After years and years of successfully scoring cheap flights (especially on a #brokecollegestudent budget), I am finally revealing them all to you. SAY WHAT?! Yep, you read that right. You may be wondering WHY in the world would I share my travel hacking secrets with the world when I can continually keep all the good deals to myself. Well, that is because I am such a firm believer in the fact that everyone should experience travel throughout their lives. More often than not, I am always asked HOW IN THE WORLD do I afford to travel so frequently, especially on a college student budget. Do I have a sugar daddy? Do my parents pay for my trips? Or do I have a secret trust fund that I inherited? The answer to all of those questions is a big fat NO. I travel so frequently because I work countless hours between multiple jobs and have mastered the art of cheap flying. Travel does not have to be expensive, even though the common misconception is that it is. So my gift to you this year is this: 

The Ultimate Guide to Scoring Cheap Flights:

My Top 14 Secrets to Scoring Cheap Flights Revealed

Disclaimer: None of these are actually ~scientifically~ proven, but it is what has worked for me for all the years I have spent traveling and what I continually use till this day--so with that, take what you will!

1. Before anything else, follow these accounts (on Twitter)--just do it.

You will thank me when you’re lounging on a beach or off on a mountain top somewhere thanks to the cheap ticket you scored. 

@secretflying (tracks mistake fares!)

@airfarewatchdog 

@theflightdeal 

@scottsflghts 

@jetbluecheeps (great deals on last minute flghts) 

@faredealalert 

@travelpiratesus 

@theflightdeal

These are accounts that consistently tweet flight deals on a daily basis, so you are bound to find one to your destination 

Tip: Turn on your notifications for these specific accounts so that you get daily alerts of sales, mistake fares (will expand more on this in a bit) and trending cheap destinations.  

2. Sign up for these email lists:

Scott’s Cheap Flights 

Secret Flying  (tracks mistake fares!)

The Flight Deal 

These are sites that scour the web for you and send you a list of cheap flights from various airlines, as well as MISTAKE fares that airlines put out. I have found flights through this method on multiple occasions! *Most helpful if you live in big cities with big hub airports (LAX, LAS, MIA, JFK, EWR, ATL are some main ones)

3. Be flexible with your travel dates and times 

Flexibility is probably the biggest key to being able to travel cheaply. This means being open to leaving on different dates and times that you than you originally intended for. Sometimes, leaving a day earlier or a day layer can be $100 cheaper! 

I check this by using the calendar option on flight search engines. When searching, change your flight viewer to the calendar option and play around with different days to see which day is cheaper. See example via Skyscanner below: 

4. Be flexible with your destination (everywhere option) 

As mentioned above, flexibility is always rewarded in the travel sphere! If you are itching to hop on a flight because #wanderlust, but are not picky about where you want to go, this particular tip could work out very well for you! 

What to do: Input your flight dates and instead of adding a destination, choose the “Everywhere” option. This will populate a list of destinations for you from cheapest to most expensive and you can decide on where to go based on your budget! I have used this method many, many times and is how I spent less than $100 for a RT ticket to Mexico City (among other trips). See example via Skyscanner below: 

5. Don’t fly direct 

I know this seems like a no brainer, but you would be surprised at the amount of people that refuse to fly with layovers, yet still expect a cheap fare. I mean were they hoping for a miracle? If you are traveling a long distance, one of the easiest ways to cut down the price of your ticket is to fly with a layover. 

Tip: I actually love this method so much because I learned how to take advantage of long layovers and turn it into an opportunity to explore another country. What I usually do is try to find a flight with a 22 hour + layover (best if the flight arrives in that country early in the morning so I have the entire day to explore) and book that flight. With this method, I have gotten the chance to visit many extra countries and spend a day exploring a new place for the price of one ticket! What a steal, am I right?

6. Look for tickets in a different currency 

Okay this one is a secret I have kept for many years. I actually discovered this accidentally when my laptop was picking up that I was still in a different country. From time to time, searching for tickets in a country whose currency is weaker than the dollar warrants a cheaper flight (not by a significant amount, but definitely by less)! I usually do this when searching for tickets in continents like Asia. 

Tip: Go to the top right hand corner of your browser and change the currency to a different country (I typically change it to pesos, baht, rupiah--or some other Asian country). 

7. Fly into and out of hub cities and then transfer 

If you are in a crunch for time, then this is obviously not a very viable option. But, if you are in no rush, this method could save you quite a bit of money! Hub cities are cities in which most major domestic + international airlines fly out of. With the multitude of options to choose from, airlines tend to price their fares at a cheaper rate so that they are competitive with other airlines. 

For example: Flying into Venice would be quite pricey due to its geographic location, so a cheaper option would be to fly into Rome (a big hub city) and take a train to Venice. 

