Getting the cheapest plane ticket is not easy and, contrary to what happens in other sectors, it depends on many factors. Not only discounts and promotions or be the first to purchase the product. So much so, that your seatmate may have paid more than twice as much as you for the same route, or the same ticket may have come out with an 80% discount compared to the price you paid.
Why is this happening? The airlines have their strategies to establish the prices of each ticket and, sometimes, to raise the price that they charge to each user. Knowing what these techniques are used, you can try to get the cheapest ticket or, at least, avoid paying an extra cost. Keep in mind these tips that we give you to get your cheapest plane tickets.
How to get the best price for a plane ticket
There is no magic formula to achieve the cheapest tickets when traveling by plane, but there are a series of tips and tricks that we can offer to try to get them as cheap as possible. Attentive:
When to travel
-Flexibility with dates: Whenever possible, try not to have to travel on a specific day at a specific time. If so, you will have less leeway when looking for the best deals.
-Cheaper dates. Although there is no exact science, it is generally cheaper to return in the months of January and February -except on designated dates such as Kings- and in November. If possible, avoid the months of July and August, as these tend to be the ones with the highest prices. The companies know that more people have vacations only on those dates and they raise their prices due to the greater demand.
-Travel during the week. As a general rule, traveling during the week is cheaper than traveling on the weekend for a similar reason to the previous advice: many people can only travel on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday. Try to come back at a time other than Sunday afternoon and you’ll see the prices drop.
-Travel first thing in the day. Flying first thing in the morning is usually cheaper (except for Mondays, when many people take those flights to return to work after the weekend). But for example, flying on Friday morning and returning on Sunday morning will possibly be cheaper than flying in the afternoon and returning in the afternoon.
When to buy tickets
-Plan ahead. Related to the two previous points, if you can plan your trip in advance, you can choose the cheapest dates. Sometimes buying it too early also means paying more because you do not benefit from promotions that may appear later. For example, it is advisable not to buy flights before Black Friday, because discounts or promotions may possibly come out on those dates.
-Buy on the airline page. Although there are many comparators that look for the best price and allow you to compare hundreds of companies, then many of them add a small extra cost for their services to the final price. Therefore, you can use these services during the search process, but be sure to check that the price is not more competitive on the airline’s page.
-Compare between airlines. Even the airlines themselves have different prices between their divisions. For example, the same flight marketed by Iberia and by Iberia Express may vary in price depending on the website of the airline you are visiting.
-When to buy. Avoid buying your flights during the weekends. It is the moment in which more people are consulting the websites of the airlines and making purchases. In many cases, prices drop on Mondays, a day that many companies also take advantage of to launch their offers. The same happens during vacation periods or holidays. For example, prices tend to be cheaper as soon as Christmas or the summer months pass.
Tech Tips
-Delete cookies. Surely it has happened to you, you are looking for a flight to a certain destination, you do not buy it at that moment and you search again after 15 minutes and it is already more expensive. “What bad luck!”, you think. “Surely someone has gone ahead of me and has been done with the ticket at a better price.”
However, most likely this is not the reason why the price of your flight has increased, but rather because of the so-called cookies . They are small files that are stored on your computer and that testify that you have carried out that search and were interested in that destination and specific dates. When you do the search again from the same browser, the airline checks the cookies stored on your computer and knows that you are interested, so the price goes up a little since, possibly, you accept it and buy “before it continues to go up”.
In this sense, it is advisable, if you have already done the search before, to delete the cookies from your Internet browser, so that there is no trace of them.
-Browse in incognito mode. One way that cookies and traces of your searches are not stored when you visit an airline’s website is to browse in incognito mode . It is an option found in your Internet browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Edge…)
-Use another device. Another way to check if they are raising the price because you had already searched for that flight before is to search from your mobile or another device that you had not used before. Also, do not do it with the same Wi-Fi connection, for example, use the data of your mobile phone plan. This will count as you are performing a new search.
Other clues to get cheap tickets
-Do not give up the scales. On many occasions, making a stopover to reach a destination is cheaper than flying directly. Companies usually offer more competitive prices to alleviate the inconvenience of having to change flights. If you have time and don’t care too much, you can save a few euros.
-Buying round trip is not always cheaper. Perhaps you did not know this, but it is important to keep it in mind. Is not always that way. Looking at the price of a one-way or return ticket can sometimes bring you a surprise.
-Check different airports. Remember that there are cities that have several airports -or there are other aerodromes close to them- and perhaps flying to another of them will mean a significant difference in price. In the same way, sometimes flying to one airport but returning from another implies a decrease in the final price of the tickets.
-Activate alerts. Many comparators offer an alert service and send you an email when the price of the flight you were interested in goes up or down. Using them can help you be the first to know about a promotion or discount.