It would seem, what kind of question? The sooner, the better. But this statement is only partially correct, because there are other factors besides the margin of time. Let's figure out when it's cheaper to buy plane tickets.
There are many authoritative studies that convincingly demonstrate how profitable it is to buy tickets as early as possible. Because of this, many travelers go out of their way to plan their next trip in a year, and then are very disappointed to learn that they would have saved the same amount (and sometimes more) by making a purchase a couple of months before departure. Why it happens?
When can I buy the cheapest flights
If you buy a ticket a year before departure, then it is beneficial, first of all, to the airline, and not to you. The carrier receives a guaranteed passenger and working capital, and you get a headache, because, you see, it is not easy to predict the date for such a long time.
- Do not miss:
Experienced travelers are advised to start thinking about buying an air ticket no earlier than 4-5 months before the desired date. It is at this time that airlines, based on the percentage of flight occupancy, begin to “throw out” interesting offers on the market.
Most tourists consider the optimal time to buy 90 days before departure, plus or minus 10 days. American journalist and traveler Peter Greenberg claims that the cheapest way to buy plane tickets is 50-60 days in advance. In his opinion, it is at this time that the actualization of statistical data and a temporary decline in prices take place. But the long-term statistics of the company CheapAir even names the exact date - 54 days.
When less than 50 days remain before departure, the chances of buying a ticket at a profit are rapidly fading. Apparently, not everyone knows this, because it is then that the peak of demand begins. According to statistics, most tickets are bought 30-40 days before departure, when they are almost the most expensive.
If you missed the 50-day milestone, then there is one more chance to get a cheap air ticket. True, the chance is rather risky, so it should be resorted to only if the flight is not critical. You need to calmly wait for time, and on the eve of departure, start “live” on the airline’s website, in the hope that someone will remove the reservation and the ticket will be put up for sale at a bargain price. This happens, however, like miracles, very rarely.
What days can you buy the cheapest flights
Yes, don't be surprised. The day, and even the hour, of buying a ticket plays no less a role than the time remaining before departure. The cost of the same air ticket purchased, say, on Thursday evening and Friday morning, may differ by 10-20%. 
The most profitable days for shopping are Tuesday and Wednesday, when the airline databases are updated. The aforementioned Peter Greenberg argues that the ideal time is one after midnight, on a Wednesday. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but there is a certain sense that it is more profitable to buy plane tickets at night.
- Read also:
Most people are looking for cheap flights on so-called aggregators, such as Aviasales.ru. These are sites that collect information from different agencies and operators by downloading prices from their pages. If you visit such a site during the day when the load is increased, there is a possibility that he simply will not have time to load all the data in the allotted time. As a result, some of the tasty options may simply not get into the search results. At night, the load is minimal, which eliminates this possibility.
Thus, knowing when it is cheaper to buy plane tickets, you can save from 10 to 40% of their cost and fly more often to the countries you plan to visit.
Additional tools for finding cheap flights:
Many tourists choose solo travel, since this method is cheaper in many cases. This is very debatable, it is often more profitable to buy a tour, but it is really much more profitable to fly to some destinations on your own.
Many tourists first of all try to search on the Internet which of the sellers has a cheaper ticket, simply by comparing prices. This is the most unwise course of action. The final price itself is the same for all sellers, it is set by the airline, and the sellers only receive their commission, which amounts to a few percent.
You will not get a big discount, the difference will be about 1% of the price. And this is clearly not the savings that we want to get, rather it is a "bazaar" approach. We are smart people, we will understand the air ticket market and understand how you can really save money here.
How are ticket prices determined?
First of all, let's figure out how airlines set ticket prices for a particular flight. Of course, airlines have costs, and the ticket price should be higher than these costs. But airlines are trying to make the most profit on each flight and have a “floating price” policy, that is, when the demand for tickets for a particular flight is high, the price is kept high, as soon as they feel that the sales schedule is not high enough, they begin to reduce the price.
We will consider the "catching" of air tickets on the example of the Moscow-Beijing flight, we just have accumulated vast experience on this flight.
Cheap flights can be of different types.
Tickets can be bought cheap and very cheap. Very cheap tickets arise when the airline "bleeds" to sell a certain number of tickets for the flight. They do not happen every time, that is, it is more than likely that for the entire period of ticket sales for the flight you need, such tickets will not arise at all.
