How to find cheap flights: Tips and tricks for cheap travel

It doesn’t take an expert in the travel industry to know Europe and the US are hot destinations right now, literally and figuratively.

The issue is, flights are the opposite of cheap.

If you’re set on taking that Italy trip or London getaway, you may wonder how to find cheap flights or when the cheapest time to fly is.

There is one trick any traveller can use to shave hundreds off an airfare. Even better, it only takes a few seconds and a little flexibility.

The price of a plane ticket varies according to many different factors, many of which boil down to demand. This means the cost to fly to the same destination with the same airline can differ by hundreds of dollars simply depending on how in demand it is.

Since many different airlines fly to the same destination, platforms such as Google Flights or Kayak have grown in popularity.

These websites trawl the internet and present available flights, which travellers can filter according to destination and date as well as the number of stops, total duration, airline or price.

Typically, travellers know where they want to fly and when. However, if you can be flexible with flight times, even by a day, these platforms can help you can save a decent chunk of change.

How to use online platforms to find cheap airfares

To put this to the test, the Herald Travel team used Google Flights to find flights for a hypothetical two-week trip to London.

We searched for return flights from Auckland International Airport to London Heathrow Airport, for two weeks and under 31 hours.

Initially, we set the date for June 30 to July 14. The cheapest option was with Qantas; a 27.5-hour, 2-stop journey for $4,668.

Return flights from Auckland to London on June 30 and July 14 were $4668 according to Google Flights. Photo / Google Flights

Admittedly, this is the prime summer season, so airfares are at peak cost. Yet, even shifting the departure dates by a day saved almost $1000.

On June 29 to July 13, there was a 30-hour ticket with Qantas and Etihad for $3,714, according to Google Flights. This was $950 cheaper than flying on June 30.

If we could shift our pretend Europe trip even four days earlier, we would save $1,154.

A few days prior, the cheapest flight was $3514, more than $1150 cheaper than flying on June 30. Photo / Google Flights

Google Flight’s price comparison page showed that, for return flights on June 26 to July 10, the cheapest flight was the same Qantas and Etihad 30-hour route, but for $3,514.

Regardless of your travel budget, a thousand dollars saved is a decent amount for most Kiwis; one that could see you upgrade some accommodation there, add in a fun experience or even make the trip a possibility.

Those who can also be flexible about the length of their trip can find a grid format, available on Google Flights and similar websites, helpful as well. In this structure, when searching for return flights, travellers can easily see which combination of dates has the cheapest flight.

Google Flights also shows prices in grid format, which allows travellers to quickly spot the cheapest days to fly. Photo / Google Flights