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We invite you to explore some of the best strategies, techniques and resources for finding the cheapest flights available.
It is well known that the cheapest flight will not always be found on the same website. For this reason, it makes sense to compare several flight search sites before booking. One of the quickest ways to do this is by using a metasearch engine or flight aggregator. These services search multiple airlines and travel sites on your behalf using a single search.
However, the secret that many travellers may not realise is that no single metasearch site will necessarily find the cheapest deal every time. There are two main reasons for this:
There is no single flight comparison site that searches every airline and travel website on the internet. Different comparison sites work with different airlines, travel agents and booking partners, which means their results can vary.
As a result, it can be difficult to predict which search engine will find the cheapest fare for a particular journey.
The way each comparison site searches, processes and ranks flight results can also differ. One search engine may locate a particular fare from a travel agent while another may not display the same deal, depending on its data sources, technology and search algorithms.
To help solve this problem, we developed what we like to call a “Meta-Meta Flight Search Engine”.
Instead of searching just one flight comparison site, a meta-meta search allows you to compare results from multiple metasearch engines and flight aggregators from a single search.
FlightsFinder.com was created around this concept, allowing travellers to compare leading flight search engines from one convenient dashboard.
This removes the need to repeatedly enter the same journey details across multiple websites and makes it much easier to compare a wider range of flight options.
By comparing results across multiple flight search engines, travellers may be able to uncover fares that they would otherwise have missed when relying on just one comparison site.
Flights Finder brings together results and search options from leading flight comparison services, helping you compare more of the market from a single dashboard. This makes it a useful starting point when searching for the lowest available airfares online.
However good you are at finding cheap flights, there is always a possibility that someone out there is better at it. In fact, specialist services allow travellers to outsource their flight search to travel experts who have made a career out of finding low-cost airfares and complex itineraries. These experts, sometimes known as flight hackers, spend a great deal of time researching routes, airline pricing, fare rules and booking strategies, and their knowledge can sometimes uncover options that a standard flight search engine may miss.
Services such as Flightfox, Flystein and Chimpando offer expert-assisted flight-search services. Their fees and service models vary, so always check the current terms before using them. If you are trying to work out how to find cheaper flights for an expensive or complicated itinerary, paying an expert may sometimes be worthwhile if the saving is greater than the fee.
The following points in our list include several of the techniques commonly used by experienced flight hunters to help find cheaper fares.
Hidden-city ticketing has been a well-known flight hack for many years. The basic principle is that if you want to fly from city A to city B, it can sometimes be cheaper to book a flight from city A to city C with a connection in city B. The traveller then leaves the journey at city B rather than continuing to city C.
There are important downsides to this strategy. It may breach an airline's conditions of carriage, and repeated use could potentially affect your frequent-flyer account or future travel with the airline. You also cannot normally check baggage through to the ticketed final destination because your luggage may continue to city C.
Skiplagged is one of the best-known services for searching hidden-city itineraries. This type of ticketing is controversial and has been challenged by airlines, so make sure you understand the fare rules and practical risks before considering it.
If your child is under two years of age, many airlines allow them to travel as a lap infant for a reduced fare, although taxes or fees may still apply. Once a child reaches the airline's age threshold for their own seat, a normal or discounted child fare may apply depending on the carrier and route.
Some airlines also run family promotions or offer special arrangements for children. Always check the airline's current policy before booking, as age rules and discounts vary considerably.
Frontier Airlines: Kids Fly Free programme
British Airways: Family travel information
Southwest Airlines: Flying with children
Many airlines offer frequent-flyer programmes that allow you to collect miles or points when you fly and redeem them for reward flights, upgrades or other travel benefits in the future.
These programmes often have partnerships with credit-card providers, hotels, car-hire companies, retailers and other businesses, creating additional ways to earn points without flying.
Make sure you understand the expiry and account-activity rules of the programme you use, because these vary between airlines and loyalty schemes.
You can often collect and redeem points across airlines that belong to the same alliance. For example, the oneworld alliance includes airlines such as British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, among others. Always check the rules of your specific frequent-flyer programme before booking.
Travelling outside the busiest periods can be one of the best ways to find low-cost airfares. Flight demand often rises during school holidays, major festivals and peak tourism seasons, which can push ticket prices higher.
Instead of assuming that summer or winter will always be cheaper or more expensive, check the normal peak and off-peak periods for the specific destination you plan to visit.
