Booking extremely cheap flights

I’ve been booking cheap flights for years, and many people ask me how. In this guide, I talk about the steps I take.

Plan ahead or decide last minute

In my experience, being able to know when you want to travel and where as far in advance as possible means you can start tracking flights and learning more about flight patterns to that destination sooner. For example, I’ve been eyeing flights to Morocco for years – this meant I knew how much the average price was, and therefore what a good price might be. When I saw that Air Canada was starting flights to Morocco from Toronto – it got my wheels spinning, and I was able to book flights from Vancouver for far less than I’d ever seen before.

I’ve also had the experience of getting flight deals super last minute. I booked a $400 roundtrip flight to Portugal for example a few days out, as well as one to London for about the same – in the summer no less. Because I was booking within a few days, I was able to access extra cheap tickets.

Track flights and monitor price patterns

Once you have a general sense of your plan, you can set up price alerts for flight routes and dates that you’re interested in. This will allow you to keep an eye on things without having to manually check all the time. Be prepared to move fast though – I’ve seen an amazing deal pop up, I’ve slept on it, and then by the morning it was gone. Most airlines give you a 24 hour grace period to cancel for no fee – so I suggest book the flight, sleep on it, and if it doesn’t make sense in the end, just cancel it within the 24 hour window.

Be flexible

If you are flexible on your days, can travel outside the main travel windows (summer when school is out, christmas break, easter), and are willing to go to a new place that may not be the exact destination you had in mind, then you can save a LOT of money. There are also lots of ways you can get to where you want to go, indirectly through somewhere else that maybe wasn’t at the top of your travel list. For example, I wanted to get to Italy once, but the cheapest flights to Europe were through London. Even though I was less interested in London, I spent a few days there and then took a cheap intra-European flight to Italy, allowing me to see 2 destinations on the same trip, get to where I wanted to go, and pay next to nothing for it.

Start learning the flight patterns for your home airport

For example, my home airport in Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Because Canadians love to vacation in Mexico, it is easy to find cheap flights to most parts of Mexico year round. If I want to travel to Central or South America, I know I can likely travel on Aeromexico through Mexico City, or connect through Houston. I also know for example that there are a lot of direct flights to Europe through Calgary, for example. Because there are tons of flights daily between Vancouver and Calgary, I can start searching for Calgary to Europe flights and work my way backwards. Don’t be afraid to venture a bit further out for the right flight. I found a direct flight from Seattle to Ireland for $500, so I just needed to get to Seattle from Vancouver, which is possible through quick and frequent direct flights, the train, bus, or driving. If you frequent major airlines that fly all over the world, connecting through their main hubs can also make a huge difference.

At the end of the day, the magic of cheap flight deals is:

• Pay attention to the flight patterns at your home airport and those nearby
• Plan ahead
• Track constantly
• Act quickly when the deals appear
• Be flexible

I hope this helps – this process has worked for me for years, saving me thousands of dollars on flights to Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Central America.