I’m Cheney, a European cheap flight expert/hacker, here to give you tips & answer any questions about finding cheap flights! AMA

Jesus, how on earth do you find fares that cheap?? I paid €900 last time I went to Rio.

I got lucky with that one and found out about it right away from a friend. I think it only ended up lasting 4 or 5 hours.

So the advice of the "cheap flight expert/hacker" is basically "get lucky?"

My gf and I got round trip tickets to Paris for $900 total. Our secret? We bought them after a terror attack.

Timing plays a big role in booking flights!Awesome you got a great deal hope you enjoyed Paris!

What's a tip you only just recently discovered for finding cheap flights?

That UK websites get a bad deal for flights sometimes! With Momondo and Skyscanner, it’s definitely worth checking the Swedish, Italian, Dutch etc. version of the site just in case, you can save hundreds of euros like that!

Any time I use google flights, find a low priced flight, and go to the booking website, the price is always much higher. I have never been able to successful use it. So now I just stick to Skyscanner and momondo.

Any idea whats the deal with google flights? Do you run into this often?

This happens sometimes and it's always frustrating! Usually it means the airline just pulled the fare.

What's the #1 tip for finding a cheap flight?

Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. It changes everything. If your dates and destination are set in stone, 90% of what you can do to get a good deal is gone.

If my dates are flexible but I really want to get a cheap flight from London to Cancun, anything else I can do besides cross my fingers and hope to get lucky?

Probably not the answer you want but you just need to keep searching and set up some alerts. I recommend using Skyscanner and Google Flights to find the cheapest dates and then if you’re going to super budget, search them in Momondo, it’s a bit of a pain because you need to search specific dates but the fares are usually a bit cheaper!

Is it true that if you change your location, on Skyscanner for example, you could get better deals (like I'm in the US but I choose Nicaragua)?

It definitely changes! Yesterday there was an amazing deal from Milan to Brazil that was €200 more on UK momondo website than on the Dutch page. It can be completely random searching and sometimes with luck you manage to find them though!

What about cheapoair? I've been buying crazy cheap tickets from them for almost a decade.

I’ve actually never used them! I’ll definitely keep an eye out, Thanks! :-)

Hey Cheney! I'm off from London (any of the airports) to Bangkok in July for a month. How cheap can you get tickets for me? Thanks! :)

Okay so July is not the cheapest time to fly as I’m sure you know! Best I can find is £357 return! Hope this helps! (http://www.momondo.co.uk/flightsearch/?Search=true&TripType=2&SegNo=2&SO0=LON&SD0=BKK&SDP0=02-07-2017&SO1=BKK&SD1=LON&SDP1=02-08-2017&AD=1&TK=ECO&DO=false&NA=false)

Thanks for doing this OP! I'm hoping to go on holiday to Australia this summer. When should I book my flights do you think?

Ohh I’m very jealous! Honestly I’d start looking around now. I usually recommend 3-6 months before an intercontinental flight, but summer is always difficult because it’s so much more expensive on average. Just make sure you set up a lot of alerts and do some manual searching on skyscanner, google flights etc. when you have time and if anything jumps out to you as being feasible and cheaper than normal, I’d go for it!

Huh. My friend had told me I should wait until the last week and hope the airlines have unsold inventory they try to offload for cheap. Is that bad advice?

Oh wow. Uh yeah, I really don’t recommend doing that if you definitely want to go. It’s possible they might but it’s unlikely and I definitely wouldn’t bet on it!

Do you think flights get cheaper or more expensive the longer you wait to book them?

I think in Europe (especially for flights within Europe), flights tend to get cheaper until about 2 weeks before booking. Flights within or from the US are definitely cheaper to book in advance. It’s a bit risky to wait that long though, as if the flight is near full, those price are going to keep rising. I usually say book 1-3 months in advance for within Europe, 3-6 months for intercontinental.