In continents like Europe and Asia, it is often smarter to fly into a country with a big hub city and catch a flight to whatever city/country you want to from there because the plane tickets between cities and countries are incredibly cheap. When I flew to Asia, I flew to Manila because the ticket was only around $500 and then caught a $50 flight to Thailand, instead of flying directly to Thailand which would have cost me $200 more. 

Tip: If you live in a city that is not a hub city, but are close enough to one, it is sometimes cheaper to take a bus or drive to that hub city. For example: If you live in Birmingham, Alabama it may be cheaper to fly out of Atlanta because it is a big hub city 

Tip #2: Some hub cities can be significantly cheaper than others! When I lived in Vegas, I would sometimes find a significantly cheaper flight out of LAX, so I would opt to fly from there and pay for the $40 flight from Vegas to LAX. 

8. SIGN UP FOR FLIGHT ALERTS 

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS sign up for flight alerts! The moment you think of a trip go to search engines like Google Flights, Airfare Watchdog, Skyscanner and input those dates + location and have them send regular flight alerts to your email. This helps you keep track of the price of your ticket and whether it is projected to go up or down.

I also use the Hopper app to keep track of my flight fare forecast. What does this mean? Hopper gives you a prediction of when the cheapest date to buy your ticket is and whether or not your ticket price is projected to increase or decrease. 

Tip: On Airfare Watchdog, you can also track flight alerts for flights leaving out of your city. If you don’t have any set locations, you can also travel based off of this and when it notifies you of a cheap fare.

9. Start tracking your flights 3-4 months out, but DO NOT buy until 6-8 weeks out.

Once you have a place you want to go to in mind, look up the flight price on one of the search engines I mentioned above 3-4 months out from your trip to give you an initial idea of how much plane tickets are at their priciest (which is usually when you look too early or look to late). 

After doing this, set up a flight alert, but DO NOT look again until about 8 weeks from your flight. Booking too early (before this time frame) will cause the tickets to be pricier because not all airlines have released their fare prices. When all airlines offering this flight leg release their prices, competitors tend to adjust their pricing so that they are competitive, but not too expensive. This is why it is VERY important to book your ticket in the “sweet spot” of booking time. Around 6 weeks, the fares should be at their lowest so book away! After this time frame, plane tickets will generally start getting more expensive. 

9. Buy separate tickets 

Because I am the type of person who likes to exhaust all my options before settling on one, I often like to check a plane ticket as a Roundtrip flight and as 2 separate one way flights. On some occasions, I have found that it is sometimes cheaper to buy 2 separate tickets than one round trip flight--so make sure to make this a regular practice to check! 

10. Always compare between search engines and the airline website itself

While I swear by my search engines, it is sometimes cheaper if you buy the ticket on the airline’s website itself. Sometimes search engines add extra charges to your fare (especially if it is from a 3rd party seller). 

What I do: Search for the flight on the search engines I mentioned above and then go to the actual airline website and search for the same flight time and compare which is cheaper. Most of the time, the search engines are cheaper, but there have been occasions where the airline website cost less!

11. Catch a red eye flight Fly out really early or really late 

This is probably the oldest trick in the book, but a good one at that. No one wants to fly out at the crack of dawn or soooo late night it basically is dawn. This is where you come in! If you truly want a cheap flight, you most likely will have to be cruising the airport at odd hours.

13. Search on INCOGNITO 

And the most important trick? SEARCH ON INCOGNITO! This is a MUST when trying to score cheap flights. The more times you search, the more the prices go up because the airline’s algorithm will begin picking up your searches. Searching on Incognito (or a private browser) will prevent the airline website from picking your search up. 

How to do this: 

Safari: Go to your toolbar and click “File” then click on “New Private Window”

Google Chrome: Go to your toolbar and click “File” then click on “New Incognito Window”

14. Clear your browser’s cookies 

The only time cookies are bad is when you are looking for cheap plane tickets. These cookies help the airline websites algorithm detect that you have searched for a fare for a certain date + destination before even after you exit out of your browser. Clearing these before you search help ensure you have a clean search slate! 

How to do this: 

Safari: Go to your toolbar and click “Safari” → click on “Preferences” →click on “Privacy” → (Next to Cookies and website data) click on “Manage Website Data” → “Remove All” 

Google Chrome: Go to your toolbar and click “Chrome” → click on “Preferences” → click on “Advanced” drop down menu → click on “Privacy and security” → click on “Clear browsing data tab” → click on “Clear data” 

Well there you have it! My Top 14 Secrets to Scoring Cheap Flights Revealed. Hopefully this helps you embark on more adventures around the globe this year. Happy traveling!

Til’ Next Time, 

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