Planning travel can be fun, and over the years it has changed (remember calling each airline to ask for pricing when you wanted to book a flight?) However, now we almost have too many ways to do it!! So I am going to tell you one main tool I use and how to get the most out of using it. Obviously flights and accommodation are usually the highest cost items, so in this post I will talk about what I use to find cheap flights, and that is Google Flights.
Google flights is part of the Google Travel suite, and you can also use it to find hotels and vacation rentals. However, I will just talk about flights for now. Before I start, one of the best ways to get good prices on flights is to use points! However, I will be talking about that on my Money Monday post next week so stay tuned! Let's assume you don't have any points. Here are a few ways to maximize your experience and minimize your cost for flights.
First, if you have any flexibility around your destination, you can put in your home airport and put "Europe" or "Anywhere" in the destination field and then you can pick depending on price. I use this a lot, as you can easily get from one place to another using regional transport or trains once you are there (which I will discuss more below).
Next, it may make sense to put in multiple airports in either the to or from field. To do this you just click the plus and add any airports you want to check. In my case, I could go from SFO, but it may make more sense to fly from LA (LAX) for some destinations. If it is a significant difference, you can get a cheap flight on Southwest or whatever the local carrier is and possibly save money without sacrificing time. If you have a lot of time, you can even use further locations and you may even be able to have a couple of fun days in a new place! You can also check "San Francisco area" instead of San Francisco and it will automatically search from San Jose, Oakland, SFO etc.
Doing this for a trip to Berlin, it was $400 less to go from LA, and a Southwest flight from Oakland to LA is only about $200. If you don't have the time or the patience for this, I understand! However, if you do, it could work out well. Also if you live in a small town or city, it may make more sense to choose some larger cities and then get to the airport on a separate flight or drive.
I recently looked into flying from SFO to South America. From SFO to Buenos Aires it was about $500-$900 one way on Avianca, but if you go from Miami, it is $300, and you can get a flight from SFO-MIA for $90 on Frontier or $84 on Jet Blue (including one carry on). That is a savings of ~ $110 - $510 each way depending on which one you choose! Sure, it may take more time, but you could go a couple of days early and experience Miami too.
Speaking of carry on, when I search for flights, I always put a few things into the filters. First, put your luggage in; this will edit the price for airlines like Frontier, where if you do not put this in, the flight looks cheap, and then you add your options (choose seat, luggage, etc.) and it is not as great of a deal. Just beware, as this will add the cost of baggage for some, like Frontier or United, but not for others, like EasyJet.
I also sometimes deselect some of the connecting airports. If you have ever transited through Chicago O'Hare or Washington Dulles you will know what I am talking about, as some airports are a pain to go through, especially for international flights.
Speaking of that, for all flights, but specifically for international ones, a couple of other things I watch for are layover time and connecting airport. If you have to go through customs, I would suggest a minimum layover time of an hour and a half, just in case. I once had a 50 minutes in Frankfurt and even though I only carry a backpack (no rolling luggage) I was sprinting and sweating to get to my flight on time. I don't know why they do this, but I would check that closely!
For connecting airport, here is the rub. Let's say you are flying from Berlin to San Francisco. If you transit in Frankfurt, you will have to go through the European exit customs in Frankfurt, so you will need extra time there. If you fly from Berlin to JFK and then to San Francisco, you will go through the European exit customs in Berlin, and the US entry customs at JFK. This can pose a problem as well, as you may have to retrieve your luggage and put it back through security at this point, so you will need extra time. This is yet another reason to only travel with carry on. Personally I would rather transit in Europe and skip a US layover, and go through customs when I get to SFO, so I plan my flights accordingly. Or even better, I buy a non-stop flight. Sometimes the extra cost is completely worth the decreased hassle factor.
Speaking of non-stop flights, just as with the departure city, sometimes it makes more sense to get a non-stop flight to whatever major city is cheaper, for example, SFO to Frankfurt, which can be cheaper and saves issues with transiting and customs, and then taking a regional flight or a train or a bus to wherever you want to go. At the time of this writing, round trip flights in January from FRA to either Marseille, Krakow, Barcelona or Seville cost around $200.
