Fun fact: I found an airfare hack when booking airfare between Spokane, Washington, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. I decided to take a direct flight with Southwest between Spokane and Las Vegas, and then book a flight between Las Vegas and Buenos Aires (with one layover) through American Airlines. This airfare hack was a lot cheaper than it would have been to book the American Airlines itinerary between Buenos Aires and Spokane. We actually decided to stay the night in Las Vegas on the way to Buenos Aires and even with the additional cost of a hotel room, it was still cheaper to book our airfare using this airfare hack!
Between personal and work-related travel and flying my stepsons back and forth between our house and their mom’s every month, I’ve purchased a lot of airfare over the last several years—probably a great deal more than the average person. I can’t say that I’ve figured out the sure-fire way to purchase the lowest priced airfare (you know, the myth about buying flights at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday mornings that gets whispered about on other travel blogs) but I do have the following airfare hacks I thought would be worth sharing:
Utilize Credit Card Airline Mileage Rewards Programs
In my blog post, The Cheapest Way to Travel Europe, I spoke of using credit card airline mileage reward programs for booking travel.
Off the top of my head, over the last five years, I can list multiple destinations that my husband and I have traveled to for free through mileage rewards: Tampa, San Francisco, Hawaii, San Diego, Dallas and even Argentina and Europe (twice!). And you really cannot find a cheap flight hack better than free!
If you are responsible (and by that, I mean, can religiously pay off your credit card statement every month) and are not using a credit card for mileage/travel rewards, it is time for you to start reaping the benefits on the everyday purchases that you are making. Learn more with this Beginner’s Guide to Miles and Points.
At some point, I will post something about the credit card reward programs that we use, but in the meantime, I recommend The Points Guy to help you research which credit card is right for you.
Compare Options on Fare Aggregator Sites
We can’t use miles for all of our trips, so when it comes to actually purchasing airfare, I use fare aggregator sites like kayak.com, skyscanner.com and kiwi.com to research the best prices for flights. I don’t typically end up purchasing my flights through those sites, but they can give you a good idea of which airline has the lowest price and then you can book directly with the airline of choice.
Kiwi or Kayak Hacker Fare meaning:
When using a fare aggregator site, you may come across a “hacker fare” option. So what does hacker fare mean? Essentially, it is referring to an airfare hack that suggests the cheapest itineraries utilizing multiple airlines. With a hacker fare, there is the possibility that you may have to change / check in to a different airline during the layover, which is somewhat inconvenient, but can definitely be worth the cost savings.
This is basically what I did by taking Southwest Airlines to Las Vegas for an overnight layover. The next day, I changed to an American Airlines itinerary for our trip to Buenos Aires. The only thing was that I had to the research this airfare hack on my own because Southwest Airlines prices do not show up on fare aggregator sites, which brings me to my next point…
Don’t Forget about Southwest
Since Southwest Airlines does not allow for their flight prices to show up on fare aggregator sites like Kayak, you have to remember to check their pricing at Southwest.com if you are traveling within the United States (and Mexico / the Caribbean). Not only do they have affordable flights, but they don’t charge fees for checked bags or flight changes!
I know some people complain about Southwest because they don’t have assigned seats or a first class cabin, but this One Savvy Wanderer is a frequent flier of Southwest to keep travel costs low!
Consider Purchasing Airfare through Third-Party Sites
Earlier in this post, I mentioned that I don’t typically book my flights through fare aggregator sites like kayak.com, but I think it’s worth considering depending on your traveling situation. For example, earlier this year I was looking for affordable round-trip flights between Buenos Aires and Bariloche, Argentina. Kayak indicated that the cheapest option was on Aerolíneas Argentinas, but that fare was only available by booking through FlightNetwork.com, not with the airline itself. I ended up booking through FlightNetwork to save money and everything worked out great but had we ended up needing to change our flight it would have cost a lot more money to do through FlightNetwork than it would have directly through the airline. We decided it was worth taking the risk of not needing to change our flight to save money on the initial airfare and I am glad we did it.
I don’t always recommend using third-party sites like that, but depending on the circumstances, it may be worth the savings!
Book Airfare Far in Advance
I’ve never been able to figure out the formula of which day of the week or time of the day is the best to buy airfare, but I’ve found that flights are usually cheaper when you book far in advance.
Airlines tend to set algorithms that sell a certain amount of seats at a specific price point, then after those seats are sold, the price increases and another set amount of seats are sold at the higher price, and this process continues throughout the months leading up to the travel date.
For example, last July, I booked round-trip airfare to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 10 months ahead of our trip (I’m a planner, what can I say). I just looked at the current price of the airfare and it’s now $40 more than I spent in July. While $40 is not a ton of money, when multiplied by 5 (it’s a family vacation), it means that I saved $200 by booking so far in advance!
The issue with booking so far in advance is that life happens, plans can change, and change fees are brutal (unless you booked with Southwest!), so only book far in advance if you are committed to taking the trip or you are willing to eat the change fee if needed.
Search for One Passenger at a Time
This is one of my top airfare hacks! When starting your airfare search with an airline, always enter that there is only one passenger, regardless of how many people you are actually traveling with. The reason being is what I described in the last paragraph relating to how the airlines pricing algorithms are set up to automatically increase the price once a certain amount of tickets are sold.
If you have two or more people on a reservation, and they only have one seat left at the lower price, the airline will quote you at the higher price for everyone on that reservation. Once you price what one ticket costs, then re-do the search for everyone you are traveling with so to see what the total cost is. If the flight is more expensive for two passengers on the same reservation than what it would cost at 2x the single fare (or 3x if you have three people on the itinerary, etc.), then you need to purchase separate reservations to get the lower fare for some of the passengers.
I’ve done this several times and it can be an easy way to save a little money when purchasing airfare for more than one passenger traveling to the same destination. Some airlines (like Alaska Air) even allow you to “link” reservations after booking so the airline knows you are traveling together, even though you booked separate reservations.
Search in Incognito Mode
Have you ever seen airfare increase overnight for a flight you are watching? Well, it happens and it’s because airlines are sneaky and will increase pricing when you repeatedly search for the same flights. They are able to do this because of the cookies in your browser that tell the airline website that you keep looking for the same, or similar, flights. The airline website in return increases the pricing on the search so that you get scared into purchasing the airfare.
To avoid this, always search for airfare using incognito mode (in Chrome) or private browsing mode (in other browsers).
I know from experience that this airfare hack works. My co-worker had been checking airfare for a business trip and was frustrated that the price had increased overnight. I looked at the same flight, on the same airline website, but in incognito mode and it was a lot cheaper. Needless to say, she ended up using my computer and incognito browser to book the flight.
As you can see, there are many different airfare hacks to find affordable airfare for your upcoming travels. It takes a lot of research and planning to find the best fares, but the savings you gain help to accomplish your goal of getting the smallest bill while traveling the world (the Savvy way!).
Cheers!
