Getting cheap airlines flights, tickets and last minute tickets and deals to Europe, Asia, Africa and beyond is a daunting task. We all know that there are some great ways using which we can massively dwindle your travel spending. But this calls for a great market research, searching for cheap airlines, getting to know the best days to buy tickets, using tools and mining out data from the web. Most of us don’t plan our tours that much. This makes us buy last minute air tickets, which are expensive. Recently, a Redditor who has spent years in the travel industry shared tips and tricks to buy cheap airlines tickets and flights. ScottKeyes finds cheap flights for a living. He did an AMA on Reddit and shared some amazing way to buy tickets in less cost. These are the must read ways for anyone who is a frequent traveler or just want to save money travelling. I have made you a summary of this AMA to let you know the best way you can travel in your bucks.
Get Cheap Tickets, Airline Deals, Last Minute Bookings and Save Money on Travel
When Should I Book My Flight To Save Money
The most important question first: is there any best time on which we should book our flights? Scott says that you should wait before your plans are solid otherwise if you cancel your booking, you will get penalties and half refunds which means loss of money. This is the policy of almost all airlines except Southwest.
According to Scott, if you are planning a domestic flight, the best way is to book 2 to 3 months in advance. This will save you a lot of money. If you plan to hit an international destination, you should book the ticket 4 to 6 months before the planned data.
You should not book the flights before these time frames because that makes the time period gap much bigger and you stand a chance of missing some good deals which may come during the gap period.
Use Mistake Fares
It is important to know that airlines mess up a lot, and they put up insanely cheap flights on their websites by mistakes. This is where the agility gives benefit. If you are lucky to spot the mistakes. You can buy them. Scott says that almost 25% of the cheap flights he buy for the people are mistake fares. Mistake fares are done mostly by busy airlines. You should keep an eye.
Tools to Track Cheap Flights
Many airports around the world keep launching good deals to let its customers buy cheap flights and book affordable last minute tickets. In order to track such deals, Scott says that you can use the Airfarewatchdog service because they have pretty good alert services as far as deals are concerned. Scott also recommends Google Flights tool because it shows the price comparison over long time spans. Scott is a big fan of Momondo to search for flights. He also uses apps like Kayak or SkyScanner.
Check out our article on best apps to search and get cheap flights and save money travelling.
Which Airport is Best to Get Cheap Flights
Another great question: which airports offer great cheap flights and tickets. According to the expert, the NYC airport is the best when it comes to getting cheap flights. After that, you can consider LAX, SFO, Boston, Houston and Chicago. MSP and Charlotte are good airports for deals
As a general rule, most of the cheap flight deals and tickets come from busy airports with a lot of operating airlines. Don’t expect much deals from an airport which has only one airline.
How to Spot a Cheap Flight or Good Ticket Deal
Scott says that the best way to spot a cheap flight is the $600 price tag. If you are seeing the return ticket price anywhere around $600 (from US to Europe or Asia and beyond) know that this is a good bang for your bucks.
Tuesdays are no special
You must have heard that on Tuesdays you can get cheap flights. Scott says that it is a myth.
The Best Time to Search a Cheap Flight
It’s better to search for tickets and flights late at night (after midnight) and very early morning. Why? Because in those times the demand is less and the price goes down.
The Reddit AMA thread with Scott is amazing. You should check it out. I have given you the general rules of getting cheap flights as mentioned by Scott. He then gives people advices on how to get flights based on their location and time requirements.
Check out Scott’s website here.