Last, but not least, if you have flexible dates, you can look at the price or date graph, and you can toggle the "track prices" button to get emails when the price changes.
Actually, THIS is last, but I never book through Google Flights or Expedia or Orbitz; I always go to the specific website for the airline. I also don't book one leg with one carrier and another leg with another, as I have done this in the past, and when one flight is delayed or canceled, it can be a rescheduling nightmare. The good thing about Google Flights though is that you can click through their site to book the flight on the carrier website once you have decided which flight you want.
I think that is everything! Let me know if you have any questions or want more information. If you are new here and you want to see where I've traveled so far, check out my Around The World page!
Also, tell me: What website or method do you use to find good deals on flights?
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.
This is such a great post! Very helpful. We used to fly a lot but have cut back due to work in recent years unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree about layovers. They should never ever be under an hours. Its no fun. Add more when going through customs.
Here are two things we have learned:
Its cheaper to have round trip flights. And it makes sense checking which way you go. When we traveled to the US & Canada it was about 300€ cheaper to start our trip in Vancouver and not in NewYork.
As there studies out that prices increase the more you search a certain destination (as well as if you use an apple device) we usually have one person search and then the other one book. I can't really confirm if that makes sense but I have a feeling it might.
I never used google flights. I wonder if that changes things.
Sigh... I really want to travel now.
I have heard that one about the cookies (aka the computer knowing where you searched and your cost being higher because of it) and I do hope it is not true. I wonder if you can do a test and report back! I have heard a similar one about VPN location, as in you can change your IP address so it looks like you are booking from Bulgaria for instance, and then your flight to Bulgaria will actually be cheaper. OR you can change the currency and do currency arbitrage. I have not tried any of these yet!
DeleteI think it is usually cheaper to do RT flights, but then sometimes it isn't! However, it could be a full time job trying to get a few dollars off here and there and so in a lot of cases it probably just isn't worth it!
I don't travel much (these days, for now) and when we do travel, or when my son needs plane tickets to come home, my husband is in charge. I would do it, but he INSISTS on doing it. I don't think he uses google flights- I'm going to suggest it.
ReplyDeleteYour tips are amazing. Like Tobia, I'm feeling the urge to travel again!
I really like the interface and that it is not a third party booking agent, which may be showing you certain flights over others for financial reasons. Also, you can use it for hotels, so next time you have a race further from home, maybe it will come in handy!
DeleteOooh I did not know that you could put in more than one airport or the general area. So that was my big takeaway from this post. I don't fly very often, but I'm hoping to change that next year.
ReplyDeleteUh oh, time to go down a rabbit hole! If you are flexible with time or location you really can maximize your usage of the tool for sure!
DeleteMy travel is so different these days - work travel is paid for by the company so I don't care about the price. I will only fly non-stop and pick times that work well for me, even if they are terribly expensive. When I travel with the kids, I am also very particular. We will only do direct flights. If we can't get there on a direct flight at a reasonable cost, we won't go to that destination. We also will only select flight times that are not terrible early/late. Even if the 7am flight is the cheapest option, we will not take that flight because getting to the airport super early with young children is awful! As the boys are older/heartier, our view on this will likely change. So I guess TLDR, we are not really price sensitive right now when it comes to flights - instead we value convenience/schedules. But we travel so infrequently as a family that we can spend more on flights to get the schedules that work best for us!
ReplyDeleteI agree in some aspects, like I prefer nonstop or only one layover, and will possibly buy them even if they cost more. Gone are the days when I would choose the cheap-cheap flight with three layovers! Also I don't care about my seat if it is a short flight, but I want a window if it is longer! I also don't want a seat that doesn't recline. I definitely have certain preferences, but I find Google Flights is a great place to start when searching!
DeleteI've never used Google Flights. We are always flying through Air Canada (or Star Alliance members) because of my husband's status. We also generally fly on points so that's a whole other kettle of fish since when he goes to book he's not necessarily seeing the actual fare since he has different rates when booking through the Aeroplan portal. All that said...I should still use Google Flights to narrow down an inexpensive destination for March in case we decide to go away over the kids March Break. Do you know where you are in March (you can message me privately!). It would be hilarious if we happened to meet up somewhere in Europe!
