Really cheap airline tickets may be more myth than manifest these days. Consider this: Airlines will rake in a record $964 billion from passengers in 2024, up 7.5 percent from last year, according to an estimate by the International Air Transport Association.
And now more than ever, it’s a cat-and-mouse game, exemplified on a recent search for a really cheap airlin ticket from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro this month.
It’s a one-hour flight and typically costs somewhere between $40 and $60 one way. But for the Friday date sought, the prices were fluctuating wildly by the minute. In the morning, they were coming in at around $230. By the evening, they dropped back down to $50.
How to find a Cheap Airline Tickets?
Airlines are using artificial intelligence to predict how much flyers willing to pay for a ticket. They’re also harvesting information they give away during an airfare search, like the browser, geographical location and type of computer, to produce the most expensive airfare. But there are some new strategies one can can use to outsmart them.
“The price of an airline ticket depends on several factors,” explains Maria Atanasova, a manager of Flights365, an online agency that specializes in fare bargains. “They include availability, seasonality, and fare rules.”
In other words, you can get a deal on a flight if there’s lots of availability and fewer passengers. But if everyone wants to fly and there are few flights — well, then they gotcha.
And let’s be honest: Lately, it feels like they have flyers over a barrel. Airfares have already started to rise as the summer travel season comes into focus. The airlines are using powerful AIs and algorithms to squeeze more money from potential passengers. How do flyers fight back?
Really Cheap Airline Tickets: Proven Strategies
For those who haven’t booked an airline ticket in a while, here are a few strategies that will help locate a really cheap airline ticket or at least a ticket at a lower price:
Be Flexible
“Flexibility is the key when you’re looking for a lower fare,” says Phyllis Stoller, president of The Women’s Travel Group, a tour operator. For example, she saves money by booking one of the legacy carriers across the Atlantic and then switching to a European discounter like Ryanair or Easyjet for intra-European flights. Pro tip: On some travel sites, like Google Flights, you can leave the destination field blank, and it will find an inexpensive destination. (On Google Flights, click the blue “explore” button.)
Track Flight Prices
Do this for free using a site like Skyscanner. When you’re searching for flights, just look for the “Get Price Alerts” button. You can also set it so that you get notified in case there are even better deals on alternative routes.
Bundle Up
Online travel agencies and membership stores like Costco may offer package deals that, after calculating the value of each component, may save travelers lots of money. Airlines also offer bundled fares which include the cost of checked bags or offer extra flexibility for a lower price than if they would if one bought everything separately. “Bundled fares can offer a better overall value than the base fare,” says Charlie Neville, a marketing director of JayWay Travel, a tour operator that specializes in Europe.
Kayak Price Check
The latest airfare search tool is a new feature by Kayak introduced this week called PriceCheck. It allows searchers to take a screenshot of an itinerary and upload it to the airfare search app. Kayak will check the price against hundreds of sites and find a better one, if available. Kayak’s tool could tip the scales just a little in favor of the traveler.
What doesn’t work? Maybe there is no day of the week when airfares are cheaper; similarly, those pricey newsletters that promise to send “deals” are overrated. And the least useful strategy is buying from a “discount” or “low-fare” airline. Those carriers are often the opposite of what they claim. Everything is extra, so by the time travelers are finished paying for flights, they’ve shelled out more than they would have on Southwest Airlines or another legacy carrier.
Hacks for Locating Really Cheap Airline Tickets
But there are also a few new — or newly popular — strategies for getting a low airline ticket price. They include:
Reverse Engineering
With airfares soaring into record territory, some airfare watchers have noticed that travelers are creating itineraries around cheap fares. “Travelers don’t focus on a destination,” explains Mercedes Zach, a travel expert at ASAP Tickets, “But rather, they build their trip around the cheapest flights available from their departure airport. And only after that, they decide on the travel dates and things to do in the country they’re visiting.”
Google Flights
Google Flights has quietly added a lot of helpful information on airfare searches, including airfare trend information, information about seasonality, and recommendations on the best time to visit. Tim Leffel, author of The World’s Cheapest Destinations, says many travelers are using it to find a place that offers cheaper airline tickets. Pro tip: Some airlines, such as Southwest and Allegiant, are not on Google Flights, “but they will probably follow similar trends for pricing,” says Leffel.
Clear Your Cookies
Some travelers use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to change their geographic location, clear their cookies and use an “anonymous” tab to force airline sites to display the lowest airfare. “Comparing prices on different gadgets can be beneficial too,” says William Belov, CEO of Infatica.io, a web technology firm. “We’ve come across cases where a user searched for tickets to Bali and found the same flight priced at $1,600 on the computer but only $1,100 on the mobile device.
Meanwhile, timing, as they say, is everything. And in a world where airlines are trying to squeeze every last penny from you, time is not on your side.
By Christopher Elliott, author, consumer advocate, and journalist.
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