Five tips for booking cheap
airline tickets
Book inexpensive airline tickets. How do you do that? It is often a big bite out of your travel budget. Far away or close, usually you pay most for the airline tickets. The trick is to search for the most inexpensive plane tickets for your travel destination. This way you will have more money for a luxury hotel and some extra cocktails. Who would not want that?
But where can you find the cheapest airline tickets and how can you ultimately best book a cheap flight? I get this question almost daily. On average, I board a plane 22 times a year and therefore I know exactly where you can book cheap flights. Meanwhile, I also book standard air tickets for friends and family. But it really is not rocket science . Although Skyscanner's tools allow you to find cheap flight tickets fairly quickly and easily (as I often do), there are a number of tips and tricks that you should not forget in your search for budget airline tickets.
Today I share 10 tips for finding and booking cheap airline tickets. If you apply these tips correctly, you will never have to pay too much for a plane ticket. Take advantage of it and find the cheapest flight tickets!
But where can you find the cheapest airline tickets and how can you ultimately best book a cheap flight? I get this question almost daily. On average, I board a plane 22 times a year and therefore I know exactly where you can book cheap flights. Meanwhile, I also book standard air tickets for friends and family. But it really is not rocket science . Although Skyscanner's tools allow you to find cheap flight tickets fairly quickly and easily (as I often do), there are a number of tips and tricks that you should not forget in your search for budget airline tickets.
Today I share 10 tips for finding and booking cheap airline tickets. If you apply these tips correctly, you will never have to pay too much for a plane ticket. Take advantage of it and find the cheapest flight tickets!
1. Booking cheap airline tickets?
Try to be flexible!
Everyone knows that air tickets to popular travel destinations are more expensive in high season. Who wants to sit in front of a dime in the first row must be flexible. So keep this in mind if you want to score cheap airline tickets.
Do you still have no preference for a date or destination? Chances are you can rake a super deal. Do you want to get away in the May holidays (because you're stuck with the school holidays) but do not know where? Or do you really want to go to Tokyo but do not have a specific date in mind? Even then you can certainly find cheap airline tickets.
It only becomes more difficult when both the date and the destination are already established. But even then there is no reason for panic. There are almost always cheap air travel if you know where to look for cheap airline tickets. And with the tips below, that should no longer be a problem.
Do you still have no preference for a date or destination? Chances are you can rake a super deal. Do you want to get away in the May holidays (because you're stuck with the school holidays) but do not know where? Or do you really want to go to Tokyo but do not have a specific date in mind? Even then you can certainly find cheap airline tickets.
It only becomes more difficult when both the date and the destination are already established. But even then there is no reason for panic. There are almost always cheap air travel if you know where to look for cheap airline tickets. And with the tips below, that should no longer be a problem.
2. Find budget air tickets with Google Flights or
the ITA Matrix tool
What is the best airline ticket site? I get that question very often. There are endless search engines that make you believe they are offering you the cheapest flight tickets. The fact remains that there is not one website with which you can book cheap airline tickets. You will therefore have to use different tools to achieve the best result. I therefore like to show you how I normally approach this.
Start your search by using the ITA Matrix tool . This program was previously used a lot by travel agencies and independent travel agents. This allows you to search for cheap flights in great detail. For example, you can select multiple airports in the region or indicate that you want to fly in a certain class. However, booking a ticket via the ITA Matrix tool is not possible. It is therefore purely intended to check prices.
The ITA Matrix tool is quite advanced and therefore may not be as user-friendly. Google Flights has been using the same data since a while so this tool can also be used for your first search. Google flights, in contrast to the ITA Matrix tool, also shows the links to the relevant providers. Much more convenient. If you have found a good deal now, it is best to note the price and the dates. With that data you will continue to search for budget airline tickets.
Start your search by using the ITA Matrix tool . This program was previously used a lot by travel agencies and independent travel agents. This allows you to search for cheap flights in great detail. For example, you can select multiple airports in the region or indicate that you want to fly in a certain class. However, booking a ticket via the ITA Matrix tool is not possible. It is therefore purely intended to check prices.
The ITA Matrix tool is quite advanced and therefore may not be as user-friendly. Google Flights has been using the same data since a while so this tool can also be used for your first search. Google flights, in contrast to the ITA Matrix tool, also shows the links to the relevant providers. Much more convenient. If you have found a good deal now, it is best to note the price and the dates. With that data you will continue to search for budget airline tickets.
3. Search and compare cheap airline tickets at Skyscanner,
Kiwi and Momondo
Funnily enough (and very frustrating) not all comparison sites show the same results. For example, Skyscanner sometimes shows that one cheap airline ticket to Bangkok and Kiwi does not. Small low-cost airlines are in some cases not even included in the results list . Each website also has its own search functions. The order in which you use these tools does not matter very much. If you compare it in both Google Flights , Skyscanner , Kiwi and Momondo. The prices can vary considerably. Below I will explain the advantages of the last 3 comparison sites.
4. Book cheap airline tickets: Look at alternative
flight routes and check the calendar
You now know which tools you can use to find cheap airline tickets. But what do you have to pay attention to? It can be a lot cheaper to fly from a different airport than Schiphol Airport. Compare the prices with departure from another airport. In our neighboring countries the tickets are sometimes slightly cheaper. If you live close to the border, it may be worthwhile to fly from Weeze Airport, Dusseldorf or Brussels. From Eindhoven Airport you also fly for little to more than 70 destinations.
Flying on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays is generally the cheapest. You can fly back on Sunday, Tuesday or Wednesday. However, the aforementioned comparison sites have a handy calendar function with which you can see whether this is actually the case for your travel period. This way you can see the cheapest days of a particular month. Note: it is often an indication, if you click through the price can still differ. So make smart use of this if you want to book a flight!
Flying on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays is generally the cheapest. You can fly back on Sunday, Tuesday or Wednesday. However, the aforementioned comparison sites have a handy calendar function with which you can see whether this is actually the case for your travel period. This way you can see the cheapest days of a particular month. Note: it is often an indication, if you click through the price can still differ. So make smart use of this if you want to book a flight!
5. Two trips in one: Make smart use of 'Hubs'
Not only the departure or arrival destination is important for finding cheap airline tickets. Sometimes it can do dozens or even hundreds of euros if you make one or more stops. You have to wait between times and usually you fly at unfavorable times. However, you can also choose to combine multiple travel destinations in a single journey.
So I flew to Vietnam with Cathay Pacific, where I had a mandatory transfer in Hong Kong. I extended that stopover with a few days so that I could visit both Hong Kong and Vietnam. And that for the price of just a single plane ticket! It is therefore certainly worth considering to book airline tickets for multiple destinations at once. Popular stopover destinations are: Reykjavik, Helsinki, Lisbon, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Bangkok, Taipei and Singapore.
So I flew to Vietnam with Cathay Pacific, where I had a mandatory transfer in Hong Kong. I extended that stopover with a few days so that I could visit both Hong Kong and Vietnam. And that for the price of just a single plane ticket! It is therefore certainly worth considering to book airline tickets for multiple destinations at once. Popular stopover destinations are: Reykjavik, Helsinki, Lisbon, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, Bangkok, Taipei and Singapore.