All travelers have a strong passion for traveling and a relentless drive to save money on flights. Throughout the years, I’ve come across various claims about the most effective strategies to achieve this. Some sources suggest that booking precisely 59 days before departure yields the best results. Others argue that purchasing tickets on Wednesday at 2 a.m. guarantees the lowest prices. All this does not always allow you to get flight ticket discounts. Here we have collected the best tactics that allow you to buy cheap flights.
Table of Contents
1 Use The Card Without Fees For International Payments
Certain airlines, especially low-cost ones like EasyJet or RyanAir, might exclusively accept payment in the local currency. If your credit card imposes foreign transaction fees, you’ll end up with an additional 2.5% fee embedded in the exchange rate. For instance, I recently bought airfare in Euros, amounting to a total of $534.51. If I had used a credit card without foreign transaction fees, I would have paid just $521.14.
Booking a flight ticket. Photo/Economic Times
2 Use Loyalty Programs, Bonuses, and Miles
American Express card members have the opportunity to save a significant amount of money on flights. Cardholders with The Platinum Card® from American Express, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, or Centurion® Card from American Express can take advantage of Amex’s International Airlines Program to book discounted premium flights. Check your American Express card for detailed terms and additional information.
Discounts are available on select participating airlines for premium economy, business class, and first-class tickets. The flights must originate from the U.S. or Canada, and round-trip bookings are generally required to qualify for the discount.
The discounts offered can vary widely. For instance, you can potentially save around $200 on premium economy flights to Europe. Card Holders eligible for international first class may find even greater savings by checking prices through the International Airline Program.
3 Protect Yourself From Price Discrimination
To organize budget travel, you need to protect yourself from price discrimination. How does it work? If you are interested in flights from the US to the UK or are interested in hotels in the UK, companies will take this into account. Since you are interested in a flight, the price may increase each time you visit the page. You can use an Android VPN to avoid such pressure. For example, it can be VeePN, this service offers real IP address hiding, data encryption, and 2500+ VPN servers. It will help you get a fairer price.
4 Discounts For The American Association of Retired Persons
Joining the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) at a young age, even when fully employed at 30, is an unexpected possibility. Why consider it? With an annual AARP membership fee of $16, you gain access to savings on British Airways flights.
AARP members, regardless of age, can save up to $65 per person, round-trip, for economy (World Traveler) and premium economy (World Traveler Plus). For business class (Club World), members can save up to $200 per person, round-trip.
To access the discount, search, and book flights through a dedicated British Airways page after logging in to your AARP account. Note that the discount is not applicable for phone bookings.
5. Be Flexible
Best flight ticket deals. Photo/Security review
How to get the best flight deals. Photo/Pexels
Airfare prices are influenced by supply and demand, meaning that choosing to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday is generally less expensive compared to a Friday or Sunday. Additionally, the time of day you choose to fly can also impact fares. Overnight flights typically have lower fares as they are less popular than flights departing at 10 a.m.
For those with flexibility in their travel plans, there are great deals to be found. KAYAK offers an ‘explore’ tool that displays the most affordable fares for flights worldwide, allowing you to filter based on your budget and desired flight duration.
6 Subscribe to Our Hot Offers Newsletter
I understand your frustration with the overwhelming number of junk emails filling your inbox. However, subscribing to newsletters can be an effective strategy for securing flight deals. Airlines, tour operators, and deal websites often prioritize their loyal customers by providing exclusive alerts whenever seat sales or special offers are available. It’s important to note that these discounted prices are usually time-limited, requiring immediate action to secure your booking.
Cheap flights. Photo/Next Vacay
7 Set Price Alerts
Save time by setting up a price alert on sites like Skyscanner instead of wasting hours searching for cheap airfare. Enter your travel details, click “Get Price Alerts” on the results page, and get notified via email whenever there’s a price drop.
Conclusion
Flights can take up almost half of your trip budget. This is a big expense that is worth trying to reduce. There are a number of ways to make a flight more budget-friendly, and the cost may differ by 20%, 30% or even 50%.
