It is a no-brainer that by scoring cheap air tickets you can loosen the purse strings and plan a more elaborate itinerary. But getting cheap flight tickets might not be a walk in the park if you take your
flight bookings for granted and plan to do it at a date closer to your day of journey. If you are on the lookout for cheap flight booking, you need to start early and sharpen your research skill, and what’s more, your flexibility to make an impromptu change in your travel date. In fact, it takes more than research to book cheap flight tickets - you need equal doses of patience and flexibility. Below we have compiled a ready-reckoner on landing cheap flights fares.
11 steps to Bagging Cheap Flight Rates
1. Begin your Research at least 6 weeks ahead: Prior to booking your flight tickets, you need to duly do your research across airlines websites, aggregator sites, and flight search engines. When looking for
cheap domestic flights, two months to a month and a half in advance is the ideal window to begin your cheap flight search. In case you are vying for
cheap international flights, the window widens to about 24 weeks ahead of your date of journey. You need to hop on to the requisite flight sites and keep checking the fares regularly to pull out a pattern. Flight fares are different on different days of the week. The same holds true if you are looking for cheap flights to India.
2. Buy your ticket no less than 2 weeks of your date of journey: Once you are through with the legwork, make sure you close the booking. A lot of us tend to get carried away with the research process and postpone the actual booking of tickets to a date closer to the date of travel. You need to close your booking sometime between 2 and 4 weeks of your estimated departure date. This becomes more critical if you are travelling in the festive season, on a long weekend or a gazetted holiday because the airfares are going to spike up substantially. To land cheap international air tickets, for instance, you are looking for
cheap flights to Canada, you need to have your flight tickets booked and confirmed at least three months ahead of your travel date.
3. Mid-week prices are always better than weekend prices: Airlines typically announce the sales on select routes on a Monday night with the idea that the aggregator sites will gear into action just at the beginning of the week. Latest by Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning competitor airlines try to match the prices or offer further discounts on the said route. So, in case you are looking for cheap air tickets domestic, pick a weekday or even a Saturday for travel. Make sure you avoid Fridays and weekends as demand for tickets on those days is relatively higher, leading to a subsequent hike in fares. To get cheap international flight tickets, for instance, you are searching
cheap flights to London, flying on a weekday will turn out to be comparatively cheaper than flying on weekends.
4. Be open to a brief change in your date of travel: When looking up aggregator websites and flight engines for a cheap air ticket, do it across a four-day window. You might be pleasantly surprised to find a significant drop in the fare on the third or fourth day. And it would be a good idea to make your cheap air tickets online booking on the day of the most discounted flight fare.
5. Search for a red-eye flight: In your quest for cheap flights, you will have to forgo convenience and settle even for those flights which depart after 9 pm and bring you to your destination early morning. These red-eye flights are hardly the obvious choice of passengers and are hence marked down steeply in order to generate some interest. Most aggregator websites have a filter to select your preferred time of flying. By going for a red-eye flight you will realize the significant fare difference in the two kinds of flights. This is particularly true for international flights, in case you are have been researching
cheap flights to Australia, you can travel to your desired destination on your chosen date at a much lower fare on a red-eye flight.
6. Always browse in incognito mode to get better fares: By going incognito you stop websites from planting cookies on your computer that further keeps a track of the number of times you are visiting a website. If you have been doing your groundwork on cheap domestic flight tickets and have been frequently visiting a few or aggregator sites on a daily basis, chances are you are going to be shown a hiked fare or even same fare owing to your interest in them. And you might end up paying a higher price than you had bargained for in your search for cheap air flight tickets. So, instead of letting those cookies browse your data, hop on to the incognito mode and carry out a new search each time to get the latest fares. Another idea is to delete your cookies every time you browse just so that you don’t miss out on a good fare.
7. Compare fares on a low-cost airline with the aggregator sites: For cheap air tickets in India, aggregator websites are the best platform to do your research and compare the fare prices across airlines and across timings. When browsing aggregator sites, it is a good idea to look up the cheap airfare calendar for the subsequent 30 days to get a sense of the lowest airfare days in that month. Yatra.com, for instance, has a particularly interesting tool, the
Lowest Fare Finder Tool. This tool shows you the cheapest airfare days in a graphic view for the three subsequent months. For an international holiday, you can view the fares for the 11 subsequent months and accordingly settle for a date of journey. You can follow up this research by keeping a tab on the offerings by the low-budget airlines. They might just spring a surprise your way by coming up with an attractive fare that is significantly better than those on the aggregator sites.
