Flight Hacks Series
In this series I will share all of my knowledge, tips and tricks on how I manage to find extremely cheap flights
Hack #0: General overview
Finding the best prices can often take weeks and checking dozens of sources, while utilizing a number of different tricks. In other articles, I’ll tell you all about these resources, sites and tricks one-by-one, but for now I tried to write a simple guide about how I usually start looking for a flight ticket.
- Open your browser and clear your cookies and search history
(Airlines and booking sites can often push up prices if their algorithm notices that you have been checking on their prices a lot) - Connect to a VPN of any country – I usually use Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico or India, but its worth checking from a couple different countries
(This way you ensure that your IP stays hidden and you can capitalize on the fact that airlines and booking sites offer different prices in different regions) - Open an incognito page
(So that your search history won’t be saved) - Type in ‘google flights’ and open the page
(Google flights is probably one of the cheapest and most reliable booking sites out there) - Type in your home city to the search bar and type in ‘Anywhere’ as your destination
(This way, you will be able to see every destination worldwide from your airport) - Enter random dates (you will modify this later) and hit the Search or Explore button
(At this stage you can usually only enter specific dates) - As the results are coming up, press the ‘Map’ icon at the bottom of the page
(I find it easier to look at destinations on the map, and this way you will also easily notice if flying to a nearby airport or city can be cheaper) - After you opened the map, modify your dates (you can now select flexible dates from the search bar)
(Being flexible with your travel dates is key to finding the best price, you can usually select months and durations of: weekend trip, 1 week or 2 weeks, but you will be able to select more lengths later) - Click on a destination you like and press on ‘View Flights’
(It will already display 2-3 recommended options, but in the next step, you will be able to see all options) - After the page opens, click ‘Price Graph’ which is usually displayed on the right side of the screen after the first few best results
(If you don’t see this option, try to switch to best options from cheapest options) - Here, you can adjust dates and trip length and see in one screen what are the absolute lowest price for the selected months
(Sometimes flying a few days before or after, or extending your trip by just a day, can mean 50% or more difference in total price)
Flight Hack #1: Construct your own route
When I was trying to find the cheapest way to fly to Tbilisi from London, I noticed that the budget options all have 1 stop, and direct flights are much more expensive. This is not surprising, but what I also noticed is that nearly all of these options have one stop at Istanbul Airport (IST) which is the most well-connected airport between London and Tbilisi.
So I searched flights from London to Istanbul, then on the same day from Istanbul to Tbilisi. When I compared the total price of these two flights, it was a full £60 less than the cheapest option I could find when searching from London to Tbilisi. The connection time was also a comfortable 2-3 hours.
The reason behind it is these were two separate tickets, that you cannot book at once, so booking sites won’t offer you these as an option. These options can offer significant savings as the airline offering the cheapest route between City A and City B is often different (and non-partner) than the airline offering the cheapest option between City B and City C.
It is important to note however, that there are some downsides to this trick as well. When you book two tickets separately, the second airline assumes you are only flying from the airport you have the ticket with them, so they will not wait for you in case your first flight is delayed. Another potential downside is if you have checked baggage, you might need to clear immigration and customs, check in the bags again and go back to the departure gate (although most major airports have transfer desks where they can arrange this for you, so you can proceed to your gate as if your two flights were under one booking)
Overall, this hack can work well if the connection time between the two flights is adequate, and you don’t have checked baggage, or you arranged baggage
Flight Hack #2: Book multi-city
A few years back, when planning my visit to Lithuania, I tried to book a return flight to Vilnius from London, but prices were north of £100. However, I noticed that the outbound flight would only cost £14 and it was only the return leg that was too expensive. When I searched a bit more, I found that flying back from Riga (the capital of the neighbouring country, Latvia) on my original date I wanted to return was only £17 and the bus between the two cities only costs £10 for a 4-hour journey. In this example I saved more than £60 by exploring two cities instead of one, but the potential of this hack is far greater.
You don’t always have to explore multiple places, just use their airports for your return flights. In many places, especially within Europe, you can often reach multiple airports by taking a cheap train or a bus. You can look up multi-city options yourself, add nearby airports when you search or simply use the multi-city search tool of Google Flights.
Márk's Travel Blog 