As a travel vlogger, and long time traveler before becoming that, one of the most common questions I get from viewers AND friends is this.. How do you buy the cheapest flights?
To address this, I decided that rather than simply pointing you to Skyscanner or Google Flights- I’d instead give you an overarching set of FIVE basic guidelines to help you find and buy the cheapest flights. These guidelines serve as great starting points for your search, and a few of them might even help you get lucky in stumbling upon a cheap flight that is perfect for you.
WATCH THE VIDEO ▶︎ How To Find The CHEAPEST FLIGHTS ONLINE!
And as a person interested in travel videos or maybe even creating travel videos, you are likely looking to travel as much possible, and save money on it. Perhaps so you can buy new camera gear instead 😉
Hopefully you’ve checked out the video, but if you’d rather read my top 5 tips to help you buy the cheapest flights, I’m excited to share them with you here as well.
1. Use A CRAZY Detailed Search Engine
If you have a specific destination in mind, you’re going to want to use a CRAZY detailed search engine to pull up all of the elaborate options. We’re talking long layover options, multiple leg options, budget airline options.. etc.
These don’t sound like a super fun way to travel, but if you’re looking for cheap flights, sometimes you need to make sacrifices.
There was a day when you would go online, and your booking search engine would simply search the airlines for the actual flights listed online. Now there are search engines that search- search engines to present thousands of deals for you to choose from.
For this deep search tactic I personally prefer the starting site- Jet Radar. All at once, it will search Priceline, Momondo, JustFly, Expedia and more. This is so much easier than searching all of those sites individually.
You can tell this search engine is really going deep because it takes a minute to complete each search.
The options here are endless allowing you to narrow down flights based on length of layover, total travel times and overall best picks. Jet Radar also offers a multi-route option which can really take the headache out of planning a multi leg trip- because you can do it all in one booking. Not many sites let you build multi- leg routes like this, making Jet Radar one of my top picks for flight search engines.
Now if comparing all of these options and weighing the pros and cons of different routes just to find the cheapest one sounds like a major hassle, IT IS. But sometimes, all of that work you’re putting is simply the price you pay to find a great deal.
2. Let The Experts Advise You
Maybe you’re not really into putting in that work, and you really just want some good insider info on cheap flights to a variety of places.
Did you know there are teams of experts who will simply seek out the best deals to help you save over HALF of the regular cost of tickets?
They are searching day and night for the cheapest flights possible and when, and ONLY when they find them, they will send you an email about it.
Unlike booking agencies who offer deals and make a commission from them, these experts are not a travel agency or a search engine- they are simply trusted advisors who hope that you will NEVER overpay for tickets.
This is Josh and his trusty team over at the Cheap Fly Club.
The Cheap Fly Club is a simple email list that you can join FOR FREE!
The Cheap Fly Club are sponsors of this video, and I’d like to thank them for that! They thought that AMaeTV viewers would especially like to know about their list since you’re all extra adventurous and love to travel.
Currently, the Cheap Fly Club sends out deals on international flights only and that are leaving from the USA and Canada. It’s important to note that these are NOT last minute deals, so you’ll have plenty of time to plan your trip. Most importantly, the Cheap Fly Club is not bombarding you with random daily deals, but rather sending you ONLY the best deals, when and IF they occur.
SIGN UP ➔ HERE
Of course, as a new ambassador for the Cheap Fly Club, I’m also a member.
So far I’ve been BLOWN away at the flight deals they’ve presented to me!
Here is a list of a few I’ve seen.
➔ CANCUN for $191 out of Miami.
$215 out of places like Chicaco, Washington DC and Houston.
$267 out of Los Angeles.
➔ NORWAY which would usually cost at least 1K. The CFC has found flights from around $350 to $400 depending on your starting point.
➔ ICELAND, which is so hot right now.
The cheapest flight I’m seeing is $220 from Pittsburg, Baltimore or Chicago.
Just $280 out of San Francisco.
