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Using creative techniques to get the most value and more travel with your rewards is crucial in the points and miles world. However, at some point, your travel bank may be empty, or you might be looking to save your miles for another trip — but you've got a bug and want to travel now.
Yes, you can certainly find a new travel rewards card to fit your portfolio, but what if you want to book something now, before you've filled your bank? Easy, you just need to learn a few tips and tricks so that you can book flights at a huge discount.
How's the idea of saving thousands on international flights, while still earning Ultimate Rewards with your Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and of course, the miles from the airline when you fly?
If this piques your interest, Dollar Flight Club could be just what you need.
Sample Fares Dollar Flight Club Has Found
- San Francisco To Auckland, New Zealand For $366 Roundtrip
- Dallas To Melbourne, Australia For $158 Roundtrip
- San Francisco To London For $267 Roundtrip
- Miami To Mallorca, Spain For $201 Roundtrip
- New York To New Delhi, India For $320 Roundtrip
- Portland, Oregon To Beijing, China For $269 Roundtrip
Cheap Flights to New Zealand: $366 Roundtrip
Cheap Flights to the Philippines: $249 Roundtrip
Cheap Flights to the United Kingdom: $267 Roundtrip
Searching and finding cheap flights can take countless hours and sheer dedication just like managing all your travel rewards. Your time is valuable, so don’t hesitate to use deal searching services that do all the work for you.
How To Find Cheap Flights
Here’s some of the secret sauce when it comes to finding the absolute cheapest flights so you can explore the world for less, earning points and miles for your next trip.
1. Use Google Flights, Momondo, and Skiplagged
There are three powerhouses in the flight searching business that you need to be aware of if your goal is to save money on flights. We recommend visiting 3 websites when you’re looking to find cheap flights, which allow you to put into play these tips.
Google Flights is the best search engine in the business because it allows you to quickly browse the calendar view so you can find the cheapest travel dates for your route. Make sure you scan the calendar view up to 9+ months ahead, so you know the cheapest time frame to travel and then narrow down on the dates you want. Keep a tab on the price you found and double check those dates with Momondo and Skiplagged to make sure you have the absolute cheapest deal.
If you aren't a fan of Google Flights, Skyscanner is a solid alternative that also allows you to browse prices in calendar view, one month at a time. Their chart view is also quite helpful to get a sense of how prices might rise or fall on certain days of the week.
Momondo almost always brings back the absolute cheapest fares, even cheaper than in Google Flights most of the time, so it’s well worth a few minutes of your time to check. Skiplagged is so good they got sued by United Airlines a few years ago for saving people too much money on airfare by finding a loophole in the booking system. However, the lawsuit was dismissed, and they are up and running, helping you save money.
2. Be Creative with Stopovers in Cities
Creativity and flexibility are the keys to finding cheap international flights on both full-service and budget airlines.
Are you interested in visiting another city for free on your way to your dream beach destination? Adding stopovers in other cities can save you hundreds of dollars and give you the opportunity to see another city by actually paying less.
Airlines like Icelandair and Air France often have good deals. In addition, they could give you the opportunity to add a free stopover in the hub of that airline. For example, if you’re flying Icelandair from Seattle to Paris, you can add a free stopover in Reykjavik. Even if you stay for a night, booking a hotel for the night in that city, you could save $200 – $300 at the end of the day. Flexibility and knowing the rules of each airline could be a significant savings and trip extender.
3. Be Flexible With Airports & Travel Dates
If you could save thousands of dollars by flying out of an airport a few hours away, would you do it? What about flying out a few days later? We're assuming you've nodding your head to one or both of those.
Always start your flight search off with Google Flights as it allows you to efficiently use the calendar view to find the cheapest airports close by and browse travel dates. Make sure you browse the calendar view 9+ months ahead, so you know the cheapest time frame to travel. Then narrow down on the dates you want when you find a cheap range.
For most people, it can be tough to be flexible on date and airport since you probably don't have unlimited vacation days. The best way to mitigate that is by planning as far ahead as possible, so you have more options when a great deal pops up.
