How to find the best flight?

The ultimate guide to master finding the best flights.

Here are some rules that will help you find not only the cheapest airplane tickets, but best flights that suit you. Follow me:

1.    Be flexible

• be Flexible with TIME

I think it’s the most important rule how to find the best flight.
With planning your trip, especially longer intercontinental flights try to
–    estimate how much time you have
–    how much time you will need for the location you want to go.
Sometimes it’s just one week trip, but sometimes it’s three or six months, so it depends.

Don’t be very firm with free time you have, because staying one day less, or two days longer can save you even hundreds of dollars.

•  be Flexible with DATES

– go in LOW SEASON

YES, then you’ll get beter chances of getting best deals, both with cheap airplane tickets and accommodation.
In Europe and United States low season is:

between January and May, later September till late November.
– Sometimes early morning , or late night flights are much cheaper.
– DAY of the WEEK
the cheapest are: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays
the most expensive are :  Friday and Sunday
Of course it’s not always true, but see for yourself with  sites like MOMONDO or Google Flights with graphic comparison of prices on each day of the week.

– Avoid traveling in on Christmas or summer break –then prices are highest.

2.    Use best Airfare Search Engines

I think top ones and my favorite are:

MOMONDO

My favorite one, easy to use, has also graphic columns for prices / days. JUST LOVE IT. Many, many great deals…

SKYSCANNER

The one with best deals I guess. Very flexible and easy to use.

GOOGLE FLIGHTS

Huge range of search and different airlines.

KAYAK

I think best one for flights in Europe.

Even though I find first two to be the best it’s wise to check also other options.

If you can, use also mobile Apps, like I do.

Trip Advisor

A wonderfull App I use for flights, car rentals and interesting spots on location you search for.

Tripsta

You can catch some nice deals on that one, especially with main airlines.

Kiwi

Perfect for hopping from one place to another. Best for one way airfares

Keep an eye for Special Deals!

other sites with cheap flighs like:

AirfareWatchdog.com

HolidayPirates.com

TheFlightDeal.com

Secretflying.com

These pages list you some extra deals so You just pick a deal you want and you don’t have to run the engine yourself.

You can also add yourself to their TICKET ALERT Newsletter and they will send it to your email. Isn’t that great.

I use also FACEBOOK 

there are tons of pages that search for deals and they send you links directly.

Fly4free is the one I use but Vacation Travel Deals and a lot of other are out there.

3.    Best time

Another general rule is to BUY EARLY, but not too early.

6-8weeks before the flight you can get the best prices or sometimes even 3 months before in High Season.

For domestic flights it’s usually more than one month.

I got a return ticket to Peru from Europe three months before and in mid season for 450 Euro. Normal price even reaching above 1000 Euro. Still worth even though I had 9 flights 🙂

4.    Go with budget airlines

WIKIPEDIA has a quite nice list of cheap airlines operating in each Country.

Here is a list of the biggest budget airlines in the world:

5.    Act fast

If you see a great deal, there is no time to wait. Best deals are gone usually the same day.

So if you follow 1 and 3 rule and are flexible enough to set your free time in work, school just book your ticket.

6.    Search as one pearson

If you go with family 2 adults and one or two children search for flights as one pearson.

It’s a myth that buying 3 or 4 tickets at once will get you a better deal. The algorithms Airlines use usually offer best deals for individuals and for familis tend to pick mid range price tickets.

Try it and search a ticket for three and then compare with three tickets for one.

7.    Best deals with Airline Hub’s / Search for cheap locations

The best prices are with flights with huge trafic (Hubs).

If you plan to fly from Europe to:

•  South America – try from Paris, Madrid and aim to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires
• North America – Frakfurt, Oslo ( Norwegian ) and aim New Jork, Dallas, Chicago or Los Angelles
• Asia – London, Frankfurt, Paris and aim to Bangkok, Delhi, Beijing or Singapore.

Emirates and Etihad are THE airlines with great comfort and fares, with a short stopover in the Middle East. Both are my favorite ones regarding price/quality standards.

8.    Try use a good VPN

Airlines attempt to make the most profit is by charging other fares for people in different countries. You can pretend to be somewhere else or hide your location to get the better deal. Use VPN Service (Virtual Private Network)

9. Use Charter flights

You can get a direct return flight to Bali, or Cuba from Europe for 250-350USD.

Some fares you have to book a few months ahead, but if you are flexible even Last Minute deals like this happen.

• But keep that in mind that often charter flights use not always Major airports, so consider adding extra cash for changing the airport…

10. Don’t look just at the lowest price

The lowest price is the ultimate goal for most travellers. The reason is that huge part of the travel budget is consummed by a plane ticket.

• go for longer time to Asia or South America. Stay there one or three months and fly once. If you go 3 trips for 2 weeks, most of your budget goes in the air. So how to find the best flight? Buy one, not three tickets.
• if the price differece in not too dramatic, pick tickets with shorter travel time- this way you’ll avoid extra costs of maybe overnight stay at a more expensive hotel, etc.
• some airlines offer better quality for not too much more money.

Answering how to find the best flight?

Be flexibble, choose best search engines, follow a few easy steps and find best deals for you.

In conclusion, I always use a few apps or sites and follow basic rules how to find the best flight.