Useful Tips to Book a Cheap Flight

How to book a cheap flight is a big concern for the travellers around the world. Many of us decide our vacations on the basis of affordable flights. I also wait for a cheap flight ticket before deciding on my next destination. After booking a flight ticket, I can arrange the leaves, finances, hostels etc, but getting an affordable air ticket is the first criteria for my international trip. I keep a regular watch on the airfare and whenever fare comes down I usually book that destination. Although I normally go to an international destination only once in a year, but I keep analyzing the airfares throughout the year, out of curiosity. Here are some useful tips that can help you to get a cheap flight to your dream destination:

1. Decide An Expected Price Bracket

Before searching for the cheap airfares, it is always a good practice to decide your expected price bracket. You should have a clear idea that how much you want to pay for a particular flight. There are extreme and continuous fluctuations in airfares till closing of booking for a flight, so you can not predict that when the fare is at minimum. Once you find the fare in your expected price bracket just go ahead and book at that moment. Do not wait for another day.

I was expected to pay INR 20000 for a return flight to Cairo from Delhi. So, when I found a return flight in INR 15000, I did not think twice and booked that immediately, because that was in my price bracket. After 3-days price went up to to INR 28000 for the same flight.

2. Search On Multiple Online Portals

Check multiple online portals to get the best price. Check at least three airfare aggregators (OTAs like SkyScanner, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Kayak etc) before booking your flight ticket. You should also aware that some OTAs do not include low cost airlines in their search results. Some portals offer certain discount on an airfare that may not be offered by another portal.

When I was booking the return airfare to Cairo, I found that two portals were offering almost the same price (second portal price was INR 300 higher), but second portal was offering an additional discount of about INR 1500 on a particular bank credit card, so I got the cheaper ticket on the second portal in comparison to the first portal.

Also, sometimes when you go on a particular airline’s website to book a ticket, there is an option to select your country. If you select your country other than the airline home country, you may get a ticket at higher price. This is what happened to me when I booked a flight from Cairo to Aswan on EgyptAir. When I selected India as my country, the fare was about INR 7500, but when I selected Egypt as my country I paid about 480 EGP (approx. 4100 INR) for the same flight. That was a huge difference.

For the same flight when I searched on the portals like MakeMyTrip and Yatra, they also showed INR 7500 approx. as the ticket price. But when I searched it on Kayak, I found the price as INR 3900. At last, I booked it on EgyptAir official website in INR 4100 approx. as kayak also directed me to that site only.

3. Book On Official Airlines Portal

At least in the case of domestic flights, it is advisable to book on the airlines’ official website unless there is a significant price difference on any online travel portal. This also helps you to save INR 500 service cost deducted by those portals in case of flight cancellation or reschedule.

4. Use Credit Card Benefits

Sometimes using a credit card from a particular bank also helps you to get some discount on your flight ticket. It also helps you to pay the ticket price in EMIs later, if you are not able to pay the price at that moment. If you have a travel card from any bank, then you can also use the reward points/miles earn to buy a ticket. Having a credit card from a particular bank helped me to save INR 1500 on my Delhi-Cairo return ticket.

A good credit card helps you to save a significant portion of the flight cost. I have a particular credit card from last six years. That card offer me some miles on each transaction. Many times, I use that mile rewards to save the money on flight ticket. It has a dedicated website to book flight tickets. While booking a ticket, it shows options to pay for the flight by cash, by miles and by cash plus miles. The service fee is comparatively lower than the other portals. The card also offer lounge access at the airport lounges in many cities.

The only drawback is that I pay Rs. 3000 plus taxes as the card fee every year. The annual fee is a good amount considering other free cards in the market, but still I find this card very useful. I don’t think that there is any other travel card in the market like this. Some other credit cards also offer lounge access at the airports without charging any annual fee, but most of them don’t offer miles to book a flight ticket. Many of them depend on the OTA for flight offers. If you are aware of a good travel credit card, please let me know also.

5. Be Flexible With The Travel Dates

As far as practicable, be flexible with the travel dates. Adjusting your leaves by one or two days may save your money while booking a flight ticket. You may (not necessarily) get a cheaper air ticket, if your flight is on Tuesday or Wednesday and a costlier ticket if your flight is on Friday or Sunday. Similarly, during the high festive seasons, if you do not book wisely, you may ended up paying more due to the huge rush. That is the season when there are discounts as well as costly fares at the same time, so book wisely.

In a nutshell, If you plan your travel during the peak travel season, expect to pay more for the flight tickets. If you plan your travel during the off-season at the destination, expect to pay less for the flight tickets. Same is applicable for the hotel prices also.

6. Book Early

There is no hard and fast rules on how early should you book a flight ticket to get the best available airfares. However, the study shows that it’s always better to book at least 6-8 weeks in advance before your date of departure. You may get a higher price before this period as well as after this period. This is considered as an ideal period to book a flight. But always remember the first point: whenever you get a particular fare within your expected price, don’t wait, book that immediately, may be 5 months, 8 months in advance. You will never regret your decision.

