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Tips & Tricks: Cheaper Airline Travel

Airline ticketing can be a complex process. The more you know about how seat pricing works the better equipped you are for beating the system.

The airline ticket price depends on... the purchase date, your destination, your flight date and time and seat supply and demand. Now that you know this, you can use this knowledge to your advantage. Get my tips and tricks for cheaper airline travel below!

Tips for getting a cheap flight:

  • Pay attention to discount sales, they usually happen early in the week (Tues-Thursday).
  • Buy your tickets on a Tuesday or Wednesday (Best time is Tuesday afternoon).
  • Don't book too early, usually 6 to 8 weeks out is perfect. The only exception being the holiday seasons, buy those as early as possible.
  • Be flexible about when you fly, depart or arrive at a less convenient time of day, fly into or out of a different airport.
  • Use the flex-days option on airline website when pricing tickets.
  • Try to fly on Tue, Wed or Saturday for the cheapest tickets, avoid traveling on a Sunday or Friday as those days are the busiest.
  • Have a stop-over, most flights with a lay-over are going to be cheaper.
  • Check prices for one passenger first, and then book for the family. This will help avoid the airlines from over charging you.
  • If you know you want to travel to a certain place, but don't care when, sign up for email alerts to those cities. (Use airfarwatchdog.com, kayak.com or a similar site.)
  • Check one-way tickets and maybe use two different airlines to get the cheapest flight, this is called Hacker Fares, websites like kayak.com will help you find these cheaper flights.
  • Get help! Spend a small fee and use the website flightfox.com to post your complex travel plans... then experts on the site compete to find you the cheapest flight. The winning expert takes home 75% of the fee you paid, so it's a win-win for everyone.
  • Check "Google flights," on there you can uses a bar graph to visually show you how fares change over time.

Save money once your flight is booked:

  • Continue to check prices and think about changing the day or time of day of your flight to save money… although you will only get an airline credit it's better than nothing.
  • Pack a snack, some airlines charge for snacks now.
  • Save $5! Bring an empty water bottle, refill once you get through security.
  • Pack smarter- only bring a carry-on, or if you have to check a bag and you're traveling with someone share a suitcase.

Tara Wikoff | CW44 Tampa Bay

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