Very often I get the question “Where do you book these cheap airlines tickets?”. Therefore now finally this blog, with my ‘secret’ for super cheap flight tickets. And believe me, once you know how and where I score great holiday deals, you will also make sure that you never pay full price again. In this blog I will tell you more!
Cheap flight tickets: error fares, open jaw & mega offers
My secret: I book almost all our trips, through error fares, open-jaw or mega-offers. A short explanation about these terms:
Error fare
An error fare is an amount that is so low it should not possible, usually a human error that makes a plane ticket priced too low. Not all error fares are, by the way, mistakes, there are airlines which put their flights very cheap for sale for just a limited time. This can generate a lot of traffic to their website, which they benefit from.
Open Jaw
This means that your departure location is different from your return location. We did this recently: we flew from Eindhoven to Tel Aviv and back from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam. This can result in very cheap tickets!
Mega-offer
And the concept mega-offer, well this speaks for itself … just a very good deal which you cannot refuse. Examples: Flying for a week to Curacao including a 4-star hotel and transfers for less than 400 euro pp. Lucky you, just make sure you read the fine print, and then if you still like the deal, book it immediately before it’s too late!
How do you score a great travel deal?
Before I tell you where I find my ‘deals’, first a few tips on how you score a great deal:
1. Be flexible and creative
Both in terms of data and locations. Are you fixed on the location you want to visit and are you only available during the first week of the summer holidays? Well, then you are going to pay full price … But doesn’t the ‘when’ and ‘where’ you will go play a big role and are you willing to fly on a weekday day? Then you will have great chances of finding a good deal!
Most deals you come across are not during public holidays/ common vacations. Sometimes they are very last minute and often flights are a lot cheaper when you will fly during weekdays So be open to all kinds of different destinations and moments, and also consider flying from another airport. The latter can even be extra fun. For example, if you see a ticket for 300 euros to New Zealand (yes this one was recently passed) where you will depart from Oslo, book a separate ticket to Oslo and visit this city for a few days, and then fly for extremely little money to New Zealand!
2. Be patient
Sometimes it takes a while for the best deal to come along. No worries if you can’t find the perfect holiday immediately. For me, it sometimes takes weeks before a deal comes by which really interests me. If you are looking for a last-minute deal, it might be a bit more difficult, therefore you may have to be more flexible in terms of destination. But there are also plenty of deals for last-minute trips.
3. Don’t wait too long
Have you actually found a deal, do not wait too long! And by this we mean: ‘book within now and a few minutes’! Tickets or hotels with these sharp prices are selling out quickly! Often you have a few hours, but it also happens that they are sold after fifteen minutes. Do not overthink!
Where do you find these travel deals?
And then finally, where do you find these deals? I have a list of websites which I check regally (almost every day) to see if something nice comes by:
- TravelPirates: A website containing many flight deals and nice package holidays. This website has many different country-specific websites like a German, French and Italian version.
- SecretFlying: Usually this website is the first to post new ticket deals. You can select your continent to search for deals relatively nearby.
- Fly4free: Do not mind the ugly layout, you will find nice deals here.
- Flynous: This site also looks pretty out-dated but also nice prices here!
There are also a number of newsletters that you can subscribe to for nice hotel deals or airline tickets, but if I am being honest, I have never booked anything via one of these newsletters. However, they are great for inspiration:
So that’s it, my secret for great travel deals! From now onwards you are going to score great deals and before you know, you will be in that plane flying off to your dream destination!
Do you have any tips or a website which are missing from the list above? Or do you have a question / or need help when booking? Let me know by means of a comment!
