It won’t do you much good to look for tickets more than 6 weeks (for domestic) or 24 weeks (for international) in advance since ticket prices could fluctuate widely before you actually make your purchase. As a general rule of thumb, book your tickets in advance as many days ahead as you can. [2] X Expert Source Greg GuiterasTravel Specialist Expert Interview. 18 September 2020. Looking for international flights 24 weeks in advance may seem like a long time, but airlines raise their international flight prices many weeks before they raise the costs of domestic flights. Note that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many airlines have eliminated their ticket reissuance fees for changing the day you’re flying. Therefore, you can feel more comfortable making plans in the future, all without incurring penalties if you do actually have to switch around dates. [3] X Expert Source Greg GuiterasTravel Specialist Expert Interview. 18 September 2020.
If you’re flying internationally, plan to start looking much farther in advance, since international flights cost more. Plan to buy tickets at least 3 months before you fly. If you wait until, say, 1 week before flying, you’ll be stuck purchasing very expensive tickets, even if you’re flying on a budget airline. If you forgot to purchase your tickets 2-3 weeks before the day of your flight, the next-best option is to wait to purchase tickets until less than 24 hours before your flight. Airlines will often dramatically lower ticket prices in order to fill up all of the seats on the plane. However, if you wait until the last minute, you could find out that the flight has sold out, or that the only remaining tickets are very expensive. [5] X Research source
For example, say you were planning to fly out on May 1 and return on May 20 for $400 USD. If you investigate alternate dates, you may find that it costs only $325 USD to depart on May 3 and return on May 21.
Most aggregator and airline websites let you choose the specific times that you’d like your flight to depart.
If you’re flying internationally, flying on a weekday is almost always cheaper than flying on the weekend. Of course, this strategy isn’t 100% effective. It’s a good idea to do a cursory search for specific routes of interest on several days of the week (including weekends). That way you have an idea of how much the tickets cost and you can identify a sale when it appears.
Putting your browser in Incognito mode is especially important if you search on different days of the week. Otherwise, old prices will sometimes display in lieu of new ones, and you may miss out on the best price. If you’d rather not use your browser’s Incognito mode when looking for tickets, delete your cookies after each visit to a travel site.
If you don’t mind putting in a little more work, visit the cheapest airline’s website after you’ve compared it with others on an aggregator site. Some airlines will offer special deals and discounts if you buy tickets directly from the site. Popular flight aggregator sites include Priceline, Travelocity, and Expedia.
If you’re flying with the U. S. , Hawaii, and the Caribbean, check out airlines like Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, and Spirit. Or, if you’re flying in Europe, try booking through Norwegian Air.
If you don’t have a specific travel destination in mind, sign up for email alerts about the cheapest tickets from a particular departure airport (and any nearby airports). If you have a specific destination in mind, sign up for a low-fare alert from http://yapta. com or http://airfarewatchdog. com. Sites like AirfareWatchdog also organize the best prices for flights from a particular city and to a particular city, so you can prepare a cost-effective itinerary.
For example, it may cost $300 USD to buy a round-trip ticket from Seattle to Denver. But if you buy separate 1-way tickets from Seattle to Denver and back, you might only pay $75 per ticket.
Compare various travel credit cards to find the one that suits you best. For example, not all cards are compatible with all major airlines, and some cards may charge larger annual fees than others. You can also get credit cards through many major airlines. These cards typically give you thousands of frequent-flyer miles when you activate them and continue to accumulate miles when you make purchases on the card.
Compare various travel credit cards to find the one that suits you best. For example, not all cards are compatible with all major airlines, and some cards may charge larger annual fees than others. You can also get credit cards through many major airlines. These cards typically give you thousands of frequent-flyer miles when you activate them and continue to accumulate miles when you make purchases on the card.
You can sign up for any airline’s frequent-flyer program online. Input your name, address, credit card information, and address. The airline will assign you a frequent-flyer number that you can use to login to your account and cash in your accumulated miles.
