Scott from Scott's Cheap Flights here. I’m a professional cheap flight finder—like Hawaii for $177rt or Paris for $353rt—and I want to help your 2022 travel plans. AMA

Will you ever have a feature where you put dates that you want to travel and only get deals for those dates? I usually know WHEN I can travel, just not to where.

love this feedback. gonna give it some thought. can't promise we will (deciding between 20 great ideas is one of the most difficult things of running a business) but hearing feedback from members like you about what you'd find valuable really does help inform our decision-making, so thank you

All of the cheap flight sites seem to be focused on economy fares. How can I get timely reliable information on cheap business or first class fares? Are there specific flights and carriers to watch for? Are there typical times or days or ways that airlines dump their unsold business or first class seats? Any other tips on trying to move to the front of the plane, particularly on long flights? I’m not a frequent traveler. Nor am I rich, but I’d like to pretend I am for a few hours. Thanks!

We actually just started our Elite service this past summer to find cheap business/first class fares.

A few examples of business class fares we've found and sent members:

- $1,100 roundtrip to Japan (normally $4,000+)
- $291 roundtrip to Costa Rica (normally $1,000)
- $1,300 roundtrip to Israel (normally $4,000+)
- NYC or Boston to Vegas for $597 roundtrip (normally $1,300)
- $1,792 roundtrip to Cape Town (normally $5,000)
- $1,500 roundtrip to all over Europe (normally $3,000)

So glad to see this as the top question. I'm a big guy. I recently had the opportunity to sit first class and I don't know if I can ever go back. I've been thinking I need to budget for this (1st or business, just need the extra leg and elbow room) and then get the cheapest accomodations possible to save money because it actually makes me want to get on an airplane instead of utterly dreading it.

Edit: just saw that op said in another comment:

We have a free tier and two paid tiers (premium and elite, which includes business class deals).

Wooh!!

I've been holding out as long as I can for this very reason! Hard to go back haha.

But you're absolutely right that business class is significantly more expensive than economy, not 2-3x higher but usually more like 5-8x higher. All the more reason for us to make sure people aren't overpaying on their premium economy & business class flights

If I can drink the cost difference between a first class and an economy flight I say it’s worth it.

how many drinks will $1,000 get you

Anecdotal, but I know Delta would rather their international business class seats go empty rather than heavily discounting them, so as not to cheapen their “Delta One” brand. They don’t even do free upgrades for their frequent fliers.

they do do free upgrades, but one thing Delta especially has gotten much better at over the past 5-10 years is selling their premium seats. in 2011 Delta sold just 13% of their first class seats; by 2019 they sold 60% of them.

After two failed trips two years in a row due to restrictions, will I ever be able to go to Japan, Scott 😭?

😭 for real!

I am in the same boat—and also holding tickets to Japan for later this year. Fingers crossed!!

In the past few weeks a tonnnn of places in the Asia-Pacific region announced reopenings, including Australia, Vietnam, Bali, Philippines, India, etc. And Japan started to ease up their border controls for business travelers and students. I'm reasonably confident they'll reopen for tourism (without a quarantine) by the summer, but nothing's sure til it's sure

Canadian here. Would love to try your site out. But doesn't look like Canadian airports are available. How can Scott get us Canadians (who pay some if the highest airfares in the world for domestic flights) use your services?

ahhh appreciate your asking. don't have specific timing on when we'd launch SCF Canada but if you want us to email you as soon as it happens we put together a quick waitlist. (hoping it's sooner rather than later; I miss searching out Canada-departing deals!)

Any spot around the world that will be abnormally cheap to fly to this year?

Europe and Hawaii.

There's been a huge rebound in the number of flights between the US and Europe, but demand is still down ~50% from pre-pandemic. Just last week we saw flights from all over the US to Europe for ~$350 roundtrip, and not just from big US airports, but from almost every airport including Billings, MT, Birmingham, AL, etc.

Plus airlines have really stepped up their flight capacity to Hawaii after Southwest began flying there in 2019, which is why fares have dropped so low, sometimes even below $200 roundtrip if you live on the west coast or under $400 roundtrip from the rest of the mainland.

