Whether you’re flying for a family emergency or a spontaneous getaway, no one wants to pay an excessive amount of money for a last-minute flight.
But there are many tricks you can use to secure last-minute flights that aren’t budget-breakers. Here are 11 of the best ways to find last-minute flight deals.
A flight map is a tool that shows you which airlines are flying where, that way you can compare fares between airlines (and even destinations!).
You can use tools like Google Flights or Skyscanner to look at flights to a specific location or to a category of destinations. The latter means that, if you don’t have a particular destination in mind, you might just search for flights to certain features, like the beach.
That means being flexible on everything, from your take-off location and destination (within reason, of course), your departure dates, your seat assignment, your baggage and your airline.
Airlines determine the cost of their flights based on how popular certain destinations are, what part of the cabin seats are in and many more factors. So, you can find better flight deals when you’re willing to forego business class, depart from an airport that’s a bit further away from home or land at an airport that’s a little out of the way. Not to mention, packing lighter can help you avoid baggage fees, too.
Many airlines have done away with their flight change fees. That means, if you need to change the dates of your flight, the airline won’t charge you a service fee for doing so. One way to take advantage of this perk is to book a cheap flight when you see it and then change the dates of the flight to the time period you’re planning on going.
However, some airlines may still charge these fees or have a time limit on how long you have to change your flight.
If you’re flying to attend a funeral of a lost loved one, you may be able to get discount flights known as “bereavement fares.” Call the airline you want to fly with and ask if they offer bereavement discounts. Some airlines offer up to 10% off your flight.
The only catch is that you’ll likely have to provide information about the person who’s passed, such as their physician’s number or the obituary.
It may not be all that fun, but red-eye flights are a great way to save money and secure cheap last-minute flights no matter where you’re traveling. Be open to flying overnight and even chilling at an airport during a late-night layover to save a bit of money.
People tend to plan trips, and thus, flights, around getting time off from work or school. That means people may be more likely to fly on Sundays and Mondays to get back home before they have to go back to work or school and take long weekends off of work to fly on Thursdays and Fridays for a trip. That means airlines tend to have fewer passengers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, making these the cheapest days to fly.
There’s an old “tip” out there that the best day to search for cheap flights is on a Tuesday. However, there’s no truth to that “tip” because the best days to book flights are every day. A deal can appear on any day at any time, so that’s why you should set email, text or mobile notification alerts using your favorite flight search site so you know exactly when new airfare deals drop.
Some apps and sites that allow you to set alerts include:
- Scott’s Cheap Flights
- Skyscanner
- Airfare Watchdog
- Skiplagged Flights App
- Hopper App
Fifth freedom flights are flights where the airline flies between two airports in countries that aren’t the airline’s home country. These flights happen because an airline adds a stop during a long route between the airline’s home country and another country. As an example, Emirates, which is an airline based in the United Arab Emirates, flies between Auckland, New Zealand, and Denpasar, Bali.
But why are these flights cheaper? There’s more competition for international flights, so these flights may be cheaper. In addition, baggage fees may also be included in your flight price.
A “hidden-city” ticket is where you book a flight with a layover, but that layover destination is actually your final destination. For example, you might need to go from Boston, Massachusetts, to Dallas, Texas. You may save money by booking a Boston to Los Angeles flight with a layover in Dallas and then just deplaning in Texas.
There are a few caveats to this tip to consider, however. First, you should only do this if you’re not flying with an airline with which you’re racking up frequent-flier miles because the airline may deduct miles in this case. Lastly, you won’t be able to check your luggage. That means you’ll need to bring a carry-on bag. If they’re checking bags at the gate, yours will go to your final destination (which, according to your ticket, is the route’s final destination).
If you’re booking flights for a couple or a group, consider searching for each fare individually. You can often get lower-priced tickets because the automated system that controls the flight searches looks for how many seats you want that are the exact same price. That means the system may find you four seats at $500 each, but these may not be the cheapest seats. Searching for each seat individually means you might be able to find two seats at $470, one at $450, and one at $440, which means a lot of savings.
This process can take some time since you must compare flight prices across airlines, dates and destinations, and you have to book the cheapest flight individually for each ticketholder. Then, you’ll need to link the reservations together so the airline knows you’re flying together.
In addition, you can also search for one-way flights both to and from your destination so you can get the best deals for each flight. This may involve flying two different airlines on your trip.
Follow different airlines on Twitter as another way to opt into alerts for great flight deals. Some airlines will post about low fares and promotions that can result in cheap flights to awesome destinations.