The folks at Dollar Flight Club have often found that you can save $300-$500 if you leave on a Wednesday as opposed to a Friday. In general, Friday and Sunday are typically the most expensive days to travel, with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday the cheapest days to travel.
4. Know When You See a Great Deal
Before you book, it’s imperative you know what a good deal looks like. This way, when you see a cheap fare you know to book it before it’s gone.
Here are great benchmark prices from the United States to all over the world to keep in mind:
- Africa: $500s-$700s roundtrip
- Australia: $600s-$800s roundtrip
- Caribbean: $100s-$300s roundtrip
- Europe: $300s-$500s roundtrip
- East and Southeast Asia: $300s-$500s roundtrip
- Hawaii: $200s-$400s roundtrip
- South America: $400s-$600s roundtrip
If you end up finding cheap flights in these ranges, you should book fast, since they won’t last long at all! Remember, in most cases, you'll have 24 hours to cancel your ticket if you decide not to go forward. Book first (after you find dates that likely work), and then figure out the details.
5. Leverage Deal Finding Services like Dollar Flight Club
The team at Dollar Flight Club is there to help you explore the world without breaking the bank. Sign up for free, and you'll see how they've already saved half a million members over $500 per flight.
Bonus Tips & Tricks
- Have VPN access? Try to use your VPN to access the flight comparison sites and set your location to a developing nation with different currency (not USD, GBP, AUD, etc.) as tickets may price out lower in local currency.
- Try clearing cookies after each search or search in “incognito” or “private” browsing mode which may return a cheaper ticket.
- Check in on deal boards like Secret Flying or The Flight Deal who often post deals they hear about.
Searching and finding cheap flights is more art than science. It can take hours and hours if you want to do your due diligence. With time at a premium, consider using services like Dollar Flight Club when you’re looking to book flights; don't forget to add the appropriate frequent flier account to the ticket, and then leverage AwardWallet to manage the points you accrue.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I only knew about SkyScanner; I had no idea about all these other tools available. Bookmarking this post for future reference!
I would like to join dollar flight club . What do I have to do?
Please contact DFC if you’re having trouble signing up.
Thank you for this information, i fly to the Caribbean every summer and over the last 7 yrs the fare has climbed from a moderate $550 to between $1,100 to $1,250. I just tried the Skiplagged flight and was amazed it returned a page full of flight combinations at extremely discounted fares in under 30 seconds. I’ll definitely be bookmarking the site.
Good tips indeed (I did not know Momondo). I usually double check on eDreams before buying any low cost flight, just to make sure they are not ripping me off!
for cheap flights, check the homecityflights.com, it’s a gateway for cheap flights, all the flights from your home city ordered by continent/country/city/price
Awesome tips. I’ll definitely give Dollar Flight Club a go as I normally just use Google Flights, Skyscanner and Kayak when searching for flights.
Big thumbs up for your Bonus Tips; using a VPN has saved me many dollars, and ALWAYS clear your history if re-searching flights you looked at previously. Another tip is to search for one seat first, even if you want to book two, as often there is one cheaper seat, and if you look for two they just move both seats into the higher price bracket. Downside is separate bookings but for short flights and organised people, the savings can be worth it.
Personally love ITA but signing up with flight club just seems odd to me to pay $40 a year for maybe saving some money
Wow – some really good tips here! I am loading the Momondo app now and signed up for Dollar Flight Club. Thank you so much for the information.
I have found http://www.skyscanner.com to be a good tool to find low fares. It allows to search for fares to “everywhere” from your home airport and to find the the lowest fare by choosing “cheapest month” in the search engine. It is very useful if you if you are looking for fares for flights originating outside the USA.
There are some really good tips in this email. I already use Google Flights and Momondo. I’ve noticed they quite often produce different results. I like the fact that Momondo have quite a good app, but unfortunately I haven’t noticed a Google Flights app.
I have found so many great deals using these methods. What one has to remember that if you are comfortable with the deal you see, do not wait to book it.
Flyertalk is also a great source of info.
