How to Find the Cheapest Flights Every Time In 2024

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Flights are often the highest cost when planning a trip, especially if you are travelling internationally. Over the years we have gotten skilled in finding great value flights, so we wanted to share our top tips on how to find the cheapest flights for your next travel adventure.

These tips will have you reducing travel costs and getting cheap flight deals, whether you are flying within your home country or across the world!

Decide on approximate dates for your trip as early as possible to give you the greatest chance at scoring a bargain for getting to your final destination.

Being a little flexible on the dates of your international flight can make a great difference to the total cost of flights too.

Most flight search engines will show up great last-minute deals.

Sometimes they will also show up error pricing that can work in your favour, getting a crazy cheap flight bargain at the mistake of the airline.

These are a rare find but they are fantastic!

Travelling during off-season times will reduce the costs further, so if you have enough flexibility to travel in the winter or during the shoulder seasons (spring and autumn), this can make a big difference in finding cheap flights!

And this is often when last-minute flight sales pop up too!

TIP: CheapOAir can be great for last-minute flight deals.

4 – Direct Airline Bookings

Sometimes you will get a better deal booking directly with the airline, rather than through one of their partners. For this reason, if I see a great price on Skyscanner, I always double-check the airline website too for the same dates.

This can go either way. It really is crazy how big the discrepancies can be too. So do yourself a favour and check both!

We also recommend subscribing to the email newsletters for any of the airlines you frequently fly with, as they often have special sales or happy hour when you can get a better deal.

Virgin Australia and Jetstar are some of our favourites in Australia for this.

TIP: Sometimes the airlines will send you a signup bonus to save on your next flight booking or a birthday coupon, such as Scoot Airlines.

6 – Travel Expos

Most cities will have regular travel expos that have great on-the-day deals. These are worth checking out if you are ready to book and pay on the day as the deals are only for bookings made at the expo.

Before you visit a travel expo, make sure you write down the best available prices based on the comparison websites and airline websites so you can reference them on the day.

You can sometimes get some pretty amazing package deals on these days too, which have flights and accommodation included if you want an easy done-for-you trip booked.

Beware the hidden costs though and make sure you know what you want and need before the expo.

Tip: We usually get a travel agent quote for flights before we book our own just for reference. They almost never find a cheap airfare to match those we find booking flights online ourselves, but it is always good to check. You are paying for the service of an agent and they only work with certain airlines.

7 – Full Service or Budget?

You’ve found a great flight price and you’re ready to book. Sure a better price may come up.

This is always possible as we cannot predict the airline’s next big sale! You’ve done your research and you’re ready to book your flights.

Full-service flights are great and some people choose only to fly full service, as it is a more comfortable experience knowing you get meals and luggage all incorporated under one ticket. But it can also cost a lot more money!

If you are flying short-haul or for short time frames, a budget option is always great because you can probably get away with 7KG carry on baggage.

If you need the works, this is where you may need to do a little extra maths to see where the best deal is.

Budget airlines or tickets allow you to add on luggage and meals during the booking process. This means extra costs piling onto what you thought was an incredibly cheap flight price.

Usually, it is still cheaper even if you add on standard luggage per person and you can buy snacks or take your own pre-packaged airport sandwiches on board with you! Sometimes it isn’t cheaper once you’ve added everything on.

Check the total at the end of your booking before you reach the payment screen and compare it to the full-service flights on your same travel route to see if it is still the best option.

TIP: If you are flying with others, you may want to add on luggage for just one or two travellers in your group. We do this travelling with our kids as they are too young to be much help, and we are great at packing light so we go with one or two checked suitcases between the 4 of us if we can manage it.

8 – Fly Via a Different Airport

Many cities have regional airports that fly to the same or similar destinations which may add less than an hour extra to your transit time.

Where we live in Australia, our nearest international airport is Brisbane, however, Gold Coast’s Coolangatta Airport is only an extra half hour or so away.

Often there are cheaper flight deals for certain destinations if we fly out of the Gold Coast instead, such as our recent flights to Christchurch.

We saved around $100 each by choosing a different airport.

It is worth knowing the distance between airports from your departure and arrival cities so that you can compare this option of flying via different airports. This simple flight hack can save you loads of cash!

TIP: Try the nearby airports option in Skyscanner to easily compare alternative airport options

9 – Book Your Own Connecting flights

This is another sneaky way to get better savings. Try a flight search engine for your full route, which includes connecting flights.

Sites like Skyscanner will often pair different airlines together for the connecting flights and package them up for you, so you don’t have to worry about booking them separately. This is convenient, but not always cheaper!

So next try searching the flights separately.

