How to buy cheap flights

Probably, everyone heard the story from their friends, how someone flew away to rest in Asia for 100 dollars. At the same time, when you go to the site with tickets, you can see that some flights are a real luxury.

But you can fly cheap if you know a few tricky ways. In this article, we will tell you how to buy cheap flights and cheat the system a little.

1. Use search aggregators

These are services that collect information from airlines and ticketing intermediaries. There are almost all great deals here, including last minute flights. Major search engines are Aviasales and Skyscanner. Lesser known ones are Momondo and OneTwoTrip. It is better to use several sites to compare offers.

Plus aggregators in additional functions: ticket price forecast calendar, low price map, price change notifications.

2. Look for tickets in advance

The strategy of buying tickets at the last moment only works with last-minute departures, when the tour operator does not have a full flight and is ready to make a discount. In other cases profitable flights appear six months before the desired date. When there are two weeks left before departure, the price rises every day.

By the way, tickets cost less in the afternoon and at night, because most people buy them in the morning.

3. Go to airline websites directly

Search aggregators do not always display stocks of individual companies. Therefore, you can buy cheaper air tickets on the websites of the air carriers themselves.

In addition, there you can register and receive a bonus in the form of a promotional code or miles to pay for the next flights.

Sometimes for bonuses you need to invite a friend via a link or register a family profile (which will make it easier to buy tickets for everyone). Aeroflot, S7, Ural Airlines, Utair, etc. have such programs. Register on sites in advance and subscribe to mailing lists to be the first to know about offers.

4. See different departure times and nearby dates

Always look at flights for the entire day of the intended departure, and also for neighboring dates. It happens that the next day the same flight costs less. In addition, morning and night flights are cheaper because they involve inconvenient travel to and from the airport.

It is believed that cheap flights meet in the middle of the weekand the cost of weekend and Friday tickets is higher.

The price for neighboring dates may vary due to the beginning of the low or high tourist season. Therefore, it is better to study the dynamics of demand for your direction in advance. Usually, the high demand falls during the summer holidays or the New Year holidays. So in the off-season you can fly cheaper.

5. Take a closer look at low-cost airlines

You can buy the cheapest air tickets on the websites of low-cost airlines. Unfortunately, there is only one low-cost airline in Russia – Pobeda..

For international flights, study the offers of these companies:

• WizzAir
• AirBaltic
• Pegasus
• flydubai
• AirAsia
• Ryanair

Thanks to them, you can find cheap tickets to Europe, Asia, America, Africa. But low-cost airlines sell only non-refundable tickets, and all additional services (including check-in at the airport, not online) are paid. You will also have to take food with you and put things in hand luggage, refusing luggage.

6. Flights with transfers are cheaper

Another option to save on airfare is to fly with a transfer. The main thing is to check that you have enough time for it, and find out if you need to go to another airport or get a transit visa.

By the way, if you just leave the airport during the transfer, there will be no fines.. Let’s say you need to go to Estonia, and a direct ticket from Russia is more expensive than the option with a connection in this country on the way to another state. Then you fly to Tallinn, and then you just don’t use the ticket.

True, this option will not work if you did not fly on the first flight or took a round-trip ticket. After missing any of the stages of the flight, the ticket will be canceled. Therefore, buy a return ticket separately.

7. Make a route with transfers yourself

Try to fly to a neighboring country on the way to the desired destination, and then use the local airlines. For example, a direct flight from Moscow to Bali is more expensive than a trip to Bangkok, from where you can then fly to Indonesia with a low-cost airline.

8. Consider a tour

For last-minute tours of the “flight + accommodation” format, you can buy tickets at a low price, and no one will force you to live in the specified hotel. You can even take a one-way flight if you save money.

To find last-minute tours, check out these sites – they collect data from various tour operators:

• Level Travel
• Travelata
• Online tours

9. Use dedicated sites

The advantages of these portals are that they find the best deals, 100% discount promotional codes and erroneous fares (when an airline employee incorrectly set the price).

There are many such travel projects. They have their own publics, groups and telegram channels. First, take a look at the most popular:

International analogues:

10. Check Charter Flights

Charters fly only to popular destinations and during the high season. They are used by travel agencies for tours.

But it happens that the travel agency failed to fill the entire flight – then the remaining tickets shortly before departure can be bought at a discount on these sites:

11. Don’t be tied to a particular city

In Europe, the larger the airport, the more money it takes from airlines for aircraft maintenance. This may affect the ticket price. Therefore, choose airports in small neighboring cities for arrival. For instance, if you are going to Milan, then it is more profitable to fly to Bergamoand from there you can reach Milan by train or bus in an hour.

12. Experiment with the browser

The search history on PCs and smartphones is designed so that the browser remembers your data and requests, which are then used by airlines. The ticket price is artificially inflated and the number of available seats on the flight is reduced to encourage you to buy faster.

To save yourself from such tricks, clear your cache, cookies, browsing history, or enable incognito mode in your browser. You can also search for tickets from different gadgets (search from Android devices may show prices lower than from iPhone).

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