Have you ever had to book a flight on your own? And realized you were either missing details or had to come back to it? I am here to tell you, that you are not alone. Booking a flight can be one of the most stressful parts of travel, finding the right airfares can be such a long process. From the variation of prices, best days to book travel, and booking months in advance fearing that the prices could drop. As someone who has booked travel countless times, the best time to book travel is today. Today, I want to show you five hacks to finding a cheap flight. For this article, I want to focus on sites to use, travel pages to follow, how to search flights, deals to find, and what to do after booking a flight.
Step 1
First things first, when searching for travel I make sure that my viewing mode in my opened browser is set to “Private Mode.” If the viewing mode is not set to private it allows travel sites to know that your device is viewing their travel airfares. If that is the case when returning to the site the flight prices may increase when opening the site once again. I first noticed this when I was interested in booking a flight to Guatemala, I did not have confirmation from the additional guests that would be flying with me so I closed my web browser and opened it later that day. Within a few hours, the same travel dates and times had gone up by 100 – 200 dollars in price. When looking up the same travel dates on a different device, I received the same prices I had originally seen earlier that day.
From that day, all my flights have been booked under private mode. After extensive research, I realized that many travel blogs do not agree with incognito searches when booking flights. For example, Travel Blogger Nomadic Matt mentions that “There’s no evidence that airlines behave that way and numerous studies by booking companies have shown there is no variance in pricing when you use incognito mode. And, typically, when you abandon your cart, businesses discount prices to get you to complete your purchase not raise them higher” (Matt, 2020).
However, I found that in a more recent find, Forbes mentions that “always make sure to double-check all listed prices in incognito mode on your Google browser. Or, in layman’s terms, double-check prices on a network that isn’t linked to your location or identity. If you’re tech-savvy, VPNs work well for this too. All of these travel search engines rely on algorithms to determine the prices that they offer customers. If they know you’re based in Los Angeles, California, and were looking at flights to Japan a few weeks ago, they might raise the price for your flight” (Talty, 2021).
Step 2
Next, I go to Cheap_DFW on Instagram to see if there are any airfare sales for my destination of choice. There will be days that there will be and days that there won’t be any. For example, currently, there are sales for flights in the U.S. for as low as $63 and International flights for as low as $150. When choosing any one of these airfares it will direct you to the airline’s website; note when using these sites, airfare sales show low prices for specific months to book.
Step 3
In addition to Cheap_DFW, next, I go to Skyscanner to compare prices that I have found on Cheap_DFW sometimes searching for the same flight on different travel sites will show cheaper prices for the same flight. After viewing the comparisons of the chosen flight, it is important for the flight to be searched through the actual airline to ensure that this deal is actually being offered.
Step 4
Next, I go to my favorite travel site known as Google Flights. This well-known site gives you access to all airlines, lowest airfares depending on the date. Having access to all airlines is important when considering which flights to book, however not all travel sites display all airlines. Google flights give me the option to play around with dates, displaying the lowest airfare travel days. Giving you several airport options. “Google flights lets you view cheap airfares across the U.S. for a wide range of timeframes (e.g. a weekend trip within the next six months or a trip to any destination on a set date)” (Hurd, 2021).
Step 5
Lastly, after booking my flight. I will check back after 23 hours giving me time to check if there has been a price drop in my flight right before my 24-hour cancellation policy. When doing this, users want to make sure that they are viewing in private mode and cookies are cleared to make sure that the previous search was not saved. Given the information that I find I will either keep my flight or rebook another flight for a cheaper price.
Let the Planning Begin!
Although the process of booking a flight can be stressful, with these tips not only can your flight cost go down but also the time it goes into it can decrease as well. Be happy with your purchase, plan your trip to your liking, and make it all about you! Hope to see you on the plane, I mean post. Happy traveling, until next week!
References
Hurd, A. (2021, July 5). The secret to traveling on the cheap: Traveling opportunistically. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/travel-rewards/the-secret-to-traveling-on-the-cheap-traveling-opportunistically/.
Talty, A. (2021, July 8). 7 ways you’re spending too much money on online travel search engines. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/7-ways-youre-spending-too-much-money-on-online-travel-search-engines/.
Amy, Adam, Nomadic Matt, Carina, Jaël, Scott, Naidoo, K., & Schildt, P. (2020, December 31). 5 myths about booking a flight that you need to ignore. Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/flight-booking-myths/.