Cheap Flight Skills

I would like to provide assistance in helping you find the cheapest flight possible.  

As most of you do not travel that often, perhaps you do not know the sort of tricks and ideas that I can provide on buying flights. In no way are these official rules or are they 100% correct, but they will offer some ideas into the cost that you are seeing. 

WHEN TO BUY

First of all, I honestly believe that if you were to search for a ticket in January for July, the price would be astronomical and, more importantly, it won’t change for at least the next few weeks. The reason that the prices are so high is that it is much too early to buy plane tickets. Airline tickets only become available to be purchased eight months before the date. The people who need to buy tickets that early in advance are either a) business types that need a specific flight for a specific meeting b) rich people or c) people who don’t know the industry and are worried that the tickets will sell out or get more expensive. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

One has to consider when most people buy their tickets to travel and the answer is usually a few months before (like three). As you get closer to your traveling date, you will see the price begin to fluctuate as promotions and ticket sales begin. Now I’m not saying that you have to wait for three more months, but I want you to understand that the price fluctuates constantly to meet the demand. Right now there is no demand, so the price will not fluctuate much. 

To get the best price for nearly anything, you need to understand how much it is worth. To do that will require a lot of time but if you are determined you can buy a $1500 ticket for $650. 

The first guidance I can suggest is: Do not buy tickets on evenings and weekends. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and maybe Thursday during the day between 11:30-2pm is the best time to buy tickets. The reason is that when the airline offices are open the price will fluctuate in relation to demand. However, during lunch hours demand will be low and as a result the prices drop to attract attention. In the evenings and weekends the demand is up but as the offices are closed they do not put on any specials, so super sales will be rare. 

The 11:30-2pm zone is dependent not on where you live but on where the headquarters of the airline is. If you check during these times in east Canada/US then you are likely to get the best prices for Canadian and American flights. If you check at 7:00am (12:00pm UK time) then you may get some deals with UK companies or maybe French, Dutch or Spanish ones. 

WEBSITES

The websites I check are Jetcost, Skyscanner and airtransat (Airtransat is mainly for people flying from Canada). There are others of course – please let me know if you find any other good websites.

To understand how much the ticket is worth, you have to see what the general price is and how it changes. Yes, I do this in a rather compulsive manner, but I find it the most useful in the long run. Take a piece of paper and fold it in two. On the top of the page, write the website you are going to use (i.e. Jetcost) and the date and time of day. This will keep track of when you did your homework. On one side of the page, write the most convenient airport to you, and on the other the airport(s) that you could go to. For instance: Ottawa and Montreal. Montreal is available for Ottawa people as the bus there is not that expensive. In fact, this may save you a lot of money as it is a much large hub than Ottawa.

In the first column, write the days you wish to travel (for instance July 14^th to July 24^th). Under this, make a matrix that looks something like this:

12 -21 = _______     13 -21=______         14 -21=_______      15  21=_________

      -22 = _______          22=______                22=_______           22=_________

      -23 = _______           23=______                23=_______            23=_________

      -24 =  _______          24=______                24=_______            24=_________

      -25 = _______           25=______                25=_______             25=_________

       -26 = _______          26=______                26=_______             26=_________

This will give you an idea of how much the price changes from day to day depending on the day you leave and come back. And I guarantee you will see a huge variation. If you don’t, then either you are buying a ticket too early (no demand) or at a time when the offices are closed (standard price). On the other side of the page, do the same search for the other airport. I sometimes check Jetcost and Skyscanner at the same time and make one sheet but you can make two if it helps you keep track of what you saw where. Airtransat is the only company that I know of that flies from Ottawa to London Gatwick directly.

If you do this on Monday at 11:30, then do it again the following Monday at 11:30 and you will see which flights are in more demand and which are less in demand, which flights are getting cheaper and which are getting more expensive. Do this at different times of the week over the course of a few months and you will soon see which flight is the cheapest, and on which day, and have an idea of when the best time to buy that particular flight will be.

The other advantage of doing this is that if you see a crazy sale you can jump at it.

Where are you flying to?

One would assume that if you want to fly to London, you would search for London. Not necessarily. There are a few hubs in Europe that have large airports and thus more possibilities: London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfurt, and Paris. All of these are great hubs and giant airports.

Once you are in Europe, the duty on flights drops dramatically. There are low-cost airlines that can take you all around Europe for very little. In this circumstance, it is usually better to buy tickets earlier as the demand is higher because the tickets are so much cheaper. Money Saving Expert flight checker searches Monarch, Flybe, Easyjet and Ryanair, all the low-cost airlines, so you can get a flight from Paris to London for $50 or even less. So in the above system- you can make multiple sheets for different destinations. Do bear in mind that they charge extra for luggage, so you need to take that into account when looking at prices. Also, Ryanair will charge you an admin fee and payment fee no matter which method you use. Most of the others will charge a fee if you pay with a credit card, although it is free to pay by credit card.