We will not be guided by such tickets, since catching them requires either an automatic system or a permanent presence on special sites. If you manage to buy a ticket at such a price, it will be a pleasant “bonus” for you.
Here are the price statistics for the Moscow-Beijing flight, Aeroflot round trip tickets. Attention! The price level depends on the season, in autumn, for example, tickets are more expensive, and in January they are cheaper. But if you're planning to fly a few days before the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), get ready to see the heaviest price tag. It is customary for the Chinese to celebrate this holiday at home, and all the Chinese try to get home at this time.
An example of prices for Moscow-Beijing tickets in the fall:
Attention! We give as an example the prices of 2014. At the time of your reading the article, prices may vary greatly from those below.
– The regular price for the flight is 18,000 rubles
- A good price, which is really to catch 15,000 rubles
– A very good price when companies “throw off” tickets 12,000 rubles
– The peak price when there are not enough tickets is 22,000 rubles
By the way, in winter in mid-January, you can buy a ticket for 15-16,000 rubles without any additional effort. Tickets for January are "caught" at a price of 12-13,000 rubles.
"Catching" technology.
The technology consists of the following stages. First of all, we go to a specialized site, look for tickets for the desired dates. The second step is to set up a daily notification by e-mail. The third stage is the longest, it consists in checking your mailbox, and if the price suits you, buy.
Now there are two services on the Internet that can help us. The first is Aviasales. To be honest, he is weak, and we will not talk about him in detail.
As a second service, we recommend www.skyscanner.ru. If you know of other services that support notification by e-mail, send me an email and I will add them to this article. By the way, this site itself does not sell tickets, it only searches for them, you still have to choose a seller, but this is a separate topic for conversation, we will talk about this later.
So, you decided to go to Beijing in early March (the time of writing the article is January), you have already agreed at work on a vacation for this period. Go to the site and choose the points of departure and arrival.
The next step is to choose the dates for the round trip. Most likely, you do not need to arrive at your destination strictly on a certain day, because you independent tourist and manage your own time. Therefore, the procedure that we describe below should be done several times with different date options.
For example, we want to fly to Beijing around March 2nd and return around March 8th. In this case, choose the options:
The more options, the more chances you have to buy cheaper flights. You have already noticed that prices are higher on some days and lower on others. Find the button "Track prices" on the left side of the site, click on it and enter your email address.
Now every day you will receive an email notification with the current price of all tickets. Every day you see this notification, and decide to buy or wait further.
The notification looks like this:
Look carefully, the price for flights on the 1st there - on the 8th back has increased by 20% in one day, perhaps we have already “missed” a good price. In this situation, you need to decide whether to take the 1st flight there - the 7th back, or still wait. We recommend waiting in such a situation, there is still a lot of time. If there were two weeks left before the flight, then you would definitely have to take the price of 15,300, this is a good price for this flight, but there are still more than two months before the flight, there will still be a good price.
How to understand which price is good and which is not.
Of course, we can tell you the ticket prices for some destinations, but in the vast majority of cases, neither you nor we can say for sure which price is considered cheap and which is not.
In this section, we will tell you how to determine this based on a minimum amount of input data.
This task comes up all the time in life. Most often, it occurs among traders on the stock and currency exchanges, when the exchange rate or stock fluctuates and you need to determine the moment of purchase.
There is a very interesting visual mathematical problem, it is called the task of choosing a choosy bride.
|
Terms: Grooms come to the bride, and they come in turn. There are 100 suitors in total (for example). The bride evaluates the groom and then tells him “yes” or “no”. The suitors are not returning. Necessary: Choose the best. Interesting, isn't it? In fact, the task is very difficult, because the bride has no idea what the "ceiling" of the qualities of the grooms, she may consider the very first groom to be very good, but in fact he is weak compared to the next. We will not describe the solution process, especially since mathematicians defend their doctoral dissertations on this topic, the most famous person who received a doctorate on this issue is Boris Berezovsky, now deceased. |
 |
Solution: We need to reject the first n/e suitors and choose anyone who is better than all of them. E=2.718. If there are only 100 suitors, then you need to reject the first 36 suitors and continue to wait for the one who is better than them. Maximum Odds best choice with this decision 37%.
