool (see point 2). I have been given the option from two airlines to upgrade to a business class for a bargain price later on. And I have to tell you it is worth the difference, especially for an 8-hour flight. certain Airlines traveling to Latinoamerica, offer an upgrade to business class for a bid (Copa airlines, Lufthansa), while others would require you to be part of their loyalty program.
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