[deleted]

Yeah I have heard of them, am a fan! I know they search for Europe deals as well, but the more people that are searching for these deals the better for everyone. :-)

I'm a big fan of that site! I know they search for Europe deals as well, but the more people that are searching for these deals the better for everyone :)

Do you find cheap flights to the states often like Atlanta or Charlotte?

Honestly it’s pretty rare. Both of those airports have an airline that essentially has a monopoly on the flights coming into and out of that airport, American for Charlotte and Delta for Atlanta, which means there’s less competition and no need for lower prices. :-( They do crop up occasionally but it’s pretty unusual.

Hey Cheney!

I'm looking to fly from Berlin to Hanoi, Vietnam around April/May to catch up with my brother that I haven't seen in some time.

I am perfectly willing to travel within Europe to make it cheaper.

Do you know any tips, tricks or actual flights I can use to make this affordable?

Thanks

Hey! Okay awesome, being willing to travel around Europe makes it a lot more affordable. I recommend using Google Flights or Skyscanner to find dates then to make it even cheaper try searching in Momondo. It can be annoying to use cause you need to put in specific dates but it does work. How long are you wanting to go for? Maybe I can find something for you! Had a quick search; best I can really find is €453 from Frankfurt or €442 from London. Not sure if that’s good enough to help! ( Frankfurt - http://www.momondo.co.uk/flightsearch/?Search=true&TripType=2&SegNo=2&SO0=FRA&SD0=HAN&SDP0=18-04-2017&SO1=HAN&SD1=FRA&SDP1=03-05-2017&AD=1&TK=ECO&DO=false&NA=false)

Do you have any tips for finding cheap tickets in the states?

Southwest website. They don’t share their deals with third party sites.

I read someone post something on Reddit about getting extremely cheap business tickets like Europe -> East Asia for €300 or something like that, but he never updated his post with a method. Do you know of any way of getting cheap business flights?

Hey! For business class fares that cheap it’s an error fare and appears randomly. For cheap flights for Europe to East Asia in general, I’d just individually search the airports or countries you’d be willing to fly out on Skyscanner so, search from Germany to Thailand, Malasyia, China etc. then repeat with Austria for example. Then search the cheapest dates from that and put them into a site like momondo and you’ll usually find something. I’ve definitely found some flights from Europe to East Asia for under €300 including some awesome ones to Tokyo!

Hi Cheney,

I'm looking to book an inexpensive flight from Toronto to somewhere fun to explore with a backpack. I have a flexible schedule and focusing on mid to end of May and the beginning of june. Any thoughts on destinations that would be great to watch for deals?

I would say Mexico, I’ve seen a few deals from Toronto lately, and there is so much to discover around this country :)

As a person from Ireland currently living in Australia, What would be a good way to lower ticket prices for such a large distance ?

Weird answer but I’ve been noticing a lot of cheap flights from Kuala Lumpur to Dublin lately. Like as low as €400 return. So if you can find a relatively cheap fare from Australia to KUL, could definitely be a lot cheaper than just paying whatever it costs to fly on one itinerary from Australia to DUB.

[deleted]

Get one of your organs removed (or a few), hope the bag of coke doesn’t explode. Good luck?

Are there any tricks for business class seats? My company allows business class for international flights >8 hours, but we also have budget pressure.

Although, I have seen error fares for business class seats that were cheaper than economy. They are pretty rare though and honestly, finding cheap business class flights is even more luck based than finding economy ones! Just try searching business class flights on Google Flights or Momondo I guess!

Thanks for doing this AMA! I experienced recently when flying from the U.S. to GB flights were significantly cheaper going into Manchester rather than London. Are there any other highlight locations you know of that may mirror this feature?

Strangely, in the UK, one of the cheapest places to fly out of is Inverness, Scotland. Might be one worth searching! Same with Cologne in Germany!