How to use this solution when buying air tickets.
In our case, we do not need to have the best price. A price close to the lowest will also suit us. After all, trying to "catch" the best price, you run the risk of being left without tickets at all.
Use the following solution. Follow the price for a while, we usually follow the price for a week. And you will understand what the minimum price was for this period. For example, the minimum price was 14,500 rubles during the week, which means that we will “catch” the price of 13,500 or lower.
Sit in ambush and wait for the price, it will be.
Airlines set prices on the principle of "make more money", this price holds for a while, but then it turns out that the sales schedule is not as good as we would like, and prices are reduced, as the airline risks getting an incompletely filled plane.
The goal of the airline is to fill the plane completely, and at the same time it is desirable to earn more. But remember that they are much more afraid of getting a half-empty plane than they are not getting enough profit. Prices will be low, there will be such a moment. We "caught" tickets dozens of times for ourselves, for relatives and friends, the price has always been low. Although, we assume that there are flights when there are no cheap air tickets.
But remember that greed destroys many, do not overdo it with your appetites. Once you decide to buy tickets, go to the site, you will need to choose a ticket seller, choose any one, they are all the same and buy. But, if you have the opportunity to choose the airline itself for purchase, but it is a little more expensive, of course it is better to choose it.
Check your mail, wait for the price, and you will buy tickets at a good price..
Mega instructions on how to find and buy plane tickets for the cheapest price! 15 tricks that will help you significantly bring down the price of air tickets.
- How to learn how to search and book tickets correctly?
- How to break the system and force the airlines to turn their cunning tricks against themselves?
- How to deal a crushing blow to the empire of air transportation, to know the Force and use it for the benefit of free travel?
The answers are in this article!
I love to travel, I fly often and I always try to do it cheaply, and even better for free. For ten years of active travel and six years of work on the site, I have accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge. In this review, I will tell you everything I know about finding the cheapest plane tickets.
The article is long, so please be patient. But it will definitely change your life, significantly increasing the time you spend traveling.
Go!
But nothing! Let's solve the problem :)
I hasten to convey space knowledge to you :) 1. Use search engines 100%
Where to look for cheap plane tickets? Sites that compare prices different airlines and agencies. These services are called search engines. In 10-15 seconds they will find you the best price and the most convenient flight.
The two most popular and convenient search engines are Aviasales and Skyscanner. If you use them when looking for cheap flights, this is about 80-90% success. However, to get the full benefit from search engines, you need to use their capabilities at 100% - and not everyone does this: even travelers who are well acquainted with them do not know about a number of excellent features of these aggregators. Next, I will talk about all the cool features of search engines.
If you are looking for tickets only on airline websites or, God forbid, go to the aunts at the ticket office, then do not expect a meeting with cheap tickets.
Before buying flights, check the price on both search engines for greater reliability - this way you will increase your chances of finding the cheapest plane tickets. Usually they find the same options, but sometimes there is a difference in price - 2-5%.
It is useful to have a search engine for cheap tickets always at hand. I advise you to install mobile app to your smartphone. Aviasales has convenient apps for both Android (download) and iPhone (download). In 2019, more than half of users are already looking for and buying tickets through mobile applications.
Let's remember! Cheap flight search engines are the easiest and most reliable way to find tickets at the lowest price.
Learn to cheat and fly cheap! Photo: © jrpboo / flickr.com. 2. Fly where it's cheaper
You will save: ≈ 20-70%.
: for the direction you need and specific dates, prices are always evil. I've dealt with this a thousand times already. The real law of meanness! But the system can be deceived - give up specific plans and fly to rest where it is cheaper. If you like this approach, then you will save a lot on tickets.
Advanced Search is Skyscanner's coolest search feature. I start many of my travels with it - I study all the cheapest tickets from the desired country / city and decide where to fly.
Do this:
- In the window "Where" indicate the whole country or city from which it is convenient for you to fly. Plus, you can check the "Add nearby airports" box.
- In the window "Where" write "Everywhere" or leave the field empty - now the search engine will search for the cheapest tickets to all countries of the world.
- In the fields departure and return dates specify "Entire month" or "Entire year".