The period between a destination's peak and off-peak seasons is commonly known as the shoulder season. It can offer a useful balance between favourable weather, fewer crowds and cheaper flights.
Check a reliable destination guide and compare airfare across several weeks before deciding when to travel.
You may occasionally find yourself in the unfortunate position of being denied boarding because a flight has been overbooked.
Airlines sometimes sell more tickets than there are seats because they expect a proportion of passengers not to travel. If more passengers arrive than expected, the airline may ask for volunteers to take another flight or may involuntarily deny boarding to some travellers.
Depending on where you are travelling, the airline involved and the circumstances, you may be entitled to compensation, meals, accommodation, rerouting or a refund. Make sure you ask the airline what assistance and compensation you are entitled to before leaving the airport.
Even though the internet and online booking have revolutionised the way we find cheap flights, specialist travel agents can still be useful.
Some agents focus on particular destinations, communities, long-haul routes or complex itineraries and may have access to negotiated, consolidator or specialist fares that are worth comparing with prices found online.
For example, travel agents serving communities with frequent travel to particular regions may have extensive experience with those routes and know which airlines, fare combinations and departure points tend to offer the best value.
The best approach is to compare the agent's quote with airline-direct prices and flight comparison sites before booking.
When checking for flights, always consider airports within reasonable travelling distance of your preferred departure point. An alternative airport can sometimes produce significant airfare savings.
The same principle applies to your destination. Check nearby arrival airports to see whether another route produces a cheaper overall journey.
For example, when travelling to London, compare fares to Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City Airport rather than checking only one airport.
Remember to include the cost and time of travelling between the alternative airport and your final destination. A lower airfare is only a genuine saving if the extra ground-transport costs do not wipe it out.
Occasionally, an unusually low airfare appears because of a pricing, currency, filing or technical error. These are commonly known as error fares or mistake fares.
If you book an error fare, the airline may later cancel the booking if it identifies the mistake, although some mistake fares are honoured. For this reason, avoid making expensive non-refundable arrangements until you are confident the ticket has been accepted.
A useful way to look for unusually cheap flights is to use broad flexible-date and flexible-destination searches. On FlightsFinder.com, compare a wide range of travel dates and destinations to spot fares that stand out from normal pricing.
It is wise to leave enough time to research several booking options and compare fares before your preferred travel dates.
There is no single perfect number of days before departure that guarantees the cheapest flight. The ideal booking window varies by route, season, demand and airline. Starting early gives you more time to monitor prices and recognise when a genuinely good fare appears.
You can wait for a cheap last-minute flight, but this is a risky strategy and is best used only when your plans are flexible and you are prepared for prices to rise or seats to sell out.
Many modern flight-search tools use historical and current airfare data to indicate whether a fare looks relatively high or low and whether prices may change. These predictions are useful as guidance, but they cannot guarantee what an airline will charge in the future.
Once you have located a flight that meets your needs and the fare compares well with surrounding dates and other search engines, consider booking rather than waiting indefinitely for an uncertain price drop.
One common way travellers miss a good airfare is by delaying too long and finding that the fare bucket has sold out or the price has increased.
If you require hotel accommodation or car hire as well as a flight, you may sometimes receive a discount by booking several parts of your trip together.
Expedia and other major online travel agencies offer flight-and-hotel packages that are worth comparing with the cost of booking each component separately.
Our recommendation is simple: use strong comparison tools for flights, hotels and car hire, calculate the total independent cost, and then compare that figure with a package price.
Then book whichever genuine total price offers the best value for your needs.
Very early morning or late-night departures can sometimes be cheaper because they may be less convenient for many travellers.
This can be particularly useful on short-haul routes where several flights operate throughout the same day, giving you more departure times to compare.
It is not a guaranteed rule, so compare the full day's schedule. If your priority is how to find cheaper flights, being flexible about departure time can reveal lower fares that travellers searching only convenient daytime hours may miss.
Midweek flights can sometimes be cheaper than weekend departures, particularly on routes where leisure demand is concentrated around Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
However, there is no universal rule that Tuesday or Wednesday will always be the cheapest day to fly. Prices depend on the route, season, airline and current demand.
As a rule of thumb, compare at least three days before and after your preferred departure date whenever your schedule allows.
FlightsFinder.com can help you compare different dates and flight-search providers from one place.