The above-mentioned speculation still holds good for international flights, but I notice a significant change in the domestic airfare patterns. I found most of the time, the airfares remain high upto 5 weeks before the departure date. Then their prices drop significantly upto 2 weeks before the departure date. After that, the prices again climb up on the higher side. There is again no hard and fast rules. It is just an observed pattern.

7. Prefer Low-Cost Airlines

Travelling on a full service carrier is always a fun. But to save some extra cost, try to book a low-cost carrier. Most of the countries have some budget airlines, that may not be available in OTAs airfare search. Have an idea of these low cost airlines at your destination. For example, Air Asia network is a good low-cost option to get affordable air tickets in South East Asia. IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir are budget options in India. Lion Air is a good option in Indonesia. Olympic Air is good for Greece. Ryan Air and Easy Jet are budget options in Europe.

While booking a low-cost airlines, remember that they are budget carriers. You may not get sufficient leg rooms, in-flight entertainment or in-flight meals on that flight. Many low-cost airlines charge extra bucks for check-in luggages and other services. Although, I normally prefer to book a full service carrier at slightly higher prices or a low-cost carrier with no check-in baggage charge (within the weight limit) for the peace of my mind after having horrible experiences with cabin-baggage only fares.

Still, booking a cheap flight ticket is my main criteria. For the trip duration of 5-6 days only, If I get a low-cost carrier with cabin baggage only fare, then I don’t feel any problem to book that flight. If you are intended to travel light and check-in baggage is not a big concern, then you can probably cover the entire world on the network of low-cost airlines.

8. Book Alternate Airport To A Destination

How about combining your trip with a flight plus train journey for flight plus ferry journey, if you have no time constraints. Some low cost airlines prefer to fly to small airports in the neighborhood , rather than flying to a popular airport. This is mainly because of the higher airport charges or fuel charges on the popular airport. If you want to go to Hong Kong, it is cheaper to book a fare to Macau and then take a ferry from Macau to Hong Kong (2 hours). This way you can visit an added destination without paying too much for the flights. Similarly, if you want to go to Dubai, you may get a cheaper air ticket to Sharjah in comparison to Dubai and from Sharjah, you can easily reach to Dubai (30 kms, 30 mins).

9. Prefer Connecting Flights

Connecting flights are always cheaper than the direct flights. But, choice of connecting flight always depends on the connection time and visa requirement in a transit country. While booking a ticket, if I find a cheaper flight with 3-4 hours connection time and no transit visa requirements, then I do not feel any problem to buy that connecting flight.

10. Look Out For The Inaugural Flights

Inaugural flights are always cheaper upto one month at least from the date of inauguration. Keep checking the inaugural flights at your nearest airport. This is always the best bet to get a cheap air ticket. Introductory return flight of IndiGo from Delhi to Bangkok was in INR 9999 and introductory return flight of SpiceJet from Delhi to Guangzhou was in INR 18000 only.

11. Subscribe To The Newsletters and Fare Alerts

This is also a good way to know about the cheap flight tickets. Subscribe to the newsletters and price alerts from the portals like airfarewatchdog, and from the airlines like AirAsia, Saudi Arabian Airlines etc to get the first news of airfare sales.

12. Four Bonus Pro Tips

1. Incognito mode is a myth. Airlines systems and algorithms are too advanced and you can not fool them by going incognito.

2. If you want to know about the inaugural flights at any airport or just want to know that which all airlines fly to that airport, search the airport name in wikipedia. On the particular airport page, you can find all the details under ‘airlines and destinations’ section. The wikipedia result may not be correct always, but most of the time it is very useful. You may also check the website of that particular airport to get the idea of all the airlines flying to that airport. But many small airports in tier-2 and tier-3 cities don’t have a dedicated website.

3. If you want to know about the destinations covered by a particular airline, search the airline in wikipedia. On the particular airline page, you can find all the details under ‘destinations’ section.

4. Learn to use SkyScanner app or website. It gives you a freedom of airfare search with tons of flexibility. You can search for the lowest airfare from one country to another country, from one country to the rest of the world, from one airport to the rest of the world, for a particular month, for the cheapest month etc etc.

I again emphasize that there is no laid down rules to get a cheap flight ticket. It’s just a hit and trial method. Even during the sale, you can not guarantee a flight ticket at the sale price, since the airlines only release a limited number of seats for the sale. These tips do not guarantee you the cheapest available airfare in the market. There are many factors contributing towards the price of an airfare like time of travel, passenger demands, aircraft capacity, competitor prices etc . However, if you combine these tips in your flight search and use them wisely, there is a strong possibility to get the best available airfare in the market.