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Finding a great flight deal is a great way to start planning a trip and helps squeeze the most from your travel budget.

Finding cheap flights anywhere can be a great way to get some new travel inspiration!

Check out my flight booking tips and find some flight bargains!

Why not enter your journey details and get all your travel options here?

Flight Booking Tips

1. Find Deals with Skyscanner

My first site for flight deals anywhere is Skyscanner.

They cover budget airlines, but also scheduled airlines such as British Airways meaning it is a great place to easily find flight deals and prices in one place.

I love the ability to search ‘everywhere’ and by selecting ‘whole month’ and then selecting a month you can see the cheapest prices for that month.

This can be a great way to find cheap flights anywhere because you have a complete list of the lowest flight prices. You do have to select your starting airport but you can select ‘all London’ airports for example rather than just a specific airport.

This is one of the quickest and easiest ways to get some ideas about cheap flight destinations – not just cheap flights anywhere but cheap flights everywhere. (Well from your starting airport actually!)

I also use Skyscanner as a reverse search option when trying to plan how to get to places because it will show what airlines fly in and out of an airport and what sort of times their flights are.

If you know where you want to fly from and there is a great search calendar below that will show you when cheap flights can be found throughout the whole year.

Flight Booking Tips

2. Flight Deals on Kayak

Kayak has a great feature called Explore. It enables you to see how far your budget will take you, so you can find the cheapest flight anywhere within your budget.

You select your flight duration, budget, location (although there is an anywhere option), and your date and time (although there is an anytime option. This then shows you where your travel budget can take you and you click on the destinations to get the details of flights etc.

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Flight Booking Tips

3. Search with Easyjet InspireMe

Easyjet has an Inspire Me section on their website which can offer some good cheap flight inspiration too!

Often a calendar search will give some ideas and you can then start to narrow down options using a variety of search tools like a reverse search – to find out where it is cheaper to fly from.

This can be another great way to find cheap flights to anywhere!

Flight Booking Tips

4. Budget Airlines Are Not Always the Cheapest Flights

When comparing cheap flights you need to ensure you are comparing like for like.

For budget airlines where you have to pay extra for luggage, seats, etc you need to ensure that these are all included when comparing to other airlines. In my experience, non ‘budget’ airlines can sometimes work out cheaper or better value.

If you are making flight connections bear in mind that if you book flights between two separate airlines if there are any delays on the first flight and you miss your connection you will have to pay for another flight.

However, if the flights are with the same airline it would be the airline that would then bear the cost of getting you to your destination.

Often if you are taking connecting flights with the same airline you can check your luggage from your first airport through to your final destination which can be really handy.

When I travelled from Inverness to Istanbul with British Airways. I took British Airways flights all the way through, my luggage was checked right through and the total cost was £120.

When I am looking to plan travel I often look at hub airports to find a way to get cheap flights and fly some interesting routes. Istanbul is a good hub to get onto further places such as Azerbaijan for example.

My flight from Istanbul to Baku was £35 on Buta Airways including luggage. My flight from London to Istanbul was £50 with British Airways including luggage.

Flight Booking Tips

5. Fly To and From Hub Airports

Hub airport can often offer fab cheap flights to anywhere by connecting to a lot of destinations. Searching using these airports as your starting or finishing airport can show some interesting and low cost routes.

Hubs/Connecting Airports include;

  • Dublin Airport – this is also one of the few airports that has US security clearance meaning once you have cleared security in Dublin you are free to go straight through on landing in the US. 
  • Iceland – they have some great flight deals to the US
  • Schiphol, Amsterdam – there are loads of connections from here and this is also one of my favourite airports. If you have a long layover check out their ‘behind the scenes’ airport tour. It’s very popular as I’ve never managed to make it there. They also have nice shopping areas, a working area with plenty of sockets and desk space and a place where you can get massages. I had a 7 hour layover here once and nearly missed my onward connection because I was having such a nice time!
  • Istanbul – already mentioned but worth highlighting again as the new airport is massive so more capacity will be added.

Flight Booking Tips

6. Check Hopper For Price Predictions

If you are also a fan of apps then Hopper is a handy app for checking cheap flights.

You enter details of your journey and it tells you if the flight price is likely to go up or down. You can monitor your flight details and find the best prices.

