50 Best Ways to Find Cheap Flights

We invite you to explore the best strategies, techniques and resources
regarding how to find the cheapest flights on the planet. 

1.) Discover Meta-Meta Search for Cheaper Flights.

It is well known that the cheapest flight will not be found on one particular site every single time. Due to this fact it is imperative to check numerous sites before committing your money. The quickest way to do this is by using a metasearch engine or flight aggregator. These are clever sites that search numerous sites for you with one single user query.

1.) There is not a single flight comparison site in existence which searches every single travel site on the internet. Each comparison site tends to have different relationships with different travel agents and airlines thereby producing varying results. It is very unpredictable as to which one will produce the cheapest result. 

Try CheapFlightsFinder now 

 2.) Use Experts By Outsourcing Your Flight Needs 

However good you are at finding cheap flights - there is always a possibility that someone out there is better than you. In fact new services have sprung up which allow you to outsource your flight needs to travel experts who have made a veritable career out of finding the cheapest possible flights on the planet. these experts or flight hackers have spent hours upon hours researching various routes and their knowledge can often beat the best price any flight aggregator can discover on its own.

Services such as flightfox, flystein and chimpando all offer to utilise their experts to find the best deals in return for a finder's fee which varies according to the type of flight you require. The fee usually starts from around $27 for a basic return flight. These sites state they will find a cheaper flight for you - guaranteeing to save you more money than the finders fee or you get your money back. Well worth a try as there is nothing really to lose. The following points in our list utilise some of the tactics used by flight hackers to shave some extra money off your ticket.

3.) Hidden City Ticketing Search

Hidden city ticketing has been a well known flight hack for those in the know for a number of years now. The basic principle is that if you wanted to fly from city A to city B it is sometimes cheaper to book a flight from city A to city C with a stopover in city B. What you would need to do is simply get off the flight at city B and not continue on to city C. 

There are a few downsides to this type of behaviour - 1.) is that it is sometimes against the terms of the airline and you may have to pay a penalty for this type of activity such as having your frequent flier account suspended 2.) You can not check in luggage as it will only be available at city C. 

Some new sites have sprung up in order to find these hidden city tickets - one such site was skiplagged which was actually sued by united and american airlines for promoting such fares. In the end the case was settled as its not technically illegal just something the airlines dont care too much for. Nevertheless, if you are not concerned with the downsides of this strategy it is an avenue well worth exploring.

4.) Take Advantage of Your Age

If your child is under 2 years of age most airlines will allow your child to fly for free provided they sit on your lap for the duration of the flight. You’ll typically be charged full price for a child who’s two years old and up.

Some airlines occasionally have promotions to encourage children to fly. Here is a list of Airlines which often hold promotions for children flying discounts:

Frontier Airlines: Link to their kids fly free section.
Norwegian Airlines: Link to Children Prices:
Qatar Airlines: Infant and child fares:
British Airways: Family travel page:
SouthWest Airlines: Child Fares:
Virgin Atlantic: Children, infants and teens flying policy:

5.) Collect and Redeem Frequent Flier Miles

Many airlines offer frequent flier programmes which allow you to collect air miles or points whenever you fly on their carriers and allow you to redeem those points for free or discounted flights in the future. 

These programmes have partnerships with numerous other companies allowing you to collect points when spending at those venues - These other avenues include everything from using particular credit cards to spending at various hotels. 

You should make sure you redeem your miles in good time as they usually have a time limit on when they can be used. Accounts are usually deactivated if no activity takes place for around 36 months 

You can also collect points if you fly with any of the airlines under a particular programme. For example the following airlines all operate under the one world partner airlines programme, and you can collect frequent flier miles whenever you travel with them: 

British Airways - American Airlines - Cathay Pacific - Finnair - Iberia - Japan Airlines - LAN - Malev Hungarian Airlines - Qantas - Royal Jordanian

 6.) Choose Your Season of Travel Wisely