I once searched for a flight and found one for around $400. I checked with my boss to get time off, got it confirmed. Searched for that same flight and not the cheapest one was $700. This was within 15 minutes. Any idea what went on there?

pro-tip: any flights purchased in the US can be refunded completely within 24 hours. Next time, book the flight first, and if you can't get the time off secured within 24 hours, you can cancel the ticket for a full refund.

this ^

argh, SO FRUSTRATING.

basically what's going on is that airfare is the single most volatile purchase that most of us make. airfare can change by the minute these days, it's not like the old days when it would stay constant for weeks on end.

usually when there's an expensive flight, your best bet is to be patient and it'll often drop cheaper as long as it's not last minute. but I've had many cheap flight regrets where I dawdled on booking and then the deal disappeared right before I was about to book. my condolences

Does turning on a VPN and looking for flights affect the pricing at all? Thanks..

Not for the vast majority of fares. Sometimes there'll be domestic flights in other countries that are priced lower for in-country purchases (think Johannesburg to Cape Town) than for out-of-country purchases. But a VPN won't help most US or international flight prices

From you FAQ:

“Whether cookies/incognito browsers change fares” - we’ll do they? I always hear this but it doesn’t seem true.

Aside, was there any single flight you booked that got you hooked on cheap flights?

Cookies do not change your fare. One of the biggest myths in the flight world—if anyone would have personally witnessed it, I would have after tens of thousands of flight searches a day for the past 6 years—but one the internet won't seem to let go of.

Yes—booking a nonstop flight from NYC to Milan for $130 roundtrip. That deal kicked off my entire career as a cheap flight expert, and I literally don't know what my life would look like right now if I hadn't happened to stumble upon it way back in 2013.

Hey Scott! Would you recommend buying tickets through third party websites if they're cheaper or do you think it's better to go directly though an airlines website? This question came up when I was getting tickets last month through jet blue but bookotrip had cheaper tickets but were super vague about seats and what plan the seats would be part of.

Generally I'll need it to be significantly cheaper for me to consider booking through a third party. Like $100+ if not more.

The reason why booking directly with the airline is generally best is because if there's any issues with your trip (flight gets canceled or changed, you need a refund, etc.) it's a million times easier when you can deal directly with the airline rather than a middleman who may have different policies than the airline.

Most trips I don't run into these issues, which is why I'd be willing to book third party for the right price, but generally prices are about the same or within $10, so in those cases I'll always book direct.

Is there truly a best day and time of the day to purchase flights?

Tons of confusion and misinformation, in part because people often conflate the best time to purchase flights with the best time to take flights.

There is no predictably cheapest time to purchase flights. It used to be Tuesday at 1pm; decades ago when airfare first started getting sold online, airlines would load their fares once a week at a prescribed time (say, Tuesday at 1pm) so if you were one of the first buyers after that, you really could get the cheapest fares. But that hasn't been true for years; nowadays airlines use complex algorithms to change fares not just by the day but often by the hour or the minute.

But there are generally cheapest days to take flights: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Won't be true every single time, but think of it like LeBron James—he's almost always favored to win when he steps on a basketball court, but that doesn't mean he never loses.

How does your company make money ?

We have a free tier and two paid tiers (premium and elite, which includes business class deals).

Try out the free tier if you haven't used us before! If you like it and think you'd benefit from the perks on premium or elite we'd love to have you but no pressure at all—we love all our members and besides it makes me uncomfortable to give hard sells.

Thanks for doing this!

It seems like the cheapest flights that I've seen almost always tend to be the worst quality flights - long layovers, lots of stops, or budget carriers like Frontier that upcharge you for just about everything. Is this usually the case? Are these $200rt flights to Italy or $177rt flights to Hawaii actually any good?

Some cheap flights are bad flights, but that's why we do the Bestie Test at Scott's Cheap Flights—only send out deals if it's one you'd buy for your best friend. Has to not only be cheap, but good too. (No Spirit.)

We very purposefully chose not to take kickbacks or commissions from airlines and instead rely solely on our members for support because that way we can always be completely open and transparent about add-on fees, what's good/bad about a flight, etc. And If it's got too many fees or a terrible routing, we just won't send it

We got r/T Charlotte to Maui for $233. Layovers weren't bad.

wow!

What's the up tick in vacation planning vs 2021 vs 2019?

Flight searches and travel demand is fully rebounded to where it was pre-omicron, about 10-15% lower than 2019 levels.

