I remember my first transcontinental flight very well – I was flying to Poland for my study abroad program in the summer of 2017 and my roundtrip flight from Atlanta, GA was $1200+. At that time, I believed that $1200 was the normal and that it was a “good deal” for a peak season flight.
How I look back upon that purchase knowing what I know now. I know now that $1200 would equate 2 to 3 roundtrip flights to Europe.
Here is what I use to find cheap flights:
Google Flights
Google Flights is my go-to site whenever I want to go anywhere. It is very easy to use, and I play around with the calendar to see when the best time to fly is. If there are certain airlines you prefer, you could filter for those as well. I am based out of Atlanta, which doesn’t have great flight pricing most of the time so I’ll also look at airports near ATL where I can drive to (Nashville, Charlotte, Greenville, Chattanooga) or fly to (Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, NYC) to get cheap flights out of. I recommend looking at airports near you as well as where you could drive or fly to or and fly out of.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a great app for those who don’t have a location in mind or a specific time frame in mind. For those of you (like me) who just want to go somewhere but don’t care about when or where, Skyscanner will show you the cheapest prices and what dates to go where. I love their “Explore” feature that shows the cheapest prices to numerous locations based on your airport. Spend some time playing around on the app and get inspired!
Scott’s Cheap Flights
If you’re not signed up for Scott’s Cheap Flights, you need to do so now! Scott’s Cheap Flights is not a website or app, but rather an email distribution list that will notify you of mistake fares. The regular subscription is free and there is a premium option to receive all the best deals and mistake fares (for only $49/year). You can select your favorite departures airports and then wait for emails to come for
deal alerts. I’ve booked several flights from these deal alerts including a $600 roundtrip from ATL to SYD. Click here to sign up now:
Momondo
Momondo operates like a search engine and has proven to be excellent at finding cheap flight prices. The site is easy to use and allows use to search for flights from a departure airport to anywhere based on set dates. I like to use this site when I have exact dates of travel but am open to going anywhere.
Priceline
Priceline is another great site that I’ve used. I was introduced to it through Scott’s Cheap Flights, so you should check out this website to see if it offers better pricing for your flights.
SkipLagged
SkipLagged is an app that searches for cheap flights based on connecting flights. It shows hidden city fares that might be cheaper than flying direct. For example, you want to go to Dallas from LA but the cheapest price you’re seeing is $300. However, a fare on the same airline from LA to Austin with a stop in Dallas might be $150, so you buy the flight to Austin and ditch the plane in Dallas. The risk is that a flight can be rerouted and you’ll be stuck with a useless airfare. You also can’t check a bag, as that bag will be routed to the final destination.
I know people typically use Orbitz or Expedia, but I haven’t had luck with these sites as the ones I’ve mentioned. Google Flights allows me to book at the best rate directly from airlines while the other sites each have special features.
Another tip is to be flexible with your departure airport. From research and experience, there are several airports with extremely good pricing (due to availability of low-fare carriers and popular routes) while there are airports that have higher pricing.
I’ve noticed that the airports (in U.S) typically with good deals are MIA, FLL, NYC area airports, PIL, Washington D.C area airports. You should always check if it is cheaper to fly from your departure airport to one of the airports mentioned and then continuing the journey from there.
For example, if I want to go to Europe, I typically fly from ATL to FLL and FLL to Barcelona because Norwegian operates out of FLL. Once, I flew from ATL to BWI to go to Iceland, because WOW Air operated out of BWI.
Happy travels and good luck deal hunting!