Find Air Ticket Deals: How to Find Cheap Flights

Most people love to find air ticket deals. Whether this means the cheapest total cost, or an air ticket that offers additional features and services at a value, we want that deal. We don’t want to spend any more time than we have to in order to find the deals, however. Because of this, Tucson Flyer has put together the below information, strategies and tactics to help you in your search.

Target Your Travel Budget…

1. Know how much you want to pay for a flight.
→ Start with a target price in mind

Book when the target price is met!
It’s important to act when you find air ticket deals.

Hesitating to book when the price is good could cost you a deal.  People often end up paying more when waiting for a better deal.

Research Wisely…

2.  Google Flights or ITA Matrix.
→ Research websites can help inspire trips, point to best dates for low fares.

Google Flights is easier to use than ITA Matrix. Both can provide quick exploring of travel destinations, prices, airlines and dates to take to a booking website.

Often a good air price can inspire a trip purchase.

Google Flights and ITA Matrix both will let you search by continent country and states in addition to city.

Timing….

3. Be flexible with your travel dates
→ If you lack date flexibility start your search early.
 > Search for flights midweek.
→ Fly on the actual holiday.
 > DO try to fly at least one leg of your trip on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday.
→ DON’T shy away from off-peak or shoulder-season travel.

Day of week, season, holidays and searching early can all help you to time your purchase to get a good deal!
–

Flexibility…

4. Be flexible with your originations & destinations
→ If you lack origination or destination flexibility start your search early. 

5. Try Alternative Routes 
→ Consider routings through low cost hub airports.

6. Consider Budget Carriers
→ Good for simple travel with few airline service needs.

7. Use blind bidding web sites & purchase white label fares (Airline/Schedule and other details hidden)
→ Web sites like Hotwire will save money but you won’t know details when you purchase.

There is no factor more important to finding a good deal than having flexibility.

Discount Sources…  

8. Remember: Not all search engines are equal or complete
→ Search more than one booking web site. There is no one website that will always get you the best deal.
We currently recommend booking on Hotwire & Momondo & Skiplagged

9. Take advantage of student or other discounts
→ We currently recommend Student Universe and STA Travel for students.

10. Join a Airline or Travel Mailing List(s)
→ We currently recommend The TUCSON FLYER mailing list. Tucson Flyer tracks multiple other mailing lists for you and boil down into one email newsletter that shares the best deals to/from Tucson.  

Discount Actions…  

11. Search for air tickets one at a time.
→ Sometimes at the lowest rate there is only one seat. If you search for two or more you will receive the higher price for ALL SEATS. When you search and book by individual seat you can get the lowest price on the first seat then the next price up for the remaining seats.

12. Shop for two one-way fares, even on different airlines.
→ Fares are impacted as seats are booked. Sometimes one-way fares on separate air carriers will find lighter booked flights at a lower total flight cost rather than booking all on one carrier where one direction of the flight will push up the total round-trip price.

13. Check if it’s cheaper to pay in other currencies.
→ Airlines will sometimes charge differently based on your purchase country or currency you are paying in.

14. Book a package.
→ Many Airlines will sometimes offer lower non-public wholesale air rates when you buy your air with a hotel in the same purchase. Your total air + hotel cost will often bring a lower total cost than booking air and hotel separately. We Recommend Hotwire.

15. Consider a “Separate Air Ticket” itinerary.
→ Often buying two separate air tickets to complete your itinerary will save you money. There are positives and negatives to separate air tickets and you should look into this type of purchase carefully.

FREE or LOW FEE…

16. Sign Up for a Frequent Flier Program
→ Earn miles through flights and purchases that can gain you free (or low admin fee) flights and travel.
Sign-up for an airline branded or non-airline branded credit card. (Tip: Pay-off your credit card monthly or you lose the benefit)
→ Buy Airline Miles – especially during off-peak travel when you can use miles this can sometimes produce a good total price for air.

Frequent Flier Programs can also earn you free stays in hotels, flight cabin upgrades and other air travel benefits.

Support Tucson Flyer – When it gets you the best deal book via our Booking Resource Page!

NOW THAT YOUR AIR TICKET IS BOOKED – THE NEXT STEP IS TO FIND YOUR LODGING