ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Save Money on Flights

Updated on March 30, 2012
Source

Quick Tips for Saving Money on Flights

  1. Purchase tickets between 3 weeks and 45 days in advance
  2. Travel in the off-season
  3. Be flexible with travel dates and travel time
  4. Shop different airlines and types of tickets
  5. Compare prices for flying into minor airports versus the main airports
  6. Book directly with airline
  7. Select odd single seats, as opposed to seats grouped together
  8. Consider frequent-flyer reward programs

Where to Fly, When to Fly

Saving money on airline tickets mainly comes down to one thing - how flexible you are. Do you need to travel on an exact date, or do you have a window to work with? Is your destination a specific city, or say, anywhere warm and sunny? The more flexible you are, the more you can save. That said, there are ways to save money even if you must travel on a certain date to a specific place.

If you are planning a vacation and have some flexibility on when to travel, rates will be better in the off-season, Try to avoid holidays and summer/spring breaks, and the weeks surrounding those dates. You will find lower rates if you fly mid-week and stay over a Saturday - for example, leaving on a Tuesday and returning Monday.

Where do you want to go? If you are headed to visit someone, obviously there is not much choice in the city you will visit. But, you may be surprised to find a smaller nearby airport in the area that offers a better price.

Helpful Websites for Pricing Flights

Tips on Booking Your Flight

Once you decide when and where you want to fly, you need to do a little online research to find the best price. Use one of the websites listed at the right to gather your information

Do your research, but hold off on booking. For that, you will want to contact the airline directly to avoid handling charges. Plug in your travel dates and check major and minor airports in the city of your destination. If you don't mind long layovers or multiple stops, your costs will be less. Airlines charge more for nonstop flights and often more for round-trip tickets. Compare the cost of two one-way tickets to a round-trip ticket price.

Once you feel you have the best price, check one more thing. Look at the cost if you were to adjust your travel dates by a day or two. Sometimes one day can make a big difference. Travelocity and Orbitz both include search options for looking at the days around your window of travel.

Other tips for booking:

  • Book early, at least three weeks before the flight
  • There are often last minute bargains if you book 1-2 days before the flight
  • Random single seats usually are less expensive than seats grouped together if you have travelling companions
  • Red-eye, or late night, flights are often cheaper
  • Ask about additional taxes and fees you will have to pay
  • Travel agents are helpful, but you will save by doing the research and booking yourself

A
Charleston Airport:
Charleston, South Carolina

get directions

City of departure

B
Nassau Airport:
The Bahamas

get directions

Destination

Prices for Flight from Charleston, South Carolina to Nassau, Bahamas

Booking Time for Flight
Cost
1 day notice
$931
1 week in advance
$791
3 weeks in advance
$437
2 months in advance
$434
summer time
$591
6 months in advance
$549
1 year in advance
$549

Compare Prices for Flights

To give you an example of how much the same flight from one city to another with the same airline can fluctuate, I researched a flight from Charleston, South Carolina to Nassau, Bahamas. I thought it might be nice to visit the Atlantis Resort! All of the dates are off-season except the one marked as summer time.

For this trip, I did not find a bargain for the last minute flight, but I noticed a window of time when the prices were the lowest. You would think a flight booked several months in advance would be the cheapest, but that is usually not the case. The best time to book the flight is between three weeks and 45 days before the flight.

Source

Sign Up for Discounts

If you travel often, you may want to sign up for programs that will save you on flights. Some airlines, such as Delta, offer a frequent-flyer program where you rack up credit miles for the miles you travel. You also may get a credit card that rewards you with free flights or mileage for purchases you make using the card. Some people use their credit cards for almost every expense - groceries, bills, gas - and then pay their credit card bill off every month. The result is accruing lots of free travel miles to use on future flights.

Some airlines have newsletters and will email you their special deals. A service I signed up for is Travelzoo.com. Every Wednesday, I receive an email listing the current flight and vacation deals from a variety of airlines and resorts. I have noticed that a lot of the deals are for certain off-season times, but that is part of finding the best deal.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)