At Netflights, we know a thing or two about cheap flights. But there’s still a few tricks you can wield to nab even more savings on your next trip (and no, it doesn’t include booking flights on a Tuesday). Keep reading for 5 cheap flight tricks that actually work.
1. Fly off-season
Yeah, we’re starting off with an obvious one. But as soon as someone says ‘holiday’ everyone runs for the sunniest months of the year – ‘everyone’ being the keyword here. June, July, and August – usually the months you’re pretty much guaranteed some sunshine – are high season for exactly this reason. And when airlines see the words ‘high season’, they all run to raise their prices accordingly.
It’s a no brainer, but flying off-season will pretty much always save you money. It will also save you quite a bit of sanity with less crowds and lower accommodation prices. And don’t think that flying off-season automatically means having to have a holiday in the winter – there’s loads of places with off-season smack bang in the middle of the summer. Dubai is mega hot from June to August, so airfares are always lower, whilst sticking to southern Europe in places like Greece means you’ll have pretty mild weather even if you do travel in winter. And Southeast Asia is always hot, it’s just the rains you’ll have to contend with as it’s monsoon season in this neck of the woods.
2. Don’t hoard your annual leave
You won’t like this cheap flight trick, but sometimes it’s worth losing more annual leave in order to score a flight for less. Flights will be more expensive between Friday and Monday as they’re the more popular days to fly for quick city breaks over the weekend to avoid using as little annual leave days as possible.
Flying between Monday and Friday will more often than not lead to a lower ticket price, but it does mean sacrificing a bit more of that precious annual leave. Swings and roundabouts.
TIP
If you’re planning a trip to the States, try including the weekend in your plans. If you travel between Monday and Friday, airlines will think you’re a business traveller and whack those prices up accordingly.
3. Use a trusted OTA (like us! 😉)
Some people choose to pay more and book directly with the airline because they’re worried about accidentally booking with bad OTAs. We’re not like those guys. The truth is, booking through an OTA like us folks here at Netflights (hi!) more often than not actually leads to cheaper prices for you. That’s because we’ve been around for over 30 years and we’re part of the Dnata Travel Group, so we have great relationships with a whole bunch of airlines who give us deals that allow us to pass on savings directly to you. Pretty nifty, right?
If you’re ever unsure about an OTA you’ve seen a great price with, just do your research and it’ll quickly become clear if they’re not what they seem. Trustpilot is a great place to start – we’re rated 4.7, which in Trustpilot lingo makes us ‘Excellent‘. We’ve got over 3,900 5★ reviews too!
4. Fly indirect
Another of our cheap flight tricks is to give flying indirect a go. It’s all about the journey, right? Okay, so it’s also quite a bit about the destination too. But if you don’t mind extending the journey time by a few more hours, it’s usually worth it for the money saved. And flying indirect doesn’t have to mean just wandering around an airport for a couple of hours during a layover – sometimes you can turn that layover into a stopover, spend a couple of nights in a different city, and still spend less than on a direct ticket.
Try shopping around with a different airline for each leg of the trip, too – this can often be cheaper than sticking with the ease of one airline. But it does come with the caveat that if you’re first leg is delayed, neither airline is obligated to help you if you then miss the second leg because of this.
5. Don’t be loyal to an airport
We know how it is. You use an airport a few times and you get used to it. You know how to get around, what the security queues tend to be like, where you’re gonna make a beeline for to get some good food. You become reluctant to try somewhere new, even if flying out of a different airport, or into a different one in your destination (or both!), could save you a whole lot of money.
A lot of people like using smaller airports closer to home as they find the experience less stressful, but in most cases you’ll find better flight prices when flying out of larger airports like Manchester, London Gatwick, and London Heathrow. This is due to a whole list of factors, but the main gist is that bigger airports have much more competition and, as a result, airlines lower prices to try and lure you in. More daily departures also gives you more back up in case your flight gets cancelled and you have to rebook.
You don’t have to use the bigger airports, though. Try smaller, secondary airports that are still quite close to major cities and you’ll often find cheaper prices. That’s because budget airlines often use these smaller spots as it costs them less in overheads than it does at major hubs. But the key is to avoid airports that are small and isolated – less passengers and fewer departures equals more expensive flights all around.
TIP
Do your research before choosing to fly into a smaller airport in your destination based on price alone – sometimes the cost of transport to your final destination can wipe out any savings you’ll make.
