Flight tickets are usually the “most” expensive part of any trip or vacation but it doesn’t always have to be that way. You could be paying as low as $100 for a round-trip ticket across the planet if you plan ahead & follow these “hacks” to find cheap flight tickets.
In this article, we will discuss various ways you can save money on flight ticket and even way to get a cheap upgrades on long haul international flights.
Flight Ticket First Approach
The issue with getting cheap tickets is that most people incorrectly plan and book their vacation. A typical vacation scenario usually starts with finding a destination to travel to, and things to do in that area, and at the end, the plane ticket, which usually ends up costing you a lot of money. Instead, what you can do is find the planet ticket first then the destination.
What you do is, get on a flight search engine like Kayak & for the location, you put “Anywhere” then put a tentative date with “Flexibility”, this is going to find you the best cheapest tickets that you would otherwise not get if you were you go to this destination on an exact date.
Use A VPN To Book Tickets
Contrary to popular beliefs, clearing your “cache/cookies” or using incognito won’t really get you cheap tickets, however, if you were to use a VPN to change your location, you will find better deals. ( Especially on Business class tickets ).
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a way you can change your IP address to fool flight search engines into your real location.
For example, if you were to book a ticket from KAYAK using an Asian country’s IP Address, it will offer you a “cheaper” flight ticket because if it were to offer “American” prices, it would be outrageous. This is especially helpful when booking business class tickets. I often buy my international tickets using VPN on their local currency.
Be Flexible With Dates
Whenever you are booking your tickets, If possible let the flight search aggregator know that you are flexible with dates, this will usually get you cheaper flights than putting in exact dates.
Book Ahead Of Time
This is going to be your best bet, because if you are willing to book tickets ahead of time, about 2-3 months for domestic and about 4-5 months for international, you will usually find the best deal. This is exactly what a lot of third party booking sites do and sell the ticket for higher price as the ticket date comes near.
Book Directly From Airline
Once you have found your ticket, you should book your ticket directly from the Airline because of two reasons. First, because tickets will be cheaper since they don’t have to pay out a commission to the search aggregator, and secondly, they have to give you a refund for up to 24 hours after you make the payment, this gives you an option to cancel the flight ticket in case you find a cheaper one later, which is a real possibility.
Cheap Business Class Tickets
Unless you company is paying for your tickets, it’s really not a good idea to buy a business class ticket even if you have all the money in the world, because it’s very expensive. For example, on a trip from DFW to KTM, Nepal on a business class if I booked it online, it would come out to be about 10K on Qatar Airlines, but what I normally do is. I book a normal Economy Ticket ahead of time, and 24 hours during check-in, I am promoted to upgrade to business for about $1,000, which is good given that the flight is about 17 hours but let’s say I want to even cheaper, then I have to take a risk that seat might be taken and ask for an upgrade on the counter before you fly, I have gotten an upgrade for free and as low as $500 one way from DFW to Doha.
