The holiday season is upon us. And yes, it should be a joyful time of year, but it can also come with certain anxieties. The anxiety of over-spending and of over-scheduling. To save travel time, you may decide to fly to your destination but to fly is to spend more money. One solution is to fly but at the lowest fare you can find.
To help find the best flight for you, here are the SIX fare search tips we like.
Look for Error Fares
Airlines often publish mistake fares. These mistakes happen because of input errors, currency conversions or because they forgot to add taxes or fees. When you find error fares, you can save hundreds of dollars and yes, they do honor the price that they published before it was corrected. The key is knowing the best ways to find these mistakes.
One is to sign up to an aggregate mistake fare search site like Secret Flying. This kind of website finds error fares everyday on both domestic and international routes.
Another strategy is to find them yourself by searching a site like Skyscanner. Within Skyscanner, input your flight date by “Entire Month” so you can easily spot low prices.
Error fares are unpredictable and can happen for any route, time, or season even during the busy holiday season!
Opptee flight search choices
Clear Your Browser Cache After Searching
This one’s not new but it bares repeating – I often forget. Clear your cache.
Every time you search the same criteria, the flight is apt to increase in price because prices are based on demand and the art of dynamic pricing. To make sure you receive best fares, clear your browser cookies before trying again.
Return Fares aren’t always cheapest
Use the ITA Google matrix search engine to find best flight combinations. For instance booking a return flight for one destination can end up being more expensive than booking two one-way flights. I just did a quick search using both return and one-way flights from JFK to LAX and received a $55 lower fare if two one-way flights were reserved. Savings can be huge so take the time to check one way fares when buying a round trip or multi-city ticket.
Fly on the Holiday
It may not always be possible but when when it is, some of the least expensive and least busy travel days are Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Years Day or Eve.
Search more sites, find better deals
The more travel search sites you browse, the more likely you’ll find better prices. But downloading multiple travel search apps on your mobile is time consuming and frustrating. Opptee is a single travel browser app that enables you to choose your favorite travel searches with just one download. With Opptee you get 99+ of the best travel search options in one app. Full disclosure, this is an Opptee-written blog.
Find new search options by using Opptee
Yes, we admit, we’re biased, but STILL….using Opptee’s super search travel app, you see a list of the most used travel search sites. Opptee continues to add new and improved search sites so you are automatically kept up-to-date on the newest, most comprehensive travel search sites. And you might even find one you didn’t know existed. Bonus.
Happy and safe travels!
