Finding Cheap Plane Tickets

I love to travel and because of that, I do extensive research finding the best deals. As a poor college student, who is paying her own way through school, I have a very small budget. Because of this, I do extensive research into finding the best deals to satisfy my love for traveling and stay within my budget. I want to share with you all my top 4 tips in finding cheap flights!

1. Only Search in Private/Incognito Mode!

When searching places to travel or looking up flights, ALWAYS use private/incognito mode! A lot of websites use 'cookies' which informs them of what you have recently visited so that they can cater ads to you, but it also makes flight companies raise the price of tickets knowing that you are waiting to travel there. The websites will slowly increase the price every time you search, hoping to scare you into buying the flight now before prices go up. The cookies will be reset once you close out of the incognito window. Be sure to exit the window and then reopen a new incognito every time you are searching for flights.

2. Email Lists & Subscriptions

Although it can be annoying to receive lots of emails, I get AMAZING deals by subscribing to Pomelo Travel. This company started in Hawaii, when a student at BYU-Hawaii found a flight from Honolulu, Hawaii to Salt Lake City, Utah for $7. Pomelo continually searches for amazing flight deals that are at least half-off or $500 below the normal price. After they find deals they will email you the link and give easy instructions on how to book it. The best thing about Pomelo is that they offer a free version! You will receive 30$ of the deals to you email and not have to pay a dime! If you would like to receive all the deals, and specify what location you want to depart from, you can pay for a premium subscription that's as low as $36 a year. I personally used the free version for about 2 years, which is how I found cheap flights back and forth from Utah to Hawaii. The beginning of this year, I switched to premium and have been amazed at all the deals.

3. Google Flight Searches 

Shea and I talk about cool places we want to visit and I make a list of places we want to go, but I'm always open to travel anywhere. If you are not particular on the exact place that you want to travel, google flights has an amazing tool that you can use to find really good deals. If you go to Google Flights, right above the map, in blue writing is the words "Explore Destinations". You enter the airport that you want to depart from and it will give you options of places to fly. You can change the dates to be specific or choose to leave in the next 6 months. You can also put a maximum price that you want to pay. This tool helps me find cheap tickets to places that I wasn't initially researching. Google Flights will also give you a calendar that states the prices of the tickets on each day so that you know what day is the cheapest to fly.

4. Understanding the Best and Cheapest Times to Fly

If you are wanting to leave the country, or even travel with the US, one of the best things to do is research the places you are going. As you get to know when the tourist season is, best time to travel, the weather, and airlines that fly to your designation,  you will better understand when the cheapest and most expensive time to travel is. This helps you understand when you want to go, the normal price of a plane ticket and how much you are willing to pay. Airlines will often say that they are having a sell on the tickets, but in reality they are more expensive.

Another tip that I have learned is, search for tickets Monday night or Tuesday morning. Airlines compete with each other to have the best prices, so they will often try to lower their price based on their competitors. Sunday nights and Monday mornings are the time when airlines have "price wars", which usually causes the tickets to drop way below normal pricing. You can find these deals by looking for the flights right after the wars happen, usually by the end of the week, the prices have risen back up to the normal price. 

I hope these tips help you as much as they have helped me!

Advice from a girl who loves sales:
If you want the best deals, be open different options and locations. You can never do too much research, especially if it's something you are passionate about. 

Stay tuned for my next post on how to travel cheap! 

PS: Let me know if you use any of my tips to travel, I would love to hear all about it. Write me a comment of other tips and ideas you would like to know. I love to share the things I find!