Aviasales also has a similar tool: low price calendar >>
Or use the map low prices on Aviasales and Skyscanner - the essence is the same, only all low-cost flights are displayed on the world map. There is something inspiring about it!
Let's remember! Be flexible in your choice of destination and travel time, and you will save a lot.
Here is an example of how to fill out the search form on Skyscanner:
Search form for cheap air tickets in all directions at once. 
List of cheap tickets from Moscow (round trip). 
Photo: Eva Tushenkina © fishki.net. 3. Watch for price drops
You will save: ≈ 10-40%.
Ticket prices fluctuate like the pressure of a hypertensive patient - they change every day, and sometimes even within an hour. You need to start hunting in advance and catch a ticket when the price drops as much as possible.
It is not necessary to check price changes daily or hourly, search engines can do this. Subscribe to Aviasales news by e-mail or to their bots in social networks. Set the direction and time of departure, set the size of the desired discount or the maximum price - the robot will send you an email as soon as the ticket price drops to the desired level. Convenient and efficient!
Stick to the rule: as soon as there is a chance to buy cheap tickets, you need to take it. Don't hesitate - buy.
Remember the periods when plane tickets can be bought the cheapest:
- a year before the planned trip;
- 2-3 months before departure (especially for low-cost airlines);
- a few days before departure (for charters and with large a / c for flights in an unpopular season).
The rule is not an iron one - it is rather a trend.
Relying on the latter option is always risky, so it is only suitable for the freest: those who are ready to fly anywhere, anytime, or not to fly anywhere at all if they are not lucky.
Let's remember! Start tracking prices 2-3 months in advance, or better, six months or even a year before the trip. Sign up for price drop notifications to buy the best cheap ticket to the right point.
I believe in cheap flights and budget travel! This is me on the island of Penang in Malaysia, my first wintering in Asia. 4. Buy last-minute tours for tickets
You will save: ≈ 20-40%.
Traveling on your own is more interesting, but last-minute tours promise us good savings. Often a ticket to the most popular resorts(Sochi, Crimea, Turkey, Thailand, Greece, Dominican Republic and others) can be bought very cheaply - a full tour package, sometimes it costs cheaper than airfare. In this case, the flight will always be direct, and the bonus is accommodation, transfer and insurance. This is worth using!
Feel free to buy the most cheap tour to the shabbiest hotel just for the round-trip flight. No one forces you to live in a Zadripan hotel - book yourself what you like and relax there.
Look for last-minute tours for a penny on services and - they compare prices for tours among all the most popular tour operators.
Let's remember! Check last-minute tours to the resort you need. If the ticket is cheaper than tickets, buy it.
Such prices are not uncommon, especially in the off-season. 5. Make a complex route
You will save: ≈ 30-70%.
: flying abroad from Russia is not cheap, especially if you live in the regions (like me). For each flight you have to pay a tidy sum.
But flying between different cities and countries abroad can be very cheap. Therefore, I always try to capture several countries in one trip. It is much cheaper to visit 2-5 countries in one trip than to fly from Russia to one country after another every time. So I save tens and even hundreds of thousands of rubles a year on flights.
My experience. For example, on a trip to Asia in the spring of 2019, we spent 160 thousand rubles on air tickets for two. A huge amount, at first glance. But let's count. We flew from Perm, returned to it, visited 5 countries: Georgia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia, South Korea. In total, we got only 16,000 rubles per person for each country. It's very, very cheap! If we flew 5 times to each of these countries separately, we would spend 2-3 times more on tickets.
So make complex routes and save!
This feature is available on Aviasales and Skyscanner search engines. It allows you to create routes with three or more flight segments and fork routes when the city of arrival and subsequent departure differ (non-closed flights). Also, thanks to this function, you can purchase tickets with a stopover (connection longer than a day).
- Simple route example: Moscow - Barcelona - Moscow.
- Complex route example: Moscow - Barcelona, Barcelona - Paris, Paris - Moscow.
- Fork example (open-jaw): 1) Moscow - Barcelona, Madrid - Moscow; or 2) Moscow - Barcelona, Barcelona - St. Petersburg.
My experience. I use this trick on almost every trip. At times, it allows you to visit a place for free. For example, having bought tickets Moscow - Bangkok with a stopover for 4 days in the UAE, I.