If you are in the unfortunate position of having lost a close family member, or need to travel urgently because a relative is seriously ill, it may be worth contacting airlines directly to ask whether any compassionate or bereavement options are available.
These fares are much less common than they once were, and airlines that offer them may require documentation to confirm the circumstances and your relationship to the person concerned.
It is not guaranteed that a bereavement fare will be cheaper than the best publicly available airfare, so compare the airline's offer with other cheap-flight options before booking.
Another useful flight-search strategy is to research alternative routes by flying into a secondary destination and then continuing to your primary destination by train, coach, car or a separate flight.
For example, if a direct ticket to your chosen city is particularly expensive, compare fares to nearby cities or countries with good onward transport links. On some journeys this can reduce the overall cost and may even allow you to visit an additional destination.
Always calculate the complete journey cost, including baggage, transfers, accommodation and the risk associated with separately booked connections.
It is always worth checking a flight quote found through a travel agent or comparison site against the airline's own website.
However, it is a mistake to assume that the airline's website will offer the cheapest flight every single time. Travel agents and other booking partners may occasionally have access to different fares, package pricing or negotiated inventory.
Once again, the best way to find low-cost airfares is to compare both sources before deciding where to book.
Booking flights online makes it much easier to compare a large number of airlines, travel agents and flight-search engines quickly. Some companies may also charge extra service fees for telephone bookings.
Make sure you are purchasing from a reputable airline or travel company and check that the payment page is secure. A secure website should use https://, but HTTPS alone does not prove that a seller is trustworthy, so also check the company's identity, reputation and booking terms.
Throwaway ticketing describes a situation where a traveller needs a one-way flight but finds that a return ticket is cheaper, so they book the return fare and do not use the final portion of the itinerary.
It is important to understand that intentionally skipping flight segments may breach an airline's fare rules or conditions of carriage. Airlines may also cancel later sectors of a booking when an earlier segment is missed.
Before using this strategy, compare genuine one-way fares, low-cost carriers and alternative airports, and make sure you understand the airline's rules.
There are many travel-deal websites and newsletters that monitor airfare sales and send promising deals directly to your inbox. They can be a useful additional resource when learning how to find cheaper flights, particularly if your destination or travel dates are flexible.
Useful services include Travelzoo and Airfarewatchdog.
These services publish or alert subscribers to travel deals, airfare promotions and price drops. Their coverage and membership models can change, so check the current service offered in your country.
Signing up to a small number of reputable fare-alert services can help you hear about unusually low fares before they disappear.
It may be worth checking regional versions of major travel websites to see whether the same itinerary is priced differently in another market or currency.
Prices can vary because of local promotions, currency conversion, taxes, payment methods or market-specific fare rules. However, a foreign site will not automatically be cheaper.
Before purchasing, make sure you are eligible to book through that regional site and check the final price after currency conversion, card fees and any restrictions.
Occasionally, airlines or holiday companies reduce prices close to departure when they still have unsold inventory. This means a last-minute search can sometimes uncover a bargain.
However, scheduled-airline fares often rise as departure approaches, particularly when a flight is filling up. Last-minute booking should therefore be treated as an opportunity rather than a dependable strategy.
If you must travel on fixed dates, it is generally safer to begin comparing flights earlier rather than relying on a late price drop.
Even though our top advice is to compare prices through flight aggregators and flight comparison sites first, remember that no comparison engine has identical coverage of every airline, travel agency and fare.
Some airlines distribute more of their inventory directly or may display promotions on their own websites that are not surfaced in every metasearch result.
Once you have established a benchmark fare using comparison engines, check relevant airlines directly before booking. This extra step can sometimes uncover a different fare, baggage package or booking condition.
It is always worth checking whether a destination has a national holiday, major festival, sporting event, school holiday or large conference taking place around your proposed travel dates.
Demand can rise sharply around major events, which may push up airfares and accommodation prices.
If your dates are flexible, compare the weeks immediately before and after the event. Moving a journey by only a few days can sometimes produce cheaper flights and lower hotel prices.
Students can sometimes obtain discounts through specialist travel agencies, airline youth fares and student travel programmes.
StudentUniverse is a well-known service aimed at students and younger travellers and is worth checking alongside mainstream flight comparison sites.
There are also recognised student identity and discount cards that may provide travel and other benefits.
