EuroTrip Guide Number 5: Find the Cheapest International Flights!
If I could I would coupon clip for absolutely everything. For groceries, adventures, and most definitely airline tickets. It is utterly ridiculous to me to pay a few thousand dollars a ticket to have squashed knees, cheap headphones, a bag or peanuts, and a headache. But I love the end result as does everyone else, which of course is why airlines are able to charge an arm and a leg for your little getaway. Thank god for technology and sweet deals, the only problem is finding the right ticket for the right price. It took me a lot of back and forth, a lot of reseach, and a few months of patience, but in the end I was able to find tickets for $700 roundtrip instead of the originally proposed $2000.
Looking for more explaination? Check out my previous post here!
We are already knee deep into planning! See what we have got so far:
- Choosing your destinations - Check it out here!
- Spreadsheets galore - Check it out here!
- Planning with a Friend - Check it out here!
- Determining your budget - Here it is!
- Buying Airplane Tickets - Scroll down!
- What to Pack (April 4th)
- Trains, Planes, and Automobiles (April 9th)
- Where to stay? Check It Out!
- One month to go! (April 21st)
- Itinerary or wing it? (April 24th)
When looking for flights, my computer hates me. I have a thousand tabs open, and I am jogging back and forth between them to see how prices compare and what may work better in terms of location, time, dates, etc. I use Kayak.com, GoEuro.com, Bahn.de, and Google.com/flights all at the same time to compare, plan and eventually book my perfect and super cheap flight! (I explain more about the sites and how I use each in my previous post HERE!)
The easiest way is of course to start off with your prefered route. I will use my Miami (MIA) to Nuremberg (NUE) trip as an example. I started at the cheapest flight available there and saved it in a separate tab, then with the same destinations I looked on Google Flights using the calendar to determine if my prefered dates could be adjusted slightly or even to the next/previous month to save money. This most of the time can already save you hundreds. Check nearby airports for both your destination and departure airport. Taking a bus or train to a different city could cost you $30 - $50 but could save you hundreds in the long run.
What about a different destination? Are you traveling to Europe or a far off land that you plan on exploring anyways? Have some time you could spend traveling? Try a different destination all together. Some major airports have non-stop flights to specific airports all over the world. MIA has multiple non-stop destinations so it took me some time to determine which could be the cheapest. It is a complicated combination of searches to determine which could be the best.
Last option is to split it into two one-way flights. This is of course annoying because I need to now worry about two separate tickets and coordinating flights. In my case it worked to my advantage because buying a roundtrip ticket from Europe to USA was WAY cheaper so it saved me not on just one flight but two!
Stay positive and most of all patient, Your deal will come around. Try all possible options and you will be suprised at what an amazing vacation and money saver you will have!