You know the spiral. You start looking for flights with good intentions — just a quick check, see what’s out there. An hour later, you’ve got fourteen tabs open, you’ve searched the same route six times, the price has gone up twice while you were looking, and you’re now considering driving to Portugal just to avoid making a decision. Finding cheap flights has somehow become its own part-time job, and you didn’t apply for it. The good news is there’s a shorter way through it — you just need to know what you’re actually doing instead of refreshing Skyscanner until your eyes go blurry.
Use Google Flights First And Use It Properly
Google Flights is the best starting point, and most people don’t use it to its full potential. The map view alone is worth it — you put in your departure airport, leave the destination blank, and it shows you prices across everywhere it can find. If you’re flexible on where you go, this is how you find the cheap options without having to guess and check every destination individually. The date grid is the other one — it shows you a whole month of prices at a glance so you can see that flying Tuesday instead of Friday saves you sixty quid without having to search every date manually. Start here before you go anywhere else.
Be Flexible On Dates Even By One Or Two Days
The difference between the cheapest and most expensive version of the same flight can be significant just by shifting your dates slightly. Friday departures and Sunday returns are almost always more expensive because everyone wants them. Tuesday, Wednesday, early Thursday — cheaper, less busy, and the airports are quieter too which is its own reward. You don’t have to completely restructure your life around it but if you’ve got a week’s flexibility either side, use it. Even one day in either direction can make a real difference to what you’re paying.
Set Price Alerts Instead Of Checking Obsessively
If you’ve found a route you want but the price isn’t where you need it to be, set an alert and walk away. Google Flights does this, Skyscanner does this, most booking tools do this. You put in the route, you set the alert, and it emails you when the price drops. This is infinitely better than checking every day yourself because prices fluctuate constantly and there’s no pattern to it that you can usefully track manually. The obsessive checking doesn’t make the price go down faster. It just eats up your time and stresses you out. Set the alert, close the tab, get on with your life.
Stop Assuming The Cheapest Flight Is The Cheapest Option
This one catches people out. You find a flight for £39, and it looks like a win until you add a bag, a seat, and the transfer from the airport that’s technically in the right country but is two hours from anywhere useful. Budget airlines in particular are very good at showing you a number that bears almost no relation to what you’ll actually pay by the end of it. Factor in baggage, factor in the airport location and how you’re getting from it, factor in whether the departure time means you need a hotel the night before. Sometimes the slightly more expensive flight on the comparison site is actually the cheaper trip. Check the full cost, not just the headline.
Book One-Way Tickets Separately When It Makes Sense
Airlines don’t always offer the cheapest combination when you search for return flights together. Sometimes flying out with one airline and back with another works out cheaper — different carriers have different sale schedules and price structures, and they’re not coordinating to give you the best deal. It’s worth checking one-way prices separately before you assume the return search is showing you the best option. It takes an extra five minutes and occasionally saves you a meaningful amount. Not always, but enough that it’s worth the check.