Helpful Hints for Booking the Cheapest Abroad Flights

     It’s not a secret that flight prices are our biggest purchases when it comes to traveling. Unless you have frequent flyer points, flight prices will always be what us travelers spend the most money on when they want to take a trip abroad. Believe it or not, there are ways you can reduce your upcoming trip’s flights’ costs. Below I have listed some helpful hints on how you can save yourself the most money on your next abroad travel escape:

Hint 1: Use Google Flights. I have discovered and booked the best and cheapest flights on this website.  Bonus: It’s super user friendly. 

Hint 2: Research deals that pop up on flight websites right away. These deals tend to change often (sometimes even minutes later), so if you see a good one, book it stat! You may never see that great of a deal anytime soon, or possibly ever again.

Hint 3: Check departing and returning flights for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. These are the less traveled days, so they tend to be the most affordable days to book flights.  Keep in mind, though, that the day and time you book matters also.  Mornings tend to be the best time of the day to book flights as some companies will use tracked traffic to adjust flight prices (simple supply and demand).

Hint 4: Fly out of the bigger, more popular city airports as they tend to offer lower fees to airlines (which usually means lower cost for you). If you live in Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, or Pittsburgh (at this current time), you’re lucky. These cities and their airports usually have the cheapest of the cheap flights that leave the states. That being said, book your flights out of these airports that are going abroad. If you don’t live near one of these bigger cities’ airports, book a connecting flight from where you live to one of these airports, and fly abroad from there. Though it may add an extra flight to your itinerary, it will greatly reduce the total cost of your flight agenda.

Hint 5: If flying to Europe, fly into the cheapest destination city you can find. Usually cities such as London, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, and Barcelona are the cheapest cities to fly into (at this current time). Therefore you have a couple of options:

1)      Take your trip to one of these cities and spend the whole time there. I highly recommend London, Copenhagen, and Barcelona.

Or

2)      If these bigger cities are not where you want to spend your time and vacation, fly to one of these cities anyway…but then, fly to your desired destination from there. Flying within Europe is extremely cheap…like dirt cheap. For example, a recent flight I saw from London to Oslo was $7! Yes, seven dollars. Seriously, I'm not joking. Here's proof:

Bonus: You may have the opportunity to explore a city in which you didn’t intend. If you do, add that extra city to your “Cities I’ve Explored” list. You could also discover that you like that city so much that you want to come back to spend more time there one day. Who knows, it may also shift to the top of your “Favorite Places I’ve Ever Visited” list. Boston and London were layover cities that I took time to explore and found myself wanting to go back again. Lucky me, I have the opportunity to return to these cities to do more exploring on my next trip in April.

Hint 6: If possible, plan your vacation time around a great flight deal. Most jobs allow us to take time off during the year for vacation at our own leisure. Therefore, if you find an amazing flight special or deal, and you know it would be likely you could take that time off from work, book that flight. Then, put in for vacation time after. Again, you don’t want to pass up a great flight deal. Many flight prices increase by the day (and minute, remember). Don’t kick yourself later because you waited to book a flight and now the prices have sky-rocketed.

Hint 7: Be flexible with your travel time. At times you may have to come back from your trip a day earlier or a day later than you planned in order to book the flight that will save you the most money. Sometimes it could save you well over a hundred dollars per person.

Hint 8: Don’t forget to use frequent flyer points and any other travel points you may have received from airlines, credit cards, etc. The Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card is a great tool for saving money on flights, hotels, tours, and attractions. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post about great travel uses with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card!

Hint 9: Be patient with your research in finding the best and cheapest flight to your desired destination. It could take very little time, or it may possibly take a lot of time to find the best and most practical flight deal. If your flight research process becomes frustrating, just relax and think about that moment when you find that perfect flight at the perfect price. Better yet, think about what you should pack in preparation for your trip. It will all be worth it. If you’re patient and positive, the flight research process will be a lot less stressful and a lot more enjoyable.

     It’s possible that flying can be one of the cheaper items within your travel costs (verses food/drinks, hotel costs, tours, activities, etc.). If you follow these hints, you will be amazed at how much money you will save, not only on your trip’s flight(s), but on the total cost of your trip… And voilà! You now have money saved for your next trip!

Safe Travels,

Veronica