Looking for a low cost flight ticket?
Aren’t we all – but an inexpensive flight can be more elusive than Bigfoot unless you know what you’re doing.
Most of us end up as bleary-eyed punters, blindly clicking through airline sales and hoping for the best but not these experts, who’ve made searching cheap flights their expertise.
These three professionals have shared some of their best tips via reddit, so you can find cheap flights now!
Thanks to the experts from Scott’s Cheap Flights, Flystein and Nomadfly. who spent 24 hours replying to questions online.
There are no best day or best time of the year to buy flights
“It all depends where you’re flying. In general, for international flights I recommend booking 2-6 months in advance. Any longer than that and you miss out on future sales, any sooner and the price usually spikes. And if you are looking for holiday season, book as early as 11 months in advance if price is right coz its more likely to go only up,” explains the first flight hacker.
The magic number is 2-4 months before your travel date.
The second flight hacker agrees.
“There aren’t best days or best times. That’s a weird quirk that existed back in the 90s/early 2000s when airlines’ IT was less complex than today and they only updated prices once a week (on Tuesdays). But that’s no longer the case.”
Good to know!
There is no proof that ‘clearing your cookies’ will get you a cheaper flight
“I have basically never found a difference. I think this is an urban myth, or hasn’t existed for years,” flight hacker one says.
It turns out that going to international versions of sites and checking prices is actually the best way to compare prices.
A community member provides the perfect example of this.
“The last trip I took a trip to visit my girlfriend’s family in Vietnam (and also a side trip to Thailand) it was around $1050 on the US sites. Checking the Thai version of the same website (same company just .co.th was different), THE SAME FLIGHT only cost $690 (including all bank related fees).”
Break up your tickets going via different cities
“If you can break your tickets up or go via different cities, you can see different prices,” flight hacker three says.
“I mean actually booking separate tickets for different legs of the journey, instead of all of the flights on one ticket. So each person would have 2 or 3 tickets. It works internationally really well,” she concludes.
How to get a refund from an airline
“Try to ask for a credit for future flights,” all agree.
“Also you could get lucky: if airline change departure time of any leg of the flight for few hours – usually you could get full refund.”
