Looking for the cheapest flights abroad? Here are some easy to use strategies and step-by-step guide on how to use FREE online tools to get the best deal on airfare. These tricks will work for finding great deals near home too!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, airline fares rose over 43% last year. Inflation is having a negative impact on travel. A recent study by Bankrate revealed travelers are compensating for increased costs by implementing money saving tactics like traveling fewer days, engaging in less expensive activities, choosing cheaper accommodations/destinations, taking fewer trips, and traveling shorter distances.
There is no magic formula for getting a good price on airfare but I’ve found several strategies that really help.
1. BE FLEXIBLE
One of the best tips I have for finding the cheapest flights abroad is to be flexible. If I have a specific time frame in mind I am flexible on destination. If I have a specific destination in mind, I am more flexible on dates Also consider the WHEN. It goes without saying it is more expensive to fly in summer and holiday months. Also try to avoid leaving/returning on weekends as they are typically more pricey.
I’m a big fan of Google Flights, especially the “explore” option where you plug in your starting point and dates and then pull up a map to see what various destinations cost from your home airport. Alternatively you can search for the best flight deals for the next 6 months for a weekend, week, or 2 weeks.
You can also plug in dates matching the length you want your trip to be and then search for the best deal from there. For instance enter a 10 day trip from PNS to DUB. Then click on the calendar again and the prices for airfare for 10 day trips starting on other days of the month are all listed at one time. You can then use the arrow key to scroll through alternative months to see if your trip is a better deal at a different time of year.
You can play with filter options as well to remove airlines (like Spirit and Frontier for instance) and set the maximum number of stops and layover length in order to find the best flight for you. Edit filters wisely however. The price correspondingly increases with more favorable settings.
2. CONSIDER FLYING FROM A DIFFERENT AIRPORT
There are A LOT of budget friendly airlines out there but they rarely fly from small town airports. Generally speaking the larger the airport, the better the pricing. The only downside to these budget friendly international airlines is they usually have very few hubs. Our first International flight was a direct flight to Oslo on Norwegian Airlines. Unfortunately that translated to a 9 hour drive for us to FLL airport.
We recently scored round trip tickets from Orlando to St. Thomas for only $247 per person with the cost being $550 from our hometown airport. In this case a 6.5 hour drive is worth paying less than half price.
Another nice thing about Google Flights is it allows you to enter up to 5 airports each for departure and return and run a search for them all at the same time.
3. SIGN UP FOR AIRLINE DEAL ALERT EMAILS
Recruit help in finding the cheapest flights abroad. You can track price trends with alerts on google flights and sites like airfarewatchdog. There are also apps available to help monitor prices, like Hopper. My favorites however are Scott’s Cheap Flights, now named “Going,” and Matt’s Flights. They have free subscriptions and of course a paid upgrade option. You will get emails with price drops to specific destinations but the prices are usually reflective of flying from major airports. You just need to check your email frequently and, when you see something you’re interested in, check the prices from your home airport. This is how we scored a $290 RT flight to Madrid.
4. AIRLINE MILES AND CREDIT CARD POINTS
Another way to get the cheapest flights abroad is to use your available resources. You have to buy groceries right? Utilities? Gas? If you’re a disciplined person who can pay your bill off at the end of every month, consider an airline or travel reward credit card. Some have annual fees but a few down. We love our Capital One card. We put our monthly expenses on travel cards and pay them off at the end of the month to avoid interest but in exchange for our efforts we get a free flight every few years.
Many travel reward cards carry additional benefits like lounge passes, free checked luggage, priority boarding, seat upgrades, lost luggage and trip interruption insurance. My favorite benefit is the “no foreign transaction fees,” meaning you can pay in rupees at the current exchange rate without any middle man reaching in your pocket.
We usually have on “rotating” credit card where we sign up strictly for the sign-on bonus, keep it for a year, and then cancel right before the 1 year mark so we aren’t charged an annual fee. Then we move on to another card. I highly recommend The Points Guy. He does a great job of breaking down and comparing current credit card bonus offers.
Also if you’ve accumulated any airline miles, its worth checking to see if you have enough to cover your flight. Sometimes even using miles for one direction can equate to a significant savings.
5. CONSIDER FLYING TO A DIFFERENT AIRPORT
Sometimes, the cheapest flights abroad are still not so cheap and you have to be more creative in your routing. Europe especially has many cheap airlines. If you are determined to visit a specific destination, consider flying to an airport on the same continent. You can often fly very inexpensively on budget airlines once you arrive. You just need to get there. Look at Barcelona, London, and Copenhagen and then consider a budget fare from a cheap airline after you get there. We actually flew one way on EasyJet from Berlin to Copenhagen (where we took a Norwegian Airlines flight home) for a whopping $23 pp.
