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10 Tested Tips to Find Cheap Flights Anytime

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Tips to Find Cheap Flights Anytime
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Travelers are always in a search of cheap flight tickets and why not? It’s fair to find ways to get those expensive flights to USA or India at affordable rates! Finding an inexpensive flight, especially when you have a strict budget for your travel is bliss. When you total all your travel expenses, the major percentage goes into booking air tickets.

How about if we say you can get a flight at cheaper rates anytime you want? Not kidding mate! We know how important it is to crack a cheap airfare deal. Check out these top tips to find cheap flights anytime. Save big on your next travel!

Tips to find cheap flights anytime

Set fare alerts

If you are too busy to search flights for your next trip, try setting fare alerts with reputed travel websites and get the prices right in your inbox. Yes, the time of running after special offers are gone, they will come to you.

Popular travel booking websites like IndianEagle, Skyscanner or even Google Alerts can get you the best prices of your desired flight. How? Just select a suitable flight date and desired travel destination, set air fare alerts and all the regular price updates in your mail. Whenever there is a low price flight matching your search criteria, you will get a push notification. You can even have multiple alerts for multiple searches. Go, book the cheapest flights now!

Keep your search a secret

Not secret from the people around you, but the search engines. What’s that? Well, sometimes when you start searching flights for a particular destination on a specific date, you find some of the cheapest far and as soon as you continue searching for a little long, the cheapest fares seem to disappear. Have you ever experienced anything like this? It is because your actions are being tracked in the cookies. The travel booking sites get the information and to put you into panic mode by increasing the prices suddenly, so you will give in to an expensive deal thinking this is the best deal to have.

What can you do to avoid the situation is to search in secret. Go to incognito mode (private) or clear the cookies before starting your flight search. This is one of the most important secrets of finding the cheapest air fares.

Don’t know about an incognito window? It is very similar to the normal web page except that when you re-open the incognito window, the cookies are reset automatically.

Below are few easy steps on how to open an incognito window:

  • In Safari or Google Chrome, you can open an incognito window by using Command (CTRL) + Shift + N.
  • In case of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, use Command (CTRL) + Shift + P.
  • You will see a new browser opening. Your actions will not be tracked here. Feel safe to search for flights without worrying about inflating prices.

If you are not quite familiar with your keyboard shortcuts, open a web browser, click on file and open ‘private browsing window’ or ‘new incognito window’.

Enroll in airline programs

When you enroll in an airline’s rewards programs, your chances of getting a cheap flight or air ticket upgrade increases. You might land up getting a free flight, free companion tickets or free upgrades. It doesn’t have to do with how often you fly with airline, just make sure you have enrolled for their reward program. If you prefer US-based airlines, get subscriptions to their reward programs and increase your chances of earning miles and reward points, even with their partner flights.

For example, if you are flying with Singapore Airlines, you can get miles from United Airlines as they have alliance. In the same way, flying with Air France can get your Delta Airlines’ reward points. But, none of this is useful without signing up for their programs.

However, the major miles can be achieved by your credit card. Use it for online shopping, special offers surveys, etc. and use the reward points for booking air tickets. This planning and plotting is called travel hacking. Be smart enough to earn miles and reward point to ensure you fly cheap, mostly free.

Check for alternate/nearby airports

Flights from US to Mumbai are displaying higher prices? Try checking for flights to Pune International Airport, you might get lucky to find a cheaper fare. If your dates are flexible, it can be a plus point. Check for alternative dates and airports to find a cheaper airfare. Before booking the flight, make sure you checked all the nearby airports (if any).

If this doesn’t make any difference, try booking multi-city flights. Sometimes a connecting flight is cheaper than direct flights. You can spend a couple of hours more than spending dollars on a direct flight.

Note: Before booking for nearby airports, make sure there is proper connectivity from your travel destination. If not, better book the accommodation near the airport and leave for your destination the next day. This is at least better than traveling hundreds of kilometers to the main city. For example, if you have booked tickets to Agra as it was cheaper than Delhi, you can stay for a day in Agra and drive to Delhi the next day. You get to see both the cities.

