Tips for Buying Affordable Flight Tickets

With one of the best airfare comparison sites, that will scan for you the prices of all the major airlines and travel agencies, you will be able to find air tickets for the most affordable price, especially if you adhere to these rules:

But if you'll like to go into the detail, then you can find more information on the topic here: Best flight search engines and booking techniques and How to avoid scam when booking a flight.

CheapAir cheap flights calendar

note book your flight well in advance (between 3 and 10 weeks usually will do nicely);


— it's often cheaper to buy return and not one-way air ticket (sometimes it can save you a couple of hundred of $ or even more ;)


— but don't book your flight too early, I mean 6 months or more ahead, for example (prices won't be the lowest and there's a high possibility of trip cancellation / changes),
of course, if you haven't bought your air tickets during a super-promotion of an airline (or I don't know from whom) at a super-low price,
at our site you can also find deals, special offers, coupons and promo codes of some airlines;


a rule that today works not always and not for all airlines: sometimes prices drop in the last three days or so before the flight:

not so long ago you could fully rely on this rule, but now an airline will sooner combine the flight with another one (even if it's a flight of its competitor) or, in the worst-case scenario, will cancel it at all, than sell tickets at lower prices :( ;


try to avoid flying during peak seasons (Christmas, Valentine's Day and so on - vary from country to country);


fly in the middle of the week and use (unless your trip is tied to specific dates) flexible date airfare search, a lot of flight search websites are now able to do it, momondo.com, jetradar.com or skyscanner.com for example have low fare calendars (the second shows it when you're choosing dates and the third - after choosing your flight destination and dates there will be a link "Show whole month";
! the "Tuesday rule" often does not work now and air tickets bought on Thursday may be much cheaper;
the cheapest days to fly are Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday (not for all directions and not for all air carriers), for the sake of economy you'd better avoid flights on Fridays and Sundays;


fly early in the morning or very late at night for that matter (most people avoid early flights and perhaps there's a reason to it);


avoid multiple search attempts through the same web browser (or perhaps even from the same ip address) on the same airfare search site during limited time span, more often than not you'll end up booking your tickets for a higher price (for more details look at how to protect yourself from being scammed when booking flight tickets);


for users of Apple-devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod, mac): search attempts from these devices on many sites (the same goes for using airfare comparison apps) give higher-priced results, than such from Windows or Android devices ;


— prices for users with IPs of Japan, the US, some European countries (but not German ones!) will yield higher-priced results, just like with the Apple-devices, so consider using proxy;


— and for those who wants to know more on the topic read How to avoid flight booking scam and Review of airfare comparison and flight booking engines.

Things to consider,

the price of an air ticket is extremely important, but here can lurk an unpleasant surprise just waiting for you to overlook the following:
checked baggage allowance, additional bags, oversized/overweight and special baggage fees:
now a lot of airlines and not just low-costers introduce travel classes (basic and so on) that allow you free carriage of hand luggage only, and some require baggage fees not for the whole route, but for its individual segments;
during a transatlantic flight you'll need some leg space (and Mongolian Airlines for example have much more of it, than KLM);
— if you're traveling with your pet, you'll have to pay additional sum from $50 to €250 (!): look at our articles regarding pet travel.

flights under $99 travel deals

Related Articles:

Find flight deals online — Best flight search engines and online travel agencies.
Avoid flight booking scams — or Someone out there always wants to cheat us.

BAGGAGE:
How much luggage can I take, if I'm flying with European Airlines? — European airlines conditions of carriage.

PET ONBOARD:
Pet-Friendly and not very friendly Airlines — Review of pet travel policies of largest airlines worldwide.
Pet Travel Policy of European Airlines — Flying with Pets using European Airlines.
Pet Carriage Conditions of North America Airlines — Traveling with Pets by Airlines of North America.
Conditions of Pet Transportation by Asian Airlines.
Have a cat? Want to take in with you on board? Then read this: Flying with Cats.