➔ BOSTON to Barcelona for $264
➔ ST. THOMAS from Miami for just $199
AND it’s quite inspirational to read the emails and realize you can actually go to these places for the prices they find! I’m suddenly inspired to go to St. Thomas.
Anytime a flight is less than $200 it really makes it seem reasonable to just pack up and go.
Image courtesy of Spirit Airlines
Now, if you’re REALLY looking to save on flights, you can become a premium member of the Cheap Fly Club and receive an even more targeted and specialized list.
For just $3 a month, premium members can have their list narrowed down to their departure region only. They will also receive deals on business class and first class flights.
This is exciting because it may give you the opportunity to fly first class when you otherwise wouldn’t.
And best of all, premium members receive THE most exclusive fares that have been mistakenly priced by airlines. Yes, this does happen and often times they are 90% off.
These mistake fares only last a few hours so as a premium member you would rely heavily on the CFC to BE online ALL THE TIME to find these deals and send them to you as soon as they happen.
Again, I’d love for you to join me as a member of the Cheap Fly Club and GET IN on the cheap flights action. It’s fun, it’s free and you can sign up HERE.
3. Fly On The Cheapest Day Possible
(and no, it’s not always Tuesday)
Your departure date is key when you’re trying to book the cheapest flights possible.
Rather than choosing a certain day for departure, use the features search engines offer to figure out which time of year, and which DAY is absolute cheapest to fly. As the rumor goes, it’s often Tuesday, but sometimes it’s not. Generally it’s the weekend, but it always depends.
You can easily determine your best bet by heading over to a site like Momondo, or even Google Flight Search will give you a nice map of dates and costs. Once you figure out the best month and day to fly to a particular place, and the best day to return, you can THEN narrow down your search to find the best rate.
It makes it much easier to compare ticket prices and different airline and route options when you’ve narrowed down as least one of the variables.
4- Be Flexible With Layovers
Not being afraid of airport layovers can seriously help you to find the cheapest flights possible. Think about it, you have shopping, restaurants, nice clean bathrooms, sometimes these little work stations. I don’t know about you, but as long as I have my laptop and a plug, I am HAPPY for about 8 to 10 hours.
When I flew out to the Philippines, I got a MUCH cheaper flight by accepting a 12 hour layover in Japan. I knew Narita was a nice airport and while I could’ve just chilled in one of their amazing sleeping pods the whole time, I actually filmed and edited an entire vlog about the airport! Now that is a great use of layover time.
It was almost like adding a 2nd destination to the trip, although I never left the airport.
Here it is if you’d like to see just how fun it can be to spend a day in the airport!
5. Use Cheap Domestic Legs To Fly Cheaper Internationally
When you fly from the US to say, Asia, you’re going to want to focus on finding the cheapest rate for THAT leg of travel.
So if you live in Orlando, but you discover it’s much cheaper to fly to Bali from Los Angeles, then you may want to consider booking a separate flight to LA first.
I have done this many times and successfully saved money by flying out of LA or say, Dulles to get overseas, then paying for the domestic leg to get there separately.
This is also a good time to mention that since we’re talking domestic flights within the US- you must never forget to check Southwest separately. Southwest will never show up in aggregated search engines- I’m not really sure why, but if you book early enough you can find AWESOME rates on their flights.
They also charge NO FEES for two checked bags which a perfect segue to your international trip.
One thing to remember when you book a separate flight before an international flight is that you will need to exit security and pick up your bags as usual. You would then take them back over to the international terminal to begin your international flight. For this reason you will need to give yourself plenty of time to make that transfer.
It’s a hassle, but if the savings are worth and it gets you overseas, then it’s worth it!
Thanks for watching guys! I hope you’ve learned some useful tips for finding the cheapest flights possible and you’ll all become members of the Cheap Fly Club so you can really start finding out about the best deals.
I’d love to hear your tips on finding the cheapest flights out there. Leave me a comment here on the blog or on the YouTube video so we can all learn from each other ✈︎
Bye! xx, Alicia
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