Choose budget carriers

You need not always fly with major airlines, especially when you want to save money for other travel expenses. These days, even budget airlines operate long-haul flights, say from the US to India and vice-versa and at affordable rates. You can also get cheap flight rates with Middle Eastern and Indian Airlines that connect all across the subcontinent and Africa. IN a way, you can fly across the globe with budget airline. Imagine how much you can save on travel!

Some of the US low-fare carriers include Allegiant Air, Sun Country Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Southwest and Frontier. Coming to Airlines operating in Asia, Jetstar, Air Asia, Tiger Air, Spice Jet, Spring Airlines, Jeju Air, Hong Kong Express, Peach Air, Scoot. Nok Air, Vanilla Air and T’Way Airlines offer budget airfares.

Flying with budget airlines can get you fewer perks, but think about the savings you will have. It is always a good alternative to major airlines. Just make sure to check for additional fees such as for checked bags, printing the boarding pass, carry-ons, etc. Yes, this is how some budget airlines try making money.

Book your flights in advance

It is one of the most important things to consider, early flight bookings. Booking at least 2-3 weeks prior to your travel dates can save you a lot of money. As per records, the flight rates rises during the last three weeks from your departure date. We would recommend you to book at least prior to a month to have higher chances of getting the cheapest flights.

If you are using travel search engine for flight bookings such as Kayak or Google Flights, follow their price predictions in the price predictor algorithm. It predicts the price by analyzing the previous price trends. This is not 100% authentic but can give you a sense of the possible prices as they cover thousands of routes.

Another convincing reason why you should book flights in advance is that you can get the desired seat, mainly when you are booking for peak season. Whichever seat you want to book, do it on time or else you might need to pay for the “premium” seat. If you are unable to take out time from your busy schedule, booking flights through travel agents is also not a bad idea.

Bring your credit card into smart use

Your credit card can come to great use while booking cheapest flights to India from USA. It is not just about the bonus points you receive on every travel purchase or other payments but using those credit points for your travel tickets. You can use your credit card bonus points to pay for your baggage and sometimes you can even get an air ticket for free! If you have American Express Platinum Card, you can use the credit points to make in-flight purchases.

Not only cheaper air tickets, you can also use the credit points to access the airport lounges during long layovers. You can even skip the never-ending security queues with Global Entry benefit while returning to the United States.

Take advantage of the airfare sales

Keep an eye on airfare sales to get the best flight deals. Travel booking websites like IndianEagle, Skyscanner, Kayak, etc. offer exclusive airfare deals on holidays and other important occasions, even for last minute flights . You can make the most of these airfare sales when planning group travel.

Grab the early morning deals

Yes, this trick also works sometimes. If you want to grab discounted flights, sacrifice your sleep and wake up early in the morning to search for flights. Why? It is believed that when everyone is sleeping, the airlines reduce their flight rates. Reportedly, a lot of travelers have grabbed cheap flight tickets during the early morning hours.

Have got an urgent conference to attend and need to book air tickets? Why not give try booking your business class flights early morning and get lower airfares?

Don’t travel during holidays or peak season

Holidays and weekends are the days when most tourists plan their vacations resulting in high demand of flights which in turn increases the flight rates. Whatever be the time, the destination remains as beautiful as any other day. Yeah, we understand certain festivals and events add-on to the charm and experience but if you are okay with sacrificing the holiday season, do not travel during the peak time and save money on your flight bookings.

You can get much cheaper flight to Goa during September or October than the following months, from November to February. Another reason why we suggest not to travel during holiday is the crowd. If you are seeking for solace and peace of mind, peak or holidays is not the right time, be it Goa or Manali.

Disclaimer: Indian Eagle claims no credit for the images featured on its blog site. All the visual content is copyrighted to its respective owners only. We mention the source name of the image whenever possible and found. However, if we miss acknowledging the owner’s source, please contact us. In case, owners don’t want us to use their images, we will remove them promptly. We believe in providing proper attribution to the original author, artist, and photographer.

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