But I'm anticipating a total recovery in leisure travel by this spring, and perhaps even higher than 2019. Full planes for sure, but with business travel still down 50%, airlines are competing entirely for price-sensitive leisure travelers. We'll continue to be awash in cheap flights even as travel demand surges

My fiance's best friend decided to have a destination wedding in Paris in late July (hooray?) Is spending extra money on refundable tickets/insurance worth it? Any hope for a cheap flight at that time

Yeesh, congrats to your friend but that's a tough nut for cheap flights. July is probably the single most difficult month of the year for cheap flights, especially a longhaul trip like flying to Europe.

Definitely not re: refundable tickets, and probably not re: insurance, though I'd be curious to hear what you'd hope from insurance. If it's to be able to cancel and get your money back, insurance won't really do that for you, at least not in a way that's gonna save you money.

Your best hope for a cheap flight is to be as flexible with your actual flight dates (maybe it's significantly cheaper to fly back a day or two later?), be flexible with what airport you fly into (maybe Amsterdam flights are way cheaper, and then you can just take the train down to Paris), and even what airport you fly out of. (If you live in Philly, perhaps flights are cheaper out of NYC, DC, even Boston.)

Hi Scott,

I’m a paid subscriber until April - primarily because of the change to the subscription plans. Under a $50 subscription, most of the flight “deals” I’ve seen are either 18+ hour journeys or the same handful of locations to Mexico or Florida. Most of these aren’t actually deals at this point - that’s just how much it costs.

The good deals are now locked behind a $200 paywall ie so called mistake fares or discounted premium seats

Are there plans to create a better value proposition for subscribers?

hey Chenan, genuinely appreciate the honesty here. it's not always easy to ask pointed questions, but I really do appreciate when folks do so I can address them.

i don't know which specific deals you're seeing because it depends what airports you signed up for alerts from, but i would take slight issue that we only send bad routings or nearby destinations. here's a few recent deals we sent Premium members:

- nonstop to London for $498 roundtrip (including late summer availability)
- nonstop to Madrid for $336 roundtrip
- nonstop to India for $549 roundtrip
- nonstop to Japan for $596 roundtrip (including fall)

i'm not trying to contradict the way you feel—to the contrary, i feel bad that we've fallen short of your expectations. i don't like that! i just would take slight issue that Premium members don't see good deals. 99%+ of deals we send Elite members are biz class deals that we didn't used to send out at all. and any legacy Premium members we include to get mistake fares out of their selected airports, even if those mistake fares are in biz class

What impact do you think the failure of WOW airlines and Norwegian airlines will have on cheap flights? Will anyone fill their space?

We (family of five) traveled to Europe three times on Norwegian and their pricing made it possible.

i was sad to see both their demise, even though we never sent out WOW deals and rarely sent Norwegian.

new transatlantic budget airlines are popping up to fill their shoes. PLAY airlines is the new WOW, and Norse Atlantic is the new Norwegian (which still exists but doesn't fly transatlantic anymore).

but at this point the die is cast and all airlines, not just budget airlines, are in a race to the bottom when it comes to transatlantic airfare. we're not going back to the old days when flights to Europe were something exclusively reserved for the wealthy

Do you plan to support European airports again?

not in the immediate future. I feel bad about it :(

Hey Scott! Been a premium member since 2017! You've helped me celebrate my wedding, my honeymoon, and in April, I got some tickets out to Lihue for $197 so my son can celebrate his 1st birthday with his grandma on mom's side.

I just want to say thank you for being so awesome! Yours is a service I don't think I'll ever be ending my subscription for.

Since I need to ask a question, how are you doing today?

yesssss soo good! congrats to you on all those great deals!!

man, i was a bit tired but then i read your comment and i'm all enthused for your family and your success at being able to take advantage of the great cheap flights popping up. <3 <3 <3

Hey Scott! If you could give 3 tips to a young adult interested in traveling more on a young adult’s budget, what would they be?

(1) Take advantage of your flexibility to get as cheap of fares as possible

(2) Visit off the beaten path destinations while you're young and mobile. Gets more difficult later when you're traveling with family

(3) Prioritize regions that are really cheap once you arrive (and of course get there on a cheap flight)—Southeast Asia, eastern Europe, southern Mexico, etc.

Why don't you list date ranges in your emails anymore?