ReplyDeleteThere's an app for that! You can go to seats.aero and choose Aeroplan only, then put in YUL or whatever airport you usually fly from to the international destination. However, the free version is kind of limited; it only shows 60 days out, and you cannot really filter it, but it could be a good start! Or maybe you are right that Google flights would be a good starting point, but I am not sure that the $$ and points are always in line.
DeleteThanks for these tips. I also use Google flights. I would add that sometimes it is cheaper to have a connecting flight. We do the Germany trip every year and a lot of times it is cheaper to go to a smaller airport then just have the flight ending in Munich or Frankfurt even though the connection is through those cities. It does not make sense to me but oh well.
ReplyDeleteI agree! There are actually people that get off in the middle, so like book a flight to Vienna connecting in Munich, but get off in Munich! However, the airlines don't like that and they will start to flag you if you do it too much!
DeleteI heard they might actually cancel your return flight if you do that. Don't want to mess with that.
DeleteNo, I would not want to mess with that.
DeleteI booked our flights to Europe kind of late so I couldn't wait too long -- but a friend of mine who travels to Europe every year with her family (5 people) said Google Flights that will notify you when fares for a specific flights go down. It worked for her in May. And I did it for flights to Alaska but I booked before I received the Google Flights notice about lower fares because I was also buying for some friends and I didn't want to wait so late and they'd have to pay so much more. Anyway, the moral of the story is that the longer preparation time helps!
ReplyDeleteI am hesitant to fly with some airlines and have preferences so our trip to Europe earlier this year was quite expensive. Long flights need to be comfortable so we upgraded. We do fly a lot out of LAX because there are more available flights than from San Diego -- and my dad lives there so we could spend the night if we're going on an early flight and leave the car there and take Uber so win-win! But I like the idea of flying somewhere and spending a few days to explore before continuing on to your destination. Now that we have more time available since retirement, we can do that more.
My husband loves to cruise so we took a Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona, but we went early so we had 5 days to explore there....then got on a 10-day cruise that ended in Rome and we travelled for another 2 weeks to explore Italy on our own. With a flight in to Barcelona and a flight out of Bologna, it was easier to see what's available on Expedia. I also don't like to use 3rd party booking sites but on this, I did -- since it showed flights that met our schedules (with as little Customs requirements as possible) preferred airlines. I tried to book directly with the airlines but it just didn't seem possible (United Air going out and Lufthansa coming back). It's funny because on this trip, we were in Italy for probably 80% of the time (Spain and France accounting for the other 20%), our passports were only stamped in Barcelona and in Frankfurt, which was our layover from Bologna. I tried to fly within the Schengen area so we only had to go through Customs twice -- when arriving in Barcelona and at our connecting flight in Frankfurt.
There's so much info out there so thank you for sharing tips!
That is so strange that they wouldn't let you book both flights on United, as they are partners! Also, Google does have a multi trip option and you can put in an open jaw (leaving from a different airport on the way back) and often it is not more expensive, and some airlines even allow it for up to a certain amount of days as part of the ticket! I have done this many a time in Europe, as I hate backtracking to get back to the same airport and would rather to a point to point!
DeleteIf you track prices on Google flights, they will alert you if the price CHANGES, but this can sometimes cause anxiety when they are changing for the worse!! Sometimes I sit and watch it rise and am not sure what to do! I think earlier is usually better, but sometimes I have unrealistic hopes that the price will go down later, which almost never pans out.
The return flight we wanted was not showing up on United’s site. I remember seeing that often — it shows on Expedia or the airline’s site but not on the partner’s site. It was frustrating.
DeleteTrue…it sends you a notice when the fare changes. That’s why I booked the flights to Alaska without waiting for a price reduction— I didn’t want to cost my friends more if the fare kept increasing! A few weeks after I bought, the price did go down quite a bit!! I 😞.
