Alright, let’s talk about finding cheap flights. It feels like a quest sometimes, doesn’t it? I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit hunting for the best deals, and I figure I’d share what I’ve learned – my own little process, you could say.
My Starting Point: The Usual Suspects
So, whenever a trip idea pops into my head, the first thing I used to do was jump onto one or two of the big-name sites. You know the ones. I’d usually start with something like Skyscanner or Kayak. They’re popular for a reason, I guess. They trawl through a ton of airlines and travel agents, and that’s a good starting point to get a lay of the land.
My initial searches were pretty basic: enter destination, dates, and hit search. I’d get a flood of results, and honestly, sometimes it was overwhelming. The prices would be all over the place. I quickly learned that the first price you see isn’t always the final price. Annoying, right?
Digging a Little Deeper: What I Started Noticing
After a few rounds of this, I started to get a bit more methodical. I realized that not all comparison sites are created equal. Some are better at certain things than others.
- Google Flights became a regular for me early on. It’s clean, super fast, and I really like its calendar view. You can see prices for the whole month, which is brilliant if your dates are flexible. It also has a neat map feature to explore destinations by price.
- Then there’s Momondo. I found that sometimes Momondo would unearth slightly different routes or prices, often from smaller online travel agencies I hadn’t heard of. It felt like it was digging a bit deeper, which I appreciated.
- I also gave Expedia and sites like it a go. They’re more like full-service travel agencies, often bundling flights with hotels. Sometimes you can find a deal that way, but for just flights, I often found the dedicated comparison engines did a better job at showing the raw flight data.
One thing I started doing religiously was clearing my browser cookies or using incognito mode. I’m not 100% sure if it makes a massive difference, but I’ve heard stories about prices creeping up if sites see you searching for the same flight over and over. Better safe than sorry, I figured.
My “Practice” Refined: Tips and Tricks I Picked Up
Over time, my flight searching evolved. It wasn’t just about checking one site anymore. It became a bit of a strategy.
Being flexible is key. If you can shift your travel dates by even a day or two, or fly mid-week instead of on a weekend, you can often save a good chunk of cash. Most good comparison sites have tools to show you this. I always play around with the “flexible dates” options.
Setting up price alerts is a must. If I’m not ready to book right away, I’ll set up alerts on a couple of sites. Skyscanner and Google Flights are pretty good for this. You get an email if the price goes up or down. It’s saved me a few times when a price suddenly dropped.
Don’t forget budget airlines. Some of the big comparison sites don’t always show all the budget carriers, or they might not show their cheapest fares directly. Sometimes I’d identify a route and then separately check the websites of known budget airlines that fly that route. It’s an extra step, but worth it.
The final click-through. This is where things can get frustrating. You see a great price on the comparison site, you click through to book (often on some third-party travel agent’s site), and boom – the price is higher, or there are extra fees tacked on. I learned to be really wary of this. I always, and I mean always, check the final price, including all taxes and baggage fees, before I even think about entering my card details.
Sometimes, I’d even take the flight details I found on a comparison site and go directly to the airline’s own website. Occasionally, the price is the same or even better, and I generally feel a bit more secure booking direct, especially if changes or cancellations might be needed.
So, What’s My Go-To Method Now?
It’s not about one single “best” website for me. It’s more about a process.
I usually start broad with Google Flights to get a feel for general pricing and date flexibility. Then I’ll often cross-check on Skyscanner and Momondo to see if they throw up anything different. I find these three give me a pretty comprehensive overview.
The real trick, I think, is to use these tools to do the heavy lifting, then apply a bit of your own smarts. Be flexible, be patient, and always double-check that final price. It’s a bit of effort, sure, but when you snag a genuinely good deal, it feels pretty darn good.
That’s been my journey with it, anyway. Hope sharing my fumbling around helps someone else save a few bucks on their next trip!
