When I travel I always try to find cheap flights. Perhaps it’s my inner Dutchwoman who wants the best deal. Or maybe I just don’t want to pay more than necessary. And neither should you. Often people are amazed when I tell them how cheap my flight is. A flight ticket is likely to be one of the most expensive things you are going to buy for your trip, especially when it’s far away. So if you want to save on costs, your ticket is a very good way to start. Want to know how to find cheap flights to anywhere in the world? Read on.

Avoid high season

Most people know to avoid high season, but don’t do it. I know that when you have kids or when you’re a student you are bound to the school holidays. So this doesn’t work for everyone. But for the ones that can arrange to travel outside of high season, lucky you. Flying in low season is the best chance you have on finding a cheap flight.

The one time I did go on holiday in high season, from Amsterdam to Colombia during Christmas and New Year’s, I paid way too much for my flight (more than 1000 euros, ouch!). I prefer to travel in the ‘shoulder seasons’. When high season is in July and August, I go in June or September. The weather is still good, it’s less crowded and it’s cheaper.

Inconvenience is cheaper

This one comes down to how much you want to suffer for a cheap flight. More and long stopovers, early and late flights, budget carriers, they are all cheaper. Often the more inconvenient it is, the cheaper it is. I normally do one stopover on long flights, which decreases the price drastically compared to a direct flight. The maximum time I want to spend on a stopover is about five hours. Early and late flights are acceptable for me if I’m going to travel for a longer period of time. If I only go for a couple of days, I tend to book the more convenient times. I always try to fly with a budget carrier if possible, as I don’t care that much for comfort. Some of the most popular (definitely not all) budget carriers around the world are:

Determining what you want in this regard will help you find the suitable ticket for you. Don’t set your standards too high if you want a cheap flight.

Fly with a budget carrier if possible

Flexibility helps. A lot.

It really helps to be flexible about where you are going and when you are going. You can either look for some destinations and determine the cheapest time to visit, or determine when you want to go and look up which destinations are cheap during that time.

If I know roughly when I want to go, I tend to search for ‘Everywhere’ on Skyscanner and compare the prices of all the destinations that I potentially want to visit. Being flexible also allows you to make use of offers and perhaps even error fares.

Use a good search engine

I always use Skyscanner to start my search and compare flights. Many other websites don’t show budget carriers or have additional costs. Skyscanner allows you to compare major and budget airlines. Momondo and Google Flights are great alternatives with many options, but personally I prefer the interface of Skyscanner. You shouldn’t put in exact dates to start with, but opt for the ‘whole month’ option. This enables you to see the cheapest price for every day of the month.

Compare different airlines with a good search engine

Most search engines do not combine multiple airlines in one trip. Doing so, however, might reduce the price for a flight drastically. Google Flights and Kiwi.com are exceptions to this and mix airlines in one trip to get the cheapest flight.

Make use of offers and error fares

Making use of offers is a clever way of getting a discount on a flight. Most airlines have offers during the year. KLM in The Netherlands, for example, has a couple of weeks every year that they give major discounts to their customers (the ‘werelddealweken’, or the ‘world deal weeks’). Use it if you can!

The chances of finding an error fare are slim. Don’t count on it. If you do find one, however, you’re in luck! Error fares are incorrect (extremely cheap) prices for flights which are online until the airline discovers the mistake. Error fares are often only online for a couple of hours. If you book it for the incorrect and extremely cheap price, the airlines has to honor it. I once flew from Amsterdam to The Philippines and back for only 290 euros with an error fare.

Let others help you

Good news, you don’t have to do everything alone. I think this is the tip the least people actually do, but which will give you the most result. Tell people in your network that you are looking for a flight to a certain destination or during a certain time. Don’t narrow it down too much, if you can. Your family and friends can keep an eye out for you and tell you when they see a good offer. I found the error fare from Amsterdam to Manila that way (thanks Nina!).

There are also a lot of companies specialized in travel deals. It depends on where you live which website you should use. Recommendations are:

If you are flexible, there is always an offer for a destination somewhere. Keep an eye out for the offers on the websites mentioned above, and you find yourself booking that ticket in no time. Use their communication channels via for example social media, newsletters or even a WhatsApp message service to quickly see what’s going on, instead of going to their website every single time. I get a WhatsApp from Vakantiepiraten with the best deal of the day, for example. It saves you a lot of time and you still get the information you need.

Think outside the box

You decided where you want to go, but can’t find a cheap flight. That happens to the best, I’m afraid. Try mixing your search up a bit. One of the easiest things to try is changing the region and currency of your search. Websites automatically use your local region and currency, but showing the prices for other regions or in other currencies can be much cheaper. If you use Skyscanner, the region and currency is easily adjusted in the top right of your browser.

Sometimes it’s cheaper to change the currency when booking a flight

Another thing you can try is changing the point of departure to a nearby airport. When you’re in the Netherlands, for instance, you have already several airports to choose from:

And don’t forget the airports in neighboring states or countries which you can easily reach by car or public transport, such as Düsseldorf or Brussels in this example. If you have a long flight, you can even search for other airports that are easy to reach with a quick and cheap flight, such as London. Sometimes flying from London to your destination is much cheaper than flying from Amsterdam, while flying from Amsterdam to London is only a few bucks. Definitely worth checking out for long flights!

Do you have enough inspiration to try it out for yourself? Go ahead and find that cheap flight. It’s out there, and now you know how to find it.

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If you have any questions about how to find cheap flights anywhere or tips on something that worked really well for you, please let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you! Also, make sure to check out my destination guides before heading on your trip!

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