For example – Brisbane to Singapore return for your start and end dates and Singapore to Paris return for your second leg flights, rather than just searching Brisbane to Paris.

You can experiment with different connection cities and see if you can find suitable options that work out much cheaper.

The important thing to consider when doing this is that you have enough time between connections.

If you are booking them separately, they are not considered a single ticket so if you miss your connection, they may not put you on the next flight.

Having a big gap between connections can be a good peace of mind if you do try this flight savings tip.

When we did California and Punta Cana a while back, we originally had just planned to go to the Dominican Republic direct, but it is literally halfway around the world from us.

We were also flying with kids, so we weren’t too keen on that much flying time all in one go.

Instead, we ended up booking several days on either side in Los Angeles then Anaheim, so the kids got a break between long flights. It also worked out cheaper than booking the flights on a single booking. A double win!

Use a notepad or a flight comparison spreadsheet to track your different quotes and date comparisons so that you can keep all the information together.

Otherwise, you will send yourself crazy trying to work it all out!

Flight prices change so quickly so when you see a great deal, jump on it!!

And to stay organised once you start booking, make sure you have a great travel planner that you can update with booking numbers and reservation details.

TIP: Each site will have a different price, so keeping them all in one place is an easy way to ensure you don’t lose track or get confused 

11 – Credit Card Benefits

Some credit cards have bonus perks for their cardholders that will benefit you by reducing travel costs.

One of my credit cards is with Virgin Australia and they offer a flight voucher every year for domestic flights. Depending on where we are travelling, this can be a massive reduction in our domestic travel costs.

Other credit card companies offer free flights or free travel insurance. These are fantastic benefits that come with some of the more premium credit card memberships and they may be benefits you already have!

Although this next one is going to really speed up your travel savings.

Have you heard of points hacking?

TIP: Check your credit card benefits and if it has none, consider moving to a different card that allows you to enjoy rewards points or travel bonuses

12 – Travel Points Hacking

Most major credit cards, supermarkets and department store chains have their own rewards programs.

Here in Australia, we have Qantas Frequent Flyer, Virgin Velocity Rewards and Flybuys as some of our leading rewards programs.

Each of these are a brilliant way to score FREE travel with points!

I have flown Australia to Los Angeles for FREE on points. We have also used points to pay for accommodation and domestic flights as well. And it is by doing what we would normally do.

We aren’t serious points hackers, but we do use rewards-based credit cards and always scan our rewards cards at participating stores.

Rather than redeeming points for savings off groceries or purchases, we convert our points into flight rewards with Qantas or Virgin.

The programs available to you will differ depending on your location, but find them and join them all!

If you are forgetful with leaving your membership cards at home, scan them to your phone. There are apps for that!

And look for bonus points offers.

Our local supermarkets and department stores often have bonus points, such as buying this product and getting 500 bonus Flybuys points.

These are often things you may normally buy anyway or inexpensive items that you can put to use. Those bonus points help you add up your earnings super quick!

Also, look for rewards partners with your utilities or services. We get Qantas points from our electricity company and healthcare funds.

With credit card points hacking, you need to be smart with your credit card use so you don’t end up in financial trouble. Aim to always pay off your credit card monthly so you aren’t paying interest.

If you are in a habit of doing this, you can start using your card to purchase everyday items like groceries and bills, so that you can earn points for every spend.

Then simply transfer your money across and pay off the balance before the interest period.

TIP: Most rewards credit cards do have an annual fee and the interest is typically higher than the low interest, no annual fee cards. This is the downside of being able to earn points towards your travel, but if you are careful with your use, it is worth it!

13. Flight Cashbacks

Use a flight cashback service such as WayAway. They allow you to search and compare flights, hotels and attractions tickets.

With the WayAway Plus membership, you can get 5% cashback on all flight bookings! We have recently started using this program and it has been great to get a little cash back in our own pockets!

That 5% can add up quick when you are booking high price flights!

You can save 10% off your annual membership with our special member code FATW. Or click here and the code is already applied.

When you can save money on flights before you even book the rest of your travel, this puts you ahead! Flights are the first thing most people book when planning a holiday.

And if they aren’t, it’s usually because the current flight prices are really high and you’re hoping to score a cheap airline deal!

Make sure you check out our top tips for flying with kids, which includes loads of airline reviews to help you find the best airline for your travel. Often if the price difference isn’t huge, it comes down to preferred airlines!

Also check out our guide to what to pack in your carry on bag and ways to keep toddlers entertained on a plane.

Right, we’ve covered a lot of different methods for getting the cheapest flight deals in this article, so we wanted to do a quick recap on all those different methods. Many of these can be used together to really help you with how to get cheap flight tickets.