We decided to take it out of the subject line just to make it shorter/cleaner, but it's still in the contents

Oh shit. My name is on that list!!

Scott! I'm a super fan!

Our MCO to DUB trip is fast approaching & we have NO plans. We're literally going to show up & book a Dublin hotel on our layover in London & figure out the rest when we get to Dublin. It's a 14 day trip & I've never gone in completely unprepared like this before. Really not sure what to do!

Eek. Any tips? (I'm a planner, but we have good reasons for waiting until the last minute.)

yes! you're awesome! thank you for sharing that awesome deal you got :D

funnnnnn. so exciting! Dublin is a cool city but the real charm of Ireland is renting a car and driving all around the country. my favorite two spots:

- Sligo and hiking up the tabletop mountain Benbulbin
- Exploring the pre-historic rock structure Newgrange. it's so special

I know borders are still closed to Japan, and who knows when they heck they actually open back up, but what’s your prediction on how early in advance should I book to Tokyo if I wanted to go in March 2023?

The million dollar question! I've got flights to Japan for later this year so following very closely myself.

You can only book flights 11-12 months out so those won't even be available for another month or two, and generally speaking flights aren't cheap when they first become available.

The Goldilocks Window for when international flights are most likely to become cheap is 2-8 months in advance of travel, so I'd start really monitoring fares when summer rolls around.

Is it possible to go from Texas to Australia cheaply?

It is. Our last Dallas-Sydney deal was just $354 roundtrip, in fact. (Normally $1,300+)

There haven't been many Australia deals lately, but with their border reopen as of yesterday, I think it's only a matter of time until they start coming back in earnest

Not Scott, but I scored a $538/RT from Houston to Sydney in Sept 2019. Best trip of my life!! The deals are out there but they go really fast.

amazing!

Planning on expanding to Canadian airports anytime?

ahhh don't have specific timing on when we'd launch SCF Canada but if you want us to email you as soon as it happens we put together a quick waitlist

Are there any airlines in particular that you find are more likely to have good deals than others?

Does my calculus around cheap flights change if I have frequent flyer status with one group of airlines?

in 2021 at least, United was our cheap flight king

https://scottscheapflights.com/guides/the-best-airlines-for-cheap-flights

you can place as much or as little value on elite status as you want, but if you don't have any yet, my sense is that it's almost never worth the extra money you'd spend to attain elite status versus just being loyal to cheap flights on whichever airline (you're allowed to have ones you won't fly like Spirit of course)

Ok I’ve got a weird one for you.

I’m an American who is living and teaching English in Chengdu, China. Currently entry into China is prohibited. I haven’t been back to the US in about 4 years and my sister is getting married. She’s having a wedding in Italy in May. I’ve looked up flights and they’re thousands of dollars, any tips for this strange predicament haha?

Thanks in advance

Argh, so sorry to hear about your trouble.

The reason why flights are so expensive is because there are so few of them flying to China right now, especially compared to 2019. Those that are flying know that anyone buying tickets is a motivated buyer, not a normal price-sensitive tourist, so they can charge top dollar because the person will probably pay in order to, say, get home for a wedding.

My best advice would be to play around with dates and airports—is it cheaper if you pair a Chengdu-Shanghai flight with a Shanghai-Italy flight? is it cheaper if you fly anywhere else in Europe (Barcelona, Zurich, Paris, London, etc.) and then catch an onward budget flight or train to Italy from there?

Is travel insurance worth buying? All the cheap economy tickets don’t come with cancelation or changes but the insurance is hundreds of dollars extra. 😐

ehhh usually not unless you have something really specific that you want to be insured for that you're not already insured for.

many people don't realize that they're already insured by federal law, the airline, and, in many cases, by the credit card they used to pay for their flight.

airline cancels or changes your flight? federal law entitles you to a full cash refund.

want to change your travel dates? airlines are automatically offering flexibility with no change penalties (as long as you don't have a basic economy ticket).

a big delay strand you at your layover airport? the airline or credit card will likely cover your hotel, meals, etc.

luggage get lost or damaged? federal law requires reimbursement from the airline, and your credit card will often hook you up too.

if there are other things you want insurance for then great! but i can't recommend paying for something you're already covered for.

also, anytime you're getting insurance, be sure to read the fine print closely. you're basically never covered just for deciding you no longer want to take a trip you've booked, even if there's mandatory quarantines at your destination, for instance

Hey Scott, love using your service, what in your opinion is the best time to go to the Philippines?