If you are a student, check ISIC to see which discounts are currently available in your country. Eligibility, age limits and participating travel providers vary, so check the latest terms before applying.
Travellers sometimes buy a ticket believing they have found an excellent deal without knowing the normal price range for that route and season. They may later discover that significantly cheaper flights were available on nearby dates.
For this reason, it is useful to educate yourself about the typical fare for the journey you want to make. Compare multiple dates, airlines and search engines so you can recognise when a genuinely low airfare appears.
Hopper is one service that analyses airfare data and provides price-monitoring and booking guidance. Treat predictions as guidance rather than a guarantee, because future fares can never be known with certainty.
Travellers with flexible itineraries are often in a much stronger position to find cheaper tickets than those restricted to one exact departure and return date.
If you want the best chance of finding low-cost airfares, give yourself a flexible travel window and compare prices across several dates.
Useful flexible-date tools are available through Google Flights, Momondo and Skyscanner. FlightsFinder.com can then help you compare multiple flight-search providers once you have identified promising dates.
Prices can vary substantially within only a few days, so date flexibility remains one of the most reliable techniques when exploring how to find cheaper flights.
Direct flights are convenient, but they are not always the cheapest option. When searching, compare one-stop and connecting itineraries as well as nonstop services.
The price difference can be substantial on some routes if you are willing to accept a longer journey or connection.
Always consider the quality and length of the connection, baggage rules and whether the itinerary is protected on one ticket before choosing an indirect fare purely because it is cheaper.
It can be helpful to learn from other travellers who have years of experience searching for flights, collecting points and finding unusual fare opportunities.
Two useful communities are FlyerTalk and MoneySavingExpert.
FlyerTalk contains detailed discussions on frequent-flyer programmes, airline status, points, miles, fare rules and travel strategies.
MoneySavingExpert publishes practical UK-focused advice on finding cheap flights, travel costs and consumer rights.
Travellers who want a much deeper understanding of the travel industry can study professional travel courses and accreditation programmes.
The Travel Institute, for example, provides education and professional development for people working in travel.
Professional accreditation does not automatically give an individual access to every discounted fare or travel-agent benefit, so check exactly what a course or membership provides before paying for it.
If you require several flights from one destination to another before returning home, it is worth using dedicated multi-city search tools rather than pricing every journey in isolation.
Kayak, Skyscanner, Momondo and FlightsFinder all provide ways to research multi-city itineraries. Enter your complete travel plan and compare the combined fare against separately booked tickets.
For complicated round-the-world or multi-stop journeys, a specialist travel agent such as Trailfinders may also be worth consulting.
Some travellers continue monitoring the fare after they have purchased their flight to see whether the price drops.
Whether a lower price can help you depends entirely on the ticket rules and the airline's change or cancellation policy. Some fares allow free or low-cost changes, while others may involve a fee or fare difference.
If the price falls significantly, check the conditions of your ticket before doing anything. A lower advertised fare is only useful if any saving exceeds the cost and risk of changing the booking.
Airline competition can occasionally lead to aggressive fare sales, particularly when a carrier launches a new route, enters a new market or responds to a competitor's promotion.
This is one reason it can be useful to follow airlines that operate your preferred routes and subscribe to their fare-sale notifications.
Promotional fares often come with restrictions, limited travel dates or additional charges, so always check the total price and fare conditions before making a purchase.
It may be worth contacting an airline or travel agent directly after finding the cheapest comparable quote you can online.
Tell them the itinerary, fare and booking conditions you have found and ask whether they have an equivalent or better option. They may not be able to beat it, but on some complex or high-value trips an agent may be able to suggest a different fare or itinerary.
Make sure you compare like with like, including baggage allowance, seat selection, flexibility, payment fees and cancellation terms.
Many travellers find what appears to be a very cheap flight only to discover additional costs for baggage, seats, payment options or other extras before completing the booking.
For this reason, always compare the final payable price rather than just the headline airfare. Reputable flight-search services should make mandatory taxes and charges clear, but optional extras can still make a major difference to the total trip cost.
It is particularly important to check baggage allowances. A low headline fare can become much more expensive if you need to add checked luggage, cabin baggage, seats or priority services.
It is often claimed that repeatedly searching for the same flight causes airlines or comparison sites to raise the price specifically for you through browser cookies. There is no strong evidence that routinely clearing cookies is a reliable way to obtain cheaper flights.
