Flying is expensive, especially when traveling abroad. But I can’t imagine the idea of giving up two months’ salary for a flight over the Atlantic. How many things can you buy with that money? 150 outfits? 5 months’ worth of food? I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much on a flight. Instead, I’ve put together a list of ways to find the best flight deal.
Creating a Budget
Before you plan your trip, create a transportation budget. Start by setting the maximum price you want to pay for your round-trip airfare. It may be higher or lower depending on where you live and your salary (or lack of income). Since Texas isn’t an international travel destination, it is usually harder to find cheap flights without separate searches or multiple stopovers.
Because of this, I set my maximum price a little higher than I would like it, between $800 and $900. However, this is my maximum price; I’m aiming for something between $600 and $750. (Yes, you probably think I’m crazy looking for international flights in that price range, but I promise I’ve been doing this for years!)
Things to Consider
The three biggest things you need to think about, either before or during the search process, are your travel dates, travel destinations, and choice of airlines. These will dictate how you should go about planning your trip and which suggestions may not apply to you.
Be Flexible – This is absolutely key to finding the best deals. Being flexible with your travel dates is one of the best ways to find the lowest prices. If you have very specific dates of travel, it makes it a lot harder to find flight times that work, let alone fit in your desired price range.
Be Open to Exploring – Instead of flying directly to your destination, consider flying somewhere cheaper and finding a connecting flight. Connecting flights within the continent are often under $100, sometimes under $50. More power to you if you have a morning inbound flight and a late outbound flight, because it gives you a few hours to explore and add another city or country to your travel list. In addition to flying to a different destination, you can also try looking for a round-trip flight out of an international hub city (e.g., New York City, Boston, Washington D.C.) and find a round-trip domestic connection to that city.
Note: If you choose to do this, be sure to check for visa and passport requirements, and leave yourself enough time to travel back to the airport, and have at least 2 hours to get through airport security
Budget Airlines are Your Friends – Despite some terrible reviews, most budget airlines provide flyers with reasonable experiences. I’ve only had a negative experience on a budget airline (in the US), and that was due to turbulence that I feel could have been avoided, and not due to cosmetic or hospitality issues.
The Search
There are three sites I’ve grown to rely on during the search process: Google Flights, STA Travel, and Skyscanner. I find myself using these for somewhat different things, and I find using all three has given me the best results.
Google Flights – Start your hunt with the following search: your hometown as the departure location (or whatever the largest city nearby is) and “Europe” as the destination. Make sure you have your desired travel dates selected as well. This will show you the prices for various cities across the continent. Adjust the slider to your max price and look through the list of potential cities.
If you don’t have a set arrival time and date, play around with the dates to see if any other cities you may be interested in appear. Narrow your options down to the cities that look most interesting or are cheapest (I do the latter). If you want to see if you can find something cheaper, you will need to look at each of your chosen cities individually. The “Dates” functionality is the most useful for this.
If you have a particular location or dates, you may still have the opportunity to find a better deal. Google Flights allows you to track a specific flight or all flights for a city with a set arrival and departure time. You can track multiple combinations (I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many things you can track), and you will be notified by email about any changes in price. If you plan to arrive in a particular country, you can also put that country in the destination bar, instead of “Europe”. This will give you a list of cities in just that country.
STA Travel – STA Travel is a student travel site that provides tickets at discounts to “youth” travelers (ages 12- 31). It can be hit or miss when it comes to finding deals. It seems that the site is better for finding one-way tickets than round-trip tickets. I have been able to find one-way tickets for $200-400 when the round-trip price is over $1300. It is definitely worth checking, but may be more beneficial for travelers leaving from a different city than they fly into.
Skyscanner – I found Skyscanner to be the best search engine to use when looking for alternative departure and arrival locations and for ensuring that tickets are purchased at the lowest price. One thing to keep in mind when using Skyscanner is that some of the price offers seem unrealistically low. Because the prices are provided by third-party sites, they may not actually be realistic. Be sure only to book through reputable sites (some of the lowest priced sources seemed to lack information), or preferably through the airline.
Booking
If you are only buying airfare, I highly recommend taking a look at the flight you have found through the airline site before committing to a purchase. Booking directly through an airline may eliminate some of the extraneous fees charged by booking sites, although it is not always guaranteed that this will be lower. Sometimes airlines sell fares to booking sites for a discount, so it turns out cheaper this way. Due to preference, I prefer purchasing from the airline, but it shouldn’t make a significant difference either way.
Aim to purchase your tickets 3-5 months before your travel date, since most low-cost tickets are still available. Setting a purchase date so far ahead will also give you a larger time cushion in case you’re unable to find anything that fits within your budget or time frame immediately.
I hope this provides you with a decent starting point for planning your next adventure!
Disclaimer: This commentary is based on my personal opinion; feel free to consult any other resources you may find necessary or useful. This post is in no way sponsored; all comments are my own.