How to Save Money on Flights – 2024 Guide

No matter whether you are traveling for business or pleasure it always makes sense to try and bag yourself thievery cheapest flights available. Traditionally, of course, we would have to go to a travel agent or directly to the airline if we wanted cheap flights, but in the modern world, all of that has changed.

It was my friend Stacey L Tokunaga who first turned me on to the idea of seeking out low-cost flights, she is a digital nomad who travels all over the world, so of course, she loves to try and keep costs down with lower-priced air travel. There are in fact multiple ways in which you can try to find low-cost flights for your next trip or vacation, and with some time and some patience, you can save big bucks on those flight tickets. If this sounds interesting and you’d like to know how you too can get your hands on some low-cost flights, read on to see which hacks may work for you.

Connections

Many people turn their noses up at connecting flights and I was pretty much the same some years ago, In fact, it was only after speaking to Stacey about how to get some low-cost flights that I came around to the idea of connecting on my way to a particular destination. This will not always work but in the main, it can come out far cheaper than a direct flight. To give you an example, last year I flew from Mexico City to London, the direct flight would have cost $850 and taken 11 hours total flying time. I decided to look and see if I could get a better deal if I connected and I eventually found a flight up to New York and then New York to London, with a 1-hour 50-minute layover. The cost of this flight was $500 and the total flying time was 14 hours. As you can see, a small amount of additional time and hassle enabled me to save $350, and you can too if you keep an eye on connections.

Hand Luggage

If you are going for a short trip away then don’t concern yourself with tickets which include putting bags in the hold, as these will very often come with a big premium on them. More and more airlines are now offering Lite options when you fly with them, which means that you are restricted to only taking hand luggage with you. The dimensions of hand luggage bags are bigger than ever and there is no reason that you can’t make the most of the space you are afforded and bring down the costs of your flight. Furthermore, by travelling with a small luggage you can save money on the many luggage storage options in big cities, like the LuggageHero one in Penn Station, New York.

Flexible

If you have set dates and times for your trip then you are really narrowing the window of possibility for saving money on your flights. In reality, to get some big savings you have to be at least a little bit flexible with your travel dates, otherwise, you may very well be out of luck. Ticket prices change all of the time and weekday travel is far cheaper than weekend travel. If your dates are set in stone however then your options are much more limited.

VPN For Airlines

If you do end up booking directly with an airline then a great hack is to use a VPN so that you appear to be in the country where the airline is from. This is slightly bizarre I know but it really does work. Just a few months back Stacey was telling me how she had booked a flight from Bogota to Lima, and that she booked it from the USA. The flight originally was $389 but once she changed her VPN to appear as though she was in Colombia (the nationality of the airline) that price came down to $321. Perhaps they give better rates to locals, but you can appear like one if you change your IP address with a VPN.

Credit Cards

One of the best ways to save money on your travel is to leverage credit card reward schemes so that you can earn points which you can then use for travel. If you spend $1000 per month on your groceries, entertainment, and lifestyle, a smart option would be to get a credit card with airline rewards, spend that $1000 on your credit card rather than in cash or debit card and then simply pay it off each month. In doing this you will be racking up points which you can then convert into big savings on air travel. The more you spend, the more you save!

Try out these tips the next time that you are looking for a flight, and just see how much money you may be able to save yourself.