I work in the hotel industry, so lodging is cheap for me. I'm a US citizen, and would like to travel basically anywhere else in the US whenever I can. If I don't have a destination OR date in mind, and my days off rotate so it could be any time of the week. Do you have any advice for getting deals to random places, or is there a number I could call to find the cheapest flight out of my home airport?

Hey! So I recommend just going onto Skyscanner and searching from your home airport to everywhere then selecting “Cheapest month”. Then if you want to find some even cheaper flights for not much more work, stick those dates into Momondo or Kayak and see if they show up as cheaper!

I fly the same route most of the time. There are multiple options, i.e. Carriers, airports, to get me there. Any tips for maximizing my results?

And don't forget to collect miles, if it's still a thing. Much controversy around this lately

Absolutely! Air Miles rock!

Is the route intercontinental or within Europe? If you know your dates in advance, I’d definitely set up some alerts with Skyscanner or Google Flights. If you’re flexible, even better, set up a really flexible alert if possible but I’d just keep an eye out 3-6 months before for intercontinental and 1-3 months before for within Europe, a lot of it is just searching again and again unfortunately though! :-)

Do cheap flights to India ever pop up?? Trying so hard to visit a friend there, but €525 is the best I've found and it's a lot :-(

They sure do! Where are you based? I saw a €204 return to Mumbai from Amsterdam a few weeks ago! There’s regularly ones in the €300s from quite a few airports in Europe!

I'm terrified of flying. What seat on the plane has less turbulence?

The best seats on the plane for reduced turbulence are those directly over the wings of the plane :)

What's the #1 mistake that normal people make when purchasing flights?

Great question! I think people too often just search their dates once, in one place, and accept whatever price shows up. That’s bad! A lot of times if you book too early (like 9 months in advance) you’ll pay way more than if you’d waited. Set up a Google Flight alert for your route and have a “great” price in mind you’d be willing to book at, then hold out until 4 months or so before your departure date. Also be sure to search Momondo and SkyScanner separately since different prices can show up there sometimes.

London to Israel?

Gonna need more details! Time of year? Length of trip? Where in Israel?

Why are cheap flights so hard to find?

They are not that hard to find once you’ve learned some tricks :) and are flexible with your dates and locations.

Whats your relationship with Dick?

He’s just a friend, I swear.

You said that clearing cookies doesn't matter, but does it matter what browser I use when booking flights?

In my opinion, I don’t think it does. I’m very attached to Google Chrome though so I might not be the best judge but I’ve never seen any evidence that it changes anything!

I tend to shy away from using cheap airlines, because it seems most of them have horrible terms for their workers and I don't want to support that business model. It seems like you can still manage to snag some good deals though. Tips on how you can navigate offers where the lowest price isn't necessarily the ultimate goal?

Hey! So Google Flights is super useful for this actually, as you can use their price comparison graph while excluding certain airlines.

Any cruise tips?

Ha actually yeah. Cruisenation.com has some incredible deals, seems slightly dodgey as you need to book over the phone but my friend has been on one so I promise it’s legit!

Hey Cheney!

A friend and myself really want to take a fun adventure somewhere this June/July. We had originally thought rural Japan, but prices during that time were rather unsavory.

Do you have any suggestions for a unique adventure suggestion? Two rules: can't be north America, cannot be somewhere seasonal cold. Flying out of Toronto.

Hey! Slightly random, but how about the Azores? They’re beautiful, definitely unique and far cheaper to fly to than rural Japan in summer! Check out these flights for €424! I’m tempted to go myself this summer!

(http://www.momondo.co.uk/flightsearch/?Search=true&TripType=2&SegNo=2&SO0=YTO&SD0=PDL&SDP0=05-06-2017&SO1=PDL&SD1=YTO&SDP1=19-06-2017&AD=1&TK=ECO&DO=false&NA=false)

Do you believe in climate change? How do you justify this level of flying if you do?

I do not own a car and I always buy the carbon offsets :-)