Airfares do change frequently, but this is usually explained by factors such as seat availability, demand, fare classes, airline pricing systems and market conditions.
There is no harm in comparing the same itinerary across several reputable search engines or checking an airline directly, but your time is better spent comparing dates, airports and providers than repeatedly clearing browser cookies.
Some airlines and travel companies offer price guarantees, fare guarantees or limited price-match policies for eligible bookings.
These programmes change regularly and usually have strict conditions covering where the competing fare was found, how quickly a claim must be made and whether the itinerary is genuinely identical.
Before booking directly with an airline, check its current booking and price-guarantee terms. If a qualifying policy exists, it can offer useful protection when comparing cheap flights across different websites.
There are many seasoned travellers who have made it their mission to explore the world on a limited budget. Over the course of their travels they have accumulated useful advice on airfare, accommodation, local transport, rewards programmes and trip planning.
Books about budget travel can be useful for understanding the principles behind finding cheaper flights rather than simply following individual deals. When choosing a book, look for a recent edition because airline distribution, loyalty programmes and booking technology change quickly.
There is a wealth of free advice online about how to reduce the cost of flights; you simply need to know where to look.
Useful resources include SmarterTravel and TripSavvy, both of which publish travel-planning and budget-travel content.
The next five entries cover useful flight-search tools and flexible-search techniques that can help you discover cheaper fares.
Skyscanner provides powerful flexible-search tools that can help travellers compare cheaper days and destinations.
One particularly useful approach is to search with flexible dates or explore destinations from your departure airport. This can help reveal low-cost airfares that you might never see if you search only one destination on one fixed date.
Skyscanner is therefore a useful first-stage research tool when your priority is finding the cheapest possible combination of destination and travel date.
KAYAK offers an Explore tool that allows you to start with your departure airport and browse destination ideas and indicative prices on a map.
You can adjust filters such as travel period, budget and trip type to explore destinations that fit your plans.
Remember that exploratory prices can change when you run a live search, so always recheck availability and the final fare before making a decision.
Momondo offers flexible-date flight-search features that can help you compare prices around your selected travel dates.
This is useful when you are not tied to one particular day and want to see whether shifting your departure or return date could reduce the airfare.
As with any price calendar, treat displayed prices as a guide and run a live search to confirm current availability before booking.
Google Flights is extremely fast and provides useful date-grid, price-graph, map and flexible-date features. It is an excellent resource for identifying cheaper travel dates and understanding the general price range for a route.
However, no single flight search engine necessarily has every fare from every provider. A good strategy is to use Google Flights to identify promising dates and then compare those dates across other metasearch engines and airline websites.
As mentioned above, you can use tools such as Google Flights to identify promising dates and then enter those travel details into FlightsFinder.com to compare multiple leading flight-search providers.
This meta-meta approach is designed to make it easier to check several sources without repeatedly starting the same search from scratch. Because different engines can return different fares and booking partners, comparing more than one source can improve your chances of finding cheap flights.
For travellers asking how to find cheaper flights, combining flexible-date research with multi-engine comparison is one of the most useful strategies on this page.
The next five entries highlight major low-cost or value-focused airlines worth checking when they operate your route.
Useful for: Low-cost flights across many destinations in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.
Check AirAsia directly for current fares, route launches and promotions. Remember to include baggage, seats, meals and other extras when comparing the final price with a full-service airline.
Useful for: Flights within the United States and selected international routes, including the Caribbean, Latin America and transatlantic services.
Check JetBlue directly for current fares and promotions, and compare the complete price and fare conditions with other airlines serving the same route.
Useful for: Low-cost flights across a large European network and selected destinations beyond Europe.
Check Ryanair directly for current fares and sales. Its headline prices can be very low, but always include baggage, seat selection, airport location and other optional charges when comparing the true trip cost.
Useful for: Short-haul travel across the UK, Europe and selected nearby destinations.
Check easyJet for current routes, fares and promotions. As with any low-cost carrier, compare the final price after adding the baggage and seat options you actually need.
Useful for: Domestic travel within the United States and selected international destinations.
Check Southwest Airlines directly when it serves your route, because airline-direct availability and fare structures may not always be represented identically across every comparison service.
The wider lesson is simple: the best way to find low-cost airfares is rarely to rely on one airline or one search engine. Compare flexible dates, alternative airports, direct airline prices, reputable travel agents and multiple flight comparison tools before booking.
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