8. Settle for a no-frills carrier: Often times the fares with low-cost airlines are considerably lower than a luxury or full board carrier. For cheap flight deals, forsake the comforts that one associates with air travel such as swish on-board amenities or food and wine, and settle for a low-budget airline that offers no-frills, and you have a deal in your hands. You can even go to the cheap flight's websites to mark down the economy carriers that come with no frills. However, you need to book this budget carrier to at least a couple of weeks in advance, else even their fares might go up if you put it away until much later. For instance, if you are looking for cheap flights to the USA, you can look up low-cost carriers of the likes of JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier and Southwest. Those looking for cheap flights to Europe must try out Norwegian Air.
9. Subscribe to newsletters and price alerts: In order to book cheap flight tickets online, this can be a good hack. Every airline, fight search engine and aggregator site come up with newsletter stating the deals and discounts they will be offering in the upcoming season. They also provide SMS and email alerts on a price drop on a specific route including providing promo codes to avail a cheap flight in the festive season or during a long weekend. Aggregator websites of the likes of Yatra.com tie-up with banks to give you cashback, EMI facility or discount on your return fare provided you use the coupon code and make the booking using the stipulated credit card. Most of these offers are valid for a limited period, and by subscribing to such price alerts or newsletters you can be abreast of the best price offered by an airline or agent.
10. Avoid buying a round trip air ticket: This is one of the greatest myths about air travel that buying a two-way fare fetches you a better price than buying a one-way ticket. In fact, you should always book your onward and return journeys separately, preferably on different airlines to bag the cheapest airfare deal. When you search aggregator websites, you will notice a trend emerging on how the onward and return journeys can cost significantly different across airlines. For instance, a Delhi to Kolkata aboard a SpiceJet can cost you INR 4500, but a Kolkata to Delhi aboard an IndiGo can cost you INR 3200. So, you need to be flexible about hopping airlines and picking up the best fares dished out by them for your date of journey.
11. Waiting until the last minute: In case you can afford to not make the trip, after all, it could pay to wait until the last hour. Airlines in order to fill up seats in an aircraft announce
cheap air tickets offers such as last-minute sales which come with a significant drop in prices. The prices could well even be halved, and you can land a nifty cheap airfare deal. But this comes at the risk of the aircraft running to capacity and not having any seats left on the penultimate day of departure. So, in case your itinerary is an open-ended one, and you can change not taking the holiday at all, this could be a good approach to landing a cheap flight ticket.
Advantages of Cheap Flight Tickets OTAs
The online travel companies (OTAs) like yatra.com provide a one-stop solution to get the best deals not just from the airlines but also from all other segments of the travel business. Yatra.com, leading online travel solutions provider of India, strives to get cheap air tickets for its customers from the airlines serving domestic or international destinations. At Yatra.com, we are well aware of all the factors that have a bearing on the flight ticket pricing and, being a prominent player in the booking and travel business in India, are well-positioned to get the cheap flight tickets for you.
Yatra offers a single platform to its customers where the discount offered by the different airlines for various seasons, dates and routes can not only be known but also be booked online. Being an important intermediary across the various domains of the travel business, we save the time, effort and money of the customers by offering them comparative analysis of the various travel products and services from different players. Also, we offer the best suggestions and tips based on our vast experience to make your travel totally hassle-free. Also, on Yatra.com, you can easily do
web-check-in, check the
flight status online and even can check the flight schedules.
By offering various other services including the accommodation, car rental, and train booking services, we are in a unique position to devise a low-cost travel budget for you. By virtue of our being volume business generators for the various service providers, be it the airlines, hotels and transport providers, we hold the leverage to negotiate cheap air tickets and best price hotel and car rentals for our customers. This way we are able to give the best quotes for the whole journey, beginning with the cheap flight tickets.
