Having booked a fair few flights in my time, researched countless more, so far,  I’ve always found a way to get them way cheaper than what seems to be the standard going rate. 

I love to travel. I love to plan and research potential trips, having several well researched thought-out trip itineraries I can’t afford to go on in my brain at any given time!

I enjoy planning and researching travel destinations, and I’m on skyscanner like it’s my full-time job, regardless of whether I’m booking a trip or not! I’ve got some go-to methods for chasing down lower air fares, which I’m going to share with you below.

Research your flight before you want to book it.

Researching your route is key: it helps you get to know what is a good price and what is too expensive.

I have read before on various money saving websites that the cost of flights is rarely set and is often in flux. It, therefore, depends on the day you book, the route,  and many other factors to see what headline price is offered when you go to buy your flight. This means knowing the market is key!

When I was looking at flights to Australia from the UK, I had a good idea of how much most airlines were charging for flights in the month I was searching for (December – the most expensive month to travel). I had looked at numerous options countless times, over the course of months. When I saw four flights from London to Melbourne for £3500, I snapped them up straight away, as it looked too good to be true. Every other deal I had looked at ranged between £5000 and £7000,  so I knew I was getting a bargain. 

I got the flights, with a great airline (Singapore Airlines) it did have a BIG stopover ( 12 hours!) But we went for it because of the money we saved, and planned to get a hotel for the 12 hours to chill between flights.  So this glitch in the matrix meant that I got flights at Christmas, to Melbourne for £1500- £3000 cheaper than I would have expected to pay. 

Because I spent a lot of time researching and knew the going rate, I was able to act quickly and book this knowing it was an excellent price that was unusual for that route at that time of year.

Be Flexible

I tend to use skyscanner to research all my flights, and there are lots of similar and well-known websites that allow you to search for the best price/flight for your trip.  One of the best functions of these websites is that you can search for flights to your chosen destination for the whole month, and it shows you at a glance which days/ months are the best price. I’ve flown two days later than I had originally planned and saved myself £200 per ticket. Being flexible with dates allows you to bag the cheapest deals.

An important thing to note with skyscanner is that when you select your deal, always scroll down and book via the airline and not a third-party travel agent. Even if the airline is not the very cheapest option, it is normally not a massive amount more and the hassle you save yourself should you need to cancel/ amend/ refund is substantial. By booking direct with the airline, should delays/ compensation etc need sorting out, it is much more straightforward to claim.

We had a bad experience with a third party travel agent due to missing a connecting flight (due to weather conditions in the departure airport) and we were passed between the travel agent and airline with neither party wanting to take responsibility or arrange a replacement flight. We now ALWAYS book direct with the airline.

Book up early

The pattern i have observed when looking for flights is that the earlier you book them, the cheaper they tend to be. Last minute deals seem to be a thing of the past (for a family of four anyway- perhaps not if you are a solo traveller). I have found the closer ot gets to the departure date/ month, the more the cost increases. There are exceptions to this, but by and large, I find my best deals way ahead of time – we mostly book our flights when they first get released, which is a year in advance.

Look at nearby airports

When buying our flights to Australia, We originally going to start in Sydney. However, flights to Sydney were way more expensive than Melbourne, so we changed our itinerary. It’s often cheaper to fly to a different international airport for a lower price and then get a connecting flight to where you want to go.

Another good way to do this is to look at popular airports for stopovers on a route. For example, London – Calgary often stops at Paris on the low-cost airlines.  But, London – Paris – Calgary on one ticket is more expensive than booking London- Paris on one ticket and Paris- Calgary on another. Just make sure to leave plenty of time to self transfer- I would tend to add a day or two and make it a proper stopover and mini holiday within a holiday!

I’m also researching Canada right now for August 2025, and based on whats on sale for August 2024, it looks like the cheapest route would be London – New York, then a separate flight from New York to Canada. This literally saves thousands when compared with flying direct from London to Canada. When comparing west coast cities, it’s also way cheaper to fly to Calgary in Alberta than in to Vancouver in BC.

Use skyscanner ( or similar) to play around with departure and arrival airports and see if there is any noticeable difference.

Try it one way

Don’t ask me why, but often (not always though) it is cheaper to get two one-way tickets than to fly return. (This tends to be returning to different airports, say, outbound- Heathrow to New York, inbound – New  York to Gatwick, etc).

This isn’t always the case, but it’s worth a quick search to see what happens! We have been able to knock a couple of hundred off each ticket this way in the past.

Get Technical

Advice that always crops up when researching cheap flights deals is to use a VPN to secure the best flights for prices, so airlines don’t use location data about you (your countries average income/ flight demand in your home country etc), which is apparently used to serve you up a higher price. I’ve not tried this approach before, but it is widely reported to help with flight prices, so you may want to give it a go. This is something I think I need try, too!

I’ve also read that a Tuesday is the cheapest day to actually travel / fly and that a Wednesday is the best day to book a holiday or flight. I’ve not tested this theory out, but it might be worth a look and see if flights being booked/ taken on those days makes any difference to you. We have found weekends in particular are noticeably more expensive to travel on, and we do avoid this where we can.

---

Hi! I’m Lizzie, a mum of two living in the Cotswolds. Here on Travel Happy Family, I share all of our travels with you, where we’ve been, how we got there, and how much it cost!

If you are looking for ideas on where to travel with your kids, inspiration for new destinations, or just want to follow us on our journey, welcome, and I hope you find what we write helpful.

Happy travels! Xxx