Flight Booking Tips

7. Monitor Ticket Release and Sales

Martin Lewis’s fab Moneysavingexpert site has this brilliant list of airlines and when they release their seats – really helpful if you are able to plan ahead.

It is certainly a handy way to know when all the tickets are being released.

This can be a great way to find flights to particular destinations that you might be interested rather than taking a more flexible approach by searching for cheap flights to anywhere in the world.

Flight Booking Tips

8. Check One Way Versus Return Flights

When checking prices for flights it is always worth checking prices for one way and return flights.

Sometimes two one way tickets can be cheaper and it is sometimes easier to work out flight times that suit you best.

Flight Booking Tips

9. Check Flights With a Stop For Cheaper Options

It can sometimes be cheaper to take flights that are not direct.

This can also be a good way to get an idea for a trip. Why not book the two flights and have an overnight stop or longer on the way and hey presto you have got an extra place to visit.

Some longer haul flights offer free stopovers – you just need to pay the cost of the accommodation so this can be a great way to see somewhere else and also avoid potential issues with jet lag too.

If you are doing a cheap flight to anywhere search as detailed above then simply select direct flights and flights with 1 stop in the search box to get more options and ideas for stopovers.

Flight Booking Tips

10. Consider Flight Clubs

That’s flight clubs rather than fight clubs!

There are a couple of these but probably the most well known is Scott’s Cheap Flights. You can join for free and get a limited number of flight offers or pay a membership fee and get more offers.

Scott’s Cheap Flights offer premium membership for£49. A lot of these flights are US based so maybe try out the free version before you commit to spending.

The selection of flights is quite varied so if you are happy to take a cheap flight anywhere then this could be a great way to get a bargain. Be prepared to jump on it quickly.

Flight Booking Tips

11. Consider Another Airport to Reach Your Destination

Ryanair really developed the trend of flying from cheaper airports. A good example is their flight to Venice which flies into Treviso which is 27km from Venice and connected by a bus so very easy to reach. These cheaper airports offer cheaper flights so it is worth having a check of these too.

If you are thinking of flying to or from a city or destination just search for nearest airports and use these for your flight searches to check if prices are cheaper. Of course, you need to factor in the extra time and transport that might be involved in using these airports.

If you enjoy using public transport when travelling these can be great options with a chance to see a bit more of the place you are visiting and local life!

Flight Booking Tips

12. See if You Can Get Premium Economy/Upgrades

Upgrades are difficult to come by, but once you have been upgraded it can make travelling in economy feel a bit different. Joining loyalty schemes is a good way to get upgraded, although the number of flights required can be quite significant. However, if the plane is overbooked the airline will look to upgrade loyalty scheme members first so it’s worth it just for that.

Martin Lewis has an article on getting a free upgrade. This is most likely if there has been a problem on the plane or it is overbooked. As with much in life being nice and polite is more likely to work than inventing some fictitious story or title.

You can get some very cheap prices for upgrades on short haul flights so it might be worth considering for the experience or if it’s a special occasion.

Flight Booking Tips – Conclusion

  • A bit of research and know-how can bag you some cheap flight deals, helping you make the most of your holiday budget.
  • Booking last minute isn’t always the best idea and budget airlines are not always the budget option when you compare all the extra costs.
  • Check out the tools below to help you search for flights in a variety of different ways!

Enter your journey details in below to get all your travel options

Flight Booking Tips

Search by Route to Find The Cheapest Cost

If you know where you want to fly from and to find the cheapest flight by seeing all the airlines that flight, cheapest dates, and times. This is set from London to Barcelona for illustration.

Flight Booking Tips

Search by Route to Destination to Find the Cheapest

This is one of my favourite ways to search if I have an idea of what I want to do. It often then helps me to put a trip together by flying an interesting route and including a stopover.

This is how I found a very cheap flight from Istanbul to Baku and the 2 destinations into one trip for example.

This is set to Singapore but you can easily search anywhere using the search box below.

Flight Search

You Might Also Like

If you have found this article about Flight Booking Tips useful you might also like;

How to Find Cheap Flights to Anywhere – my step by step guide

6 Ways to Travel Cheaper – my favourite money saving tips

You can find more articles on my Travel More and Spend Less page

Further Reading

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