When you’re planning a holiday, one of the most important things to consider is the travel cost, because this can determine the overall quality of your vacation. While it may seem almost impossible to get a cheap flight booking, the good news is that it is actually not so.
What then should you take into account when searching for the best flight options? Here are some useful tips to point you in the right direction.
Cheap Air Tickets FAQs
Q). How to book cheap flight tickets online on Yatra.com?
A: Below are the steps mentioned for booking cheapest flight tickets -
- 1. Go to the Booking Engine Search Box.
- 2. Fill "from" and "to" destinations.
- 3. Fill the departing date as per your travelling date. You can put the return date also.
- 4. Fill the number of travellers and the class in which you want to travel.
- 5. Click on "Search Flights" button and you will get the cheapest flight as per the city you have selected.
Do a compare of the price, the timings, and not to mention, the airline, and confirm your booking.
NOTE: This webpage is dedicatedly designed to show you the cheapest air tickets from all over the world including domestic as well as international airlines.
Q). How can I get cheap last-minute flights on Yatra.com?
A: Study the Great deals and Offers on various airlines presented on Yatra.com. Newsletters and price alerts are other sure-shot measures of getting a cheap last-minute flight. Don’t forget to follow the various budget airlines on social media to know their last-minute ticket sales or any discounts they come up with to fill the aircraft. Also, be flexible with the flight timings and you might bag the last-minute cheap air tickets you are looking for.
Q). Is there a deal going on currently on Yatra.com to bag cheap air tickets?
A: 1. Currently, the best deal we have got for you is
ICICI Credit Card EMI Yatra Offer. By this offer, you will up to Rs.1,000 off on Domestic Flights and up to Rs.5,000 off on International Flights. Use
Promo Code - ICICIEMI to avail this offer. Valid till 31st Jan 2020. For More Details, check this offer.
here. 2. Also, Yatra
Axis Bank EMI Offer is also currently on. Get up to Rs. 1,000 off on Domestic and up to Rs. 5,000 off on International Flights. Check the details
here
Use
Promo code - AXISEMI19 to avail this offer. This Offer is Valid till 31st March 2020. Book your tickets now!!
Q). When is the best time to book cheap flights?
A: On an average, For domestic flight booking, 2-3 weeks in advance and for international trips, 5-6 months in advance is the best time to book flights.
Q). How to get the best deals on airtickets on Yatra.com?
A: Here are the steps to check Offers and Discounts on Yatra for
Cheap Flights -
- 1. Visit our homepage and click on ‘Yatra Specials’ for the latest deals and offers on domestic and international flights.
- 2. The section lists exclusive tie-ups with banks, e-wallets, airlines and other promotional, seasonal and static offers.
- 3. Choose the offer that suits you the best.
- 4. Read the terms and conditions, coupon code, validity before availing an offer.
Q). What are the cheapest airlines?
A: SpiceJet, IndiGo, GoAir are among the low-cost carriers in India.
Q). Which is the best site to book cheap flights?
A: Cheap flight tickets can be bought directly off the airline’s website or through an aggregator website. It depends on how early you are making the booking, and whether or not you are using any promo code to avail an on-going discount. Yatra is known to offer cheap flights on the both domestic and international front and comes up with deals and discounts across seasons.
Q). How can I book Cheap International airtickets?
A: Firstly, For Booking International Airlines keep a tab on the flight search engines to know the prices being offered by them for your date of journey. Also, it is important to know the significance of your date of travel in case it coincides with a festival/carnival/holiday, etc. Look for discounts pertaining to those dates. Subscribe to the newsletters and price alerts by the top airlines flying to your chosen destination, and also be flexible about your flight timing, and you might just land a cheap international flight ticket. The aggregator sites are also a good place to look for offers and discounts on popular international flight routes.
Q). Is it cheaper to buy a flight ticket at the airport?
A: No, it is not a good idea to pick up a ticket directly from the airport kiosk since the ticket prices will be higher than expected, and more importantly, may not be available for your said dates. A last-minute ticket is going to be particularly higher when booked at the airlines counter at the airport. Look at airports as a place to board and de-board from a flight, not a place to shop for cheap airline tickets.
