As we ease ourselves out of the pandemic it seems a lot of us have a pent up desire to travel. I wanted to share some tools and suggestions that I use to find good deals on flights. I am sure there are many others out there and I would love to hear your ideas in the comments.
Scotts Cheap Flights - This is website/service that publishes great deals and/or mistake pricing on flights. We’ve booked a few trips using them, in fact we just scored tickets to Oaxaca, Mexico for ~$300. We did have one experience with a mistake flight that was too good to be true. The mistake flight happens when the airlines make an error setting up their complicated flight costs (e.g. see my post here were the cost of a flight from Austin to Houston to Merida doubles when it’s just Houston to Merida) and lists a flight way under intended cost. Most of the time it’s just easier for the airlines to honor the mistake as sold but sometimes they do cancel the flight. That’s what happened with our $250 tickets from Austin to Australia - We thought we scored but then Air Canada sent us the “we’re sorry but” email.
Hint: The trick on Scotts Cheap Flights is to be fast & flexible. If you have a specific time and place you want to visit, waiting for a Scott’s deal will not be your best approach. Also the good deals go very quickly (they usually list on their postings how long they expect more the tickets are sold out) so be prepared to act. It was September 2019 when a post came out about flights to Italy. I quickly texted my wife “Two questions: How about Italy for your birthday? And Milan or Rome? Let me know within 30 minutes”. She wrote back “Yes and yes” And we got the tickets.
They offer both a free and premium option. The free is good and, well, it’s free. I tried the premium because I was planning a big trip to celebrate my kids graduation and wanted deals to get across to Europe in the summer (covid put the breaks on that)
Google Flights - This is a great tool for searching for the best flight options. At the most basic level you enter a home airport and destination then use the calendar to search for the best cost (it’s amazing how the prices change within just a few days). It get’s even more powerful as you add multiple airport options (e.g. I want to go the the UK so I might list London & Manchester as destinations), number of stops, total duration, airlines, etc.
Airline policies and ticket holds - This seems fairly new in the last few years but many airlines or ticketing sites (e.g. Expedia) offer a 24 hr cancelation policy. Many airlines also offer a ticket hold for a couple of days for a small cost (a few bucks). This is great when you find tickets with a “good” price and you want to hold them while you search for a “great” price.
Happy deal hunting!
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