That is a bummer. I use the same principle for buying flights as I do for buying or selling stocks. Once you do it, don't look back or you will kick yourself. Just be happy with your decision and move on!
DeleteYou know what happened to me about four paragraphs in? When you started talking about maybe booking a flight from one airport to another to save money? I lost the plot. Just like when people start talking about wills and estate planning. I don't travel for a lot of reasons, but this part of planning is TEDIOUS. Why can't I just call the airlines like we did in the 90s? WHY?
ReplyDeleteI love how everyone else is saying how this is spurring them on to want to travel and it's doing the opposite for me. LOL. Why is everything so complicated?!?! (I will inevitably pay five times the price I should pay the next time I fly and have three layovers.)
It doesn't have to be hard if you are willing to pay more! Then you can just get a non-stop flight (which are golden) and fly first class (boo-yeah). Side note, you can also use Google travel for hotels, which I know you DO use!
DeleteGoogle flights - I didn't know that much about it and the fact that I can set it to get notices when prices drop is big news. I appreciate these tips. I just booked Mini's flights to Europe for study abroad. She was trying to do it, but was rushing. We were chatting on the phone and I pointed out that the flight she was trying to book was departing from a different airport after her layover. She wouldn't have liked that. Coach and I hope to visit her, but someone (not me) is missing a passport . . . long story that I guess I'll be sharing in my series of 'oops' on my blog. There are great tips. I laughed about O'Hare. We are between O'Hare and Midway and O'Hare is annoying, but at least we are only going in or out from there - never transitioning to another flight.
ReplyDeleteI once had a sweaty armpit moment at O'Hare and it has scarred me for life! I was also more naïve then, so probably did not realize I would be schlepping all of my baggage seven miles to the other terminal to then have to go through security again before getting on my next flight. I was so sweaty! I have a good poker face, but inside I was frantic. I can't wait to hear about your next oops!
DeleteOoh, this is so helpful, Kyria! Thank you for all of these tips and tricks. I used to use Kayak to track flights but now I think I'll shift over to Google Flights. The only tip I have is that I usually look up flights in an incognito browser because I heard once that Google keeps track of stuff like this and it could mess with your flight price. Is it true? IDK but I still do the incognito thing!
ReplyDeleteI have heard that too, and have no idea if it is true or not. If it helps, I looked at a flight a few days ago and checked it again today and the price did not change. I am not using Incognito, but I do use a VPN! I also once heard that Incognito really doesn't work, but who knows if that is true either!
DeleteMy husband always looks after booking flights because he has platinum status with QANTAS, although he often goes through the work travel agent. We have a lot less choice in Australia though.
ReplyDeleteThe joys of living on an island eh? Although I feel like I took a budget airline from Adelaide to Cairns, but maybe they don't go out of the country. We are pretty lucky with choice, although it really depends on what airport you are flying out of, because if it is not a hub for the airline, they really can make a short flight long!
DeleteWe do have Jetstar but they only fly to Asian and pacific destinations internationally and there's no way I'd pair them with a second flight on another carrier because they are unreliable. Also the thought of being racked and stacked in the tiny Jetstar planes for nine hours is not appealing.
DeleteTotally! I try to stay away from Frontier on longer flights!
DeleteI use kayak mostly to find options. I am more like Lisa now when traveling with the family. I will prioritize short layover, reasonable departure/arrival time, and shortest fly time. Given school calendar, we don't have too many options to choose any day, so even more limiting. That's okay I guess, traveling is expensive, and we are prioritizing good overall experience than inconvenience at this stage of life. I still like to see my options and if we can save 50 per person, that's 200 in total. Sometimes two flights an hour apart cost very differently.
ReplyDeleteI get that! Sometimes peace of mind is more important than saving a few dollars. I would upgrade to first if it was only a couple hundred dollars, but often it is more like $1,000, so there is definitely a line where I value the money over the comfort!
DeleteThose are some awesome tips, Kyria, and I have definitely used some of the same tactis (e.g. taking carrier flights to my main departure airport to save $$). Thanks for this great round-up from a traveling pro like you!
ReplyDelete