Thank youuuu.

Since it's a tropical location the temperature should be pretty consistent—I'd just ideally avoid the rainy season (June-October or so)

Hey, Scott! Is it true that the cheapest date to book a flight is 90 days prior? If not, when is it considerably cheaper to buy a ticket? Thanks 🥂!

P.S. Adorable doggo!

not exactly true! rather than a hyperspecific date, the better way to think of it is like this.

The best time to book is when a cheap flight pops up, and cheap flights are most likely to pop up during Goldilocks Windows. For domestic flights, the Goldilocks Window is typically 1-3 months in advance of travel; for international it's 2-8 months in advance. Add a couple months on each if you're traveling during a peak travel period

(Chela barks thank you!)

Do you?

I really do, PrivatePickle109

Hi, Scott. What is your most highly recommended resource for finding cheap flights? Also what notable airports are usually the cheapest?

We put together our rankings of the best US airports for cheap flights. No surprise, NYC, LA, and Chicago are the big winners.

Domestic

International

Hi Scott - I'm glad you're doing an AMA as I've been checking for deals almost every day to go to Rome with my friend during the summer.

My question is, how would you navigate buying separate tickets if you wanted to stay at one destination for under two days (let's call it B), and then fly to your final destination (let's name it C)? My example would be my friend and I who want to fly to Rome to explore for two days, and fly further inside of Italy where we'll be staying.

Thanks for your time!

Love this question!

I would almost certainly buy roundtrip flights to/from Rome, and then just take a train to wherever else in Italy you'll head for your final destination. Almost certainly going to be cheaper that way than to try to build a multi-stop flight itinerary.

If it was a stopover of <24 hours, you can often do that without getting charged extra by the airlines. In fact, sometimes I'll prefer Europe flights that have a 8+ hour daytime stopover so I can get out and explore a while (free of charge!) before continuing on to my final destination.

Hey Scott! Been a premium member for years and appreciate the deals.

Planning my honeymoon for October/November this year, what beach and resort destination often has discount flights? Also do you have any off the beaten path honeymoon destinations? Based in Memphis but often look out of hubs like DFW, ATL and MIA.

I’m getting sticker shock with these $600+ flights to the Caribbean and Central America

appreciate you! <3

congrats!! excited for the two of you.

there have been a lot of great Caribbean deals lately, and while Cancun sees the most deals, it's certainly not off the beaten path. i'd keep an eye on Turks & Caicos, US Virgin Islands, or Aruba. been lots of $300 roundtrip or cheaper flights to those 3.

good luck!

Do your deals only cover economy flights, or are other cabin classes something you can help with too? When taking long flights (e.g. transatlantic, especially if we want to go to Hawaii!) we always find it worth splashing on higher classes for the 12+ hours of better comfort...

Yes we've got you! We launched our Elite tier this past summer to make sure that members never miss out when there's a great deal in premium economy or business class.

A few examples of business class fares we've found and sent members:
- $1,100 roundtrip to Japan (normally $4,000+)
- $291 roundtrip to Costa Rica (normally $1,000)
- $1,300 roundtrip to Israel (normally $4,000+)
- $1,500 roundtrip to Europe (normally $3,000)
- NYC or Boston to Vegas for $597 roundtrip (normally $1,300)
- $1,792 roundtrip to Cape Town (normally $5,000)

WHO DEY! 🐅 I’ve seen you rep Cincy before — are you from here?

Huge fan and subscriber. Got an incredible deal to Japan in 2019!

I am! Grew up in Southwest Ohio, been a lifelong suffering Bengals fan. Had an absolute blast watching the team this year and zero hard feelings about the way the last game ended :) (:cry:)

Amazing! So excited to get back to Japan once they reopen later this year

Why is my flight from my home to my hometown twice as much as it was last year?

Airfare is the single most volatile purchase we make. I remember a deal we saw once from Atlanta to Amsterdam that on Monday was $800 roundtrip, on Tuesday was $300 roundtrip, and on Wednesday was $1,300 roundtrip. And it was the exact same flight!

Today's expensive flight might be tomorrow's cheap flight and vice versa. If fares are too high today, the best strategy is usually patience.