Three Tips For Booking Cheap Flights

Tips for booking cheap flights is something everyone desires because one of the greatest expenses when planning a holiday is the cost of flights, even before the Covid-19 pandemic sent economic shockwaves worldwide.

So, after two years of intense travel restrictions it is only natural for this to get worse. One of the best ways for airline companies to lift themselves out of debt is by increasing the cost of plane tickets. However, this does not mean that finding affordable flights is impossible – if you live in London, for example, you can still find £30 tickets to Milan in the off-season.

But the question is, how do you find and book cheap flights?

Well first, let me share with you the following so you can trust that the tips I want to share, actually work:

I travelled out of the UK five times in 2022 – while maintaining a nine-to-five job. The cheapest flight I flew was from London to Baden-Baden for £40 in March, and the most expensive flight I flew was from London to Istanbul for £400 in July.

That sounds pretty good, right?

Alright, here we go.

Here are three tips for booking cheap flights.

Be Flexible With Destinations

I’ll be honest, every place I chose to travel to in 2022 depended on the city’s price ranking on Skyscanner. It truly is the #1 way to make sure you’re travelling for cheap and within budget. I remember desperately hoping to travel to Porto in April but chose Barcelona due to a £40 price difference.

So, if you’re not fussed about where you fly to, try this money-saving trick:

• Go to Skyscanner and enter the airport you’d like to depart from.
• Click on the destination box and choose the ‘Everywhere’ option.
• Select the ‘whole month’ option over specific dates and hit search.
• You’ll see a list of all the flights leaving from your chosen airport in order of cheapest to most expensive.

Of course, we all want to choose our destination based on our bucket lists, but that is not always possible, so you must be open to change.

Travel In The Weekdays and Off-Peak Hours

There is a lot of debate on whether “cheaper travel days” exist. Some travellers believe it’s a myth, while others swear that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are cheaper than any other time of the week.

My stance lies somewhere in between. I do not think Tuesday is the holy day of travel, but I do believe travelling on a weekday is significantly cheaper than at the weekend.

For example, flying on Wednesday and returning on Saturday is almost always cheaper than Thursday – Sunday. Or planning your return for Monday instead of Sunday = better fares.

However, I recognize that if you have limited vacation days, the weekend is your best option, so in that case, travel during the off-peak hours. 6 am flights are always cheaper than 9 am flights – but ensure you have a sustainable way to get to the airport in the wee hours of the morning. You don’t want to purchase a £30 6 am flight but spend £50 on the airport cab.

You can also figure out the cheapest days using the airline websites’ ‘calendar view’ booking systems.

Book Early

Booking early goes without saying, but so many people fall for the gambit that last-minute deals are cheaper when in reality, they rarely are.

Booking at least a month in advance can save you hundreds, and if you are hoping to book at peak travel times such as bank holiday weekends and Easter, three months in advance is the way to go.

I travelled to Copenhagen over the August bank holiday on a £100 ticket I booked in May, and by early July, the same ticket had reached the £300 mark.

These are just a few of the ways you can get cheaper flights, but there is so much more that you can do! If you want my complete guide to booking cheap flights, download it here: