1. Be Flexible
Having set days that you can fly can make your search a bit more difficult. Try and have at least a few days on either side of your flights as options. This will help increase your chance of getting a better deal if you’re able to fly on a Wednesday as opposed to only on a Friday.
2. Look For Connecting Flights
Yes, connecting flights add time to getting to your final destination, but those short haul flights are often not full, hence a cheaper airfare to that particular destination. If you can swing long layovers in between flights, think of it as an opportunity to see a place you may not have taken the time to visit otherwise. NOTE: Try to avoid super tight connections… the chances of a delay and missing that connecting flight can be high, so you’ll want ample time. Otherwise that cheap flight deal might not actually be worth it if you need to pay for an overnight at an airport hotel.
3. Book On These Days
The travel secret of booking on Tuesday has been out for a while, and guess what? Airlines, hotels and booking sites caught on. Tuesday are actually not always the best day to snag deals now. Try looking for flights or deals on Saturdays and Mondays. Frommer’s recently revealed that these are now sweet spots for finding the best prices.
4. Fly On These Days
Just like booking on certain days can help nab you a better flight price, so is flying on non-busy days. Mondays and Fridays are typically busy, mainly due to business travellers getting to and from their meetings. Friday evenings are also tricky because that’s when people looking for a weekend getaway are rushing to the airport. You’re better ff flying early on a Saturday morning, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
5. Book In Advance
The best time to book your flight according to research by Frommers? Roughly 72 days before you actually depart on your trip. If you can plan out your flights even sooner than that, you may score an even better deal — and if you use a site like flightnetwork.com, you can get price drop protection if your flight does happen to go down in price. Last minute deals are a bit trickier to come by these days, but hotel sites like Hotels.com and the app Hotel Tonight give amazing last-minute booking options and discounts when you’re in a pinch.
6. Avoid Weekends and Holidays if Possible
This may be hard to do, but if you can avoid long weekends and flying around holidays you’ll likely get a better rate. If by chance you do have to fly during that time, choosing the actual holiday (i.e. Christmas Day or Thanksgiving Day) can often provide cheaper prices (and airports are considerably more quiet which is also a bonus!).
7. Keep Your Searches a Secret
Ever notice that you look for a flight deal one day and then the next time you search it’s mysteriously gone up in price? It’s not secret that your search history is tracked and that does affect your flight prices as cookies track to see if a flight path is repeatedly searched. Make sure to search for flights in private browsing mode to see the lowest prices available at that time. Your cookies are reset each time you use a private browsing window, giving you a better chance at finding the best flight price and not dramatically increased fares.
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