Such manipulations are especially beneficial when traveling around Europe and Asia. For a flight from one country to another, you can buy very cheap air tickets - from $10. Of course, you will not always find a ticket for $10, but for $30-100 you will fly anywhere.
How to make a complex route easily. Let's look at the example of Europe.
- We go to Skyscanner, set departures from Moscow to "Everywhere" for the desired month in one direction. Usually for 2000-4000 rubles there are tickets to Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Slovakia. Suppose we are particularly interested in Hungary and Italy.
- Now we will open two new search windows on Skyscanner: in one we will indicate the country of departure - Hungary, in the other - Italy. In the "Where" field, write "Everywhere" again. Now we see a list of places where there are cheap plane tickets from these countries. The list of destinations will be huge: all of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East - choose what you want. The main thing is that from the last country you fly to, there should be cheap flights home.
- Now you just have to choose interesting countries and cities and dock flights by dates.
An impressive example of a "fork". My friend flew to me in Asia, having bought very cheap tickets with a difficult route: Moscow - Manila, Hong Kong - Minsk. Paid only 10 thousand ₽. It is very cheap for a flight over such distances. Of course, he still needed to buy tickets for domestic flights in Asia, but it still turned out to be inexpensive for such an interesting route.
Let's remember! Fly to several countries in one trip, buying the cheapest flights between them.
Knockin 'on Heaven. Standing with a friend on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. 6. Extra segment
You will save: ≈ 10-20%.
By adding an extra final segment to your itinerary, you can sometimes get cheaper tickets. For example, the airline Etihad several times appeared tickets "Moscow - Asia - Moscow - Yekaterinburg" for 14-20 thousand rubles. It is not necessary to fly to Yekaterinburg on the way back - a flight through Moscow, and you can get off there. Saving about 3-5 thousand rubles. Here is the news about it. This rarely happens.
Once we were especially lucky with an extra segment. For reasons unknown to science, tickets from Moscow to Penang (via Doha and Kuala Lumpur) were much cheaper than similar tickets just to KL. And we just needed it on the island of Penang. They took tickets to another part of the world for only 8700 rubles. The beauty!
Durian is one of the main reasons why I fly to Asia every year. I fly from Russia to some place (Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Colombo), and then I fly inexpensively from country to country in Asia on low-cost airlines. 7. Forget airline stocks
Ticket promotions are often a scam.
The belief that they will help save money is self-deception.
Reason #1. Most of the promotions are a stupid marketing ploy of the airline to remind you of yourself and make you buy tickets as soon as possible. The price drops slightly, the dates with cheap tickets are inappropriate and there are few of them, the destinations are uninteresting, and so on. Airlines are not going to be your sponsors, they just want PR and sales growth. It is almost impossible to find a profitable offer for your dates and interests.
Reason #2(most important). Groups on social networks about airline promotions bombard their subscribers with a flurry of news. This flow of information clogs the brain, confuses and burdens a person with a sense of missed opportunities. You see tens, hundreds, thousands of stocks, but the trouble is that they always don't fit in some way. And you start to feel like you're missing out. Pain and disappointment come. An avalanche of information in social networks, instant messengers, and news sites falls on each of us every day. To maintain peace of mind, we must filter this flow.
Reason #3. Yes, sometimes you can buy cheap airfare on the action, but get ready - he will pull the inconvenience and costs. An overnight flight, a distant airport that still needs to be reached, a tedious transfer, inconvenient departure and arrival dates that cut off part of the vacation, and so on. Like? I don't.
I fly a lot, but I don't buy promotional tickets. At first I followed them daily, and then I quit, because none of them ever came up to me. I no longer waste time on news about promotions, but find cheap tickets to the right place.
Let's remember! Do not subscribe to news about airline promotions - this is a deceptive prospect. It is better to subscribe to notifications about price changes for the routes you need, look at the price calendar or a list of countries where you can fly cheaply from your city. You will save time and nerves, and this is more valuable than anything else.
8. Fly in low season
You will save: ≈ 50%.
The most expensive tickets are in the summer, on New Year and for May. Don't fly during this time if you want to save money.
You can buy cheap tickets to any country during the period when the demand for flights drops as much as possible. For example, fly to Europe in winter or off-season, and to Thailand in summer. In addition to low prices for flights, you will receive discounts on accommodation, excursions and entertainment - in low season all prices go down. The third bonus is few tourists.