Awesome list of sites! But if I need a cheap flight on any weekend in a route, is there a tool that can find this for me under a certain price for all airlines? GOogle Flights is good but I have to manually set alerts for each weekend.
Thanks
None that I know of.
I will definitely look into Dollar Flight club. I had no idea that sites like Goggle Flights, Momondo and Skiplagged existed. I do sometimes have quite a bit of flexibility so they may just work well for me. Thanks for the heads up!
anyone used Dollar flight club? I don’t see you can sign up for the free account, only premium.
Great article. I never heard of Momondo or Skiplagged until now.
Great article! I’m wondering now if the deals with departure outside of North America are equally good.
Howie, amazing that you found business class LA-BKK for $750 roundtrip. Can you share how you snagged that great deal?
Here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-discussion/1925504-prem-fare-gone-hx-lax-pvg-rt-j-580ish.html
I like number 4; knowing the “base” rates for a good fare keeps it all in perspective.
I’m going to have to look at these options! I will also be looking into ITA Matrix. Does everyone just write down the codes or just have a web page open to reference. I think I would get confused if I didn’t have them written down to make sure I was asking ITA for the right thing.
This was really helpful! Thank you!
Anyone has any error fare success stories to share?
I picked up IAH-JNB-BHX for around 300GBP a couple of years back.
I used AA miles to position from MUC to SFO and turned it into a 30-day, 2,500 mile Western road trip, before flying on to JNB, riding the excellent Premier Classe train to CPT and drinving the Garden Route.
I earned almost enough miles on the paid ticket to cover my positioning award to SFO.
I always wanted to know more about this subject, thank you for the websites!
ITA Matrix app is really nice to do these.
Yes, but, unfortunately, the ITA Matrix App hasn’t been available since December 2017.
ITA Matrix works perfectly fine: http://matrix.itasoftware.com — I used it many times today.
Great article! Does anyone have a solid replacement for ITA Matrix app for mobile? Kayak is pitiful because you can’t do as many things with it…ITA was really one of a kind.
There simply is no replacement.
I haven’t found any, so no replacement as well.
I especially like #4 above. It’s a handy reference!
Does Dollar Flight Club, or any other of that type of service check for premium cabin deals?
1. Really like that you added the benchmark fares. Very helpful and I’ll bookmark that. Yes, we know that by now, but it’s still handy. 2. Being flexible with the airport, if you can, is the biggest key I believe.
Retiring soon. So, I can be very open to what and whenever it’s available. So, thanks for the information.
I have never had luck with the freak airfare pricing… maybe someday 🙂
Although I use Google Flights a lot, I had never heard of those other sites before reading this article. For long flights, my goal is to travel premium class, but for short flights, I definitely don’t mind a seat in the back. Thanks for these new search strategies.
I don’t quite follow what you mean by “Great benchmark prices”. They look too low to me. ($300 to SE Asia?)
But it also leads to mistakes IMO since a $400 fare on a low cost carrier might actually be expensive, since you’ve got the add-ons to consider. Whereas $400 on a full-service airline such as Singapore could be a deal.
A benchmark price to compare a great deal — $300 to SE Asia happens. My wife and I booked $750 roundtrip business class tickets from LA to Bangkok. It happens.
wow. that must have been the deal of the year.
can’t login to my account. password rest does not send me reset code.
Please reach out to support if you’re having problems.
Wasn’t that on China Southern?
Some great tips in here, I use Google flights, ITA a lot to seek out those special fares.
Just remember to book mistake fares quickly and don’t spend valuable time thinking it over. And don’t call the airline!
Excellent advice. Act quickly!
These tips are worth the effort. Skiplagged has helped me save.
Some great tips here today, amazing how You can bag cheaper flights if you know how.
Best post in the last couple of months! Thanks!
Thanks for the tips!
Excellent post! I was actually wondering about Dollar Flight Club.
Thanks for incredible information!
Im always looking for deals… I haven’t heard of Dollar flight club but it sounds like I need to join! I shall bookmark it, thanks. Obviously more research is needed.
This is a good idea. A lot of Airlines have hidden fares and the last thing they don’t want to do is fly a plane with empty seats.