Read about the weather in the destination country in the desired month, and everything will be cool.
Let's remember! Fly on vacation in the low season, or at least in the velvet.
My trip to Maldives- float on Indian Ocean. I flew to the Maldives from Sri Lanka to save on airfare. I specially chose the very end of the high season for the rest: the weather is perfect, and there are few people. 9. Fly cheap charters
You will save: ≈ 40-80%.
Charter flights are flights commissioned by a tour operator at the height of the tourist season popular destinations. Charters fly package tourists, but also independent traveler it may be profitable to buy a ticket for some of them.
Charters have situations when there are several days left before departure, and the plane is not fully loaded. In this case, the airline may throw a portion of very cheap air tickets on the market. Most often these are one-way tickets. Such options may appear in the high season, but especially often - at the end of the season. For example, every September you can buy cheap tickets to Bulgaria, because half-empty planes fly there to pick up vacationers. Tickets cost 1000-2000 rubles. The savings are especially great when you fly to Asia or the Dominican Republic - tickets are available for 10-12 thousand rubles. True, you will need to conjure over a return ticket: from Europe it is easy to find an inexpensive option, from distant countries it is more difficult.
Let's remember! Fly on vacation in the high season with charters.
Cheap charter to Bulgaria at the end of the season. Only 1300 rubles! 
Cheap charter to the Dominican Republic at the end of the season. 12,000 rubles for a 12-hour flight is almost free. 
Cheap charter to Thailand at the end of the season. 3900 rubles! For such money, even in Sochi, you will not always fly away. 
(Photo © Rennett Stowe / flickr.com)
10. Fly from a neighboring city
You will save: ≈ 20-50%.
Always check how much tickets cost from neighboring cities. Residents of St. Petersburg can save money by flying from Moscow, Helsinki, the Baltic countries. It is often cheaper for Perm residents to fly from Yekaterinburg. Siberians - from Novosibirsk or Irkutsk.
Muscovites shouldn't yawn either. Yes, in 9 out of 10 cases, air tickets from the capital's airports are the cheapest, but there are exceptions. Before booking, check the prices for tickets from Pulkovo.
You can get to neighboring cities by train, bus or car.
Let's remember! Check ticket prices from nearby cities.
(photo © cheelah / flickr.com)
11. Cycle through different arrival cities
You will save: ≈ 20-50%.
Tickets to the city you need can cost significantly more than to neighboring cities. Therefore, it is worth looking at the prices for flights and up to them.
- Flying to Bratislava is cheaper than flying to Vienna. Between the two capitals, only 80 km, they are easy to overcome by bus for a few euros. We do so often.
- Pobeda flies to Karlovy Vary, from which it is easy to get to Prague.
- European low-cost airlines and Pobeda fly to Bergamo airport. You can almost always buy tickets to Bergamo cheaper than to Milan or Venice.
- Etc...
Let's remember! Check tickets not only to the city you need, but also to neighboring ones.
(photo © sewyerown / flickr.com)
12. Low-cost airlines: good or evil?
You will save: ≈ 10-50%.
Low-cost airlines are budget airlines, their tickets can cost as little as 10€. To reduce the cost of their flights, low-cost airlines refuse additional services: food on board, luggage, free check-in at the airport and others. All this can be bought additionally, but the flight will no longer be so cheap.
There is only one low-cost airline in Russia - Pobeda, a subsidiary of Aeroflot. There is no monopoly in free countries, and there are many low-cost airlines - there is competition between them, which means the lowest possible prices and the best quality. But we are not complaining! Previously, we didn’t have budget airlines at all, but now we have Pobeda, and it helps a lot. Plus, other airlines have introduced super-economy fares in recent years and have become sort of semi-low-cost airlines.
Everything scary stories the fact that low-cost airlines deceive people, scoff and almost force them to fly standing up is complete nonsense. Every year, two-thirds of my flights are low-cost airlines. Never had a problem or a scam. Just read the rules of the carrier, and you will not get into an unpleasant situation.
My experience. I have flown many times with Pobeda, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Air Asia and other state employees. My cheapest tickets cost $10-20 for 1-2 hour flights.
You can read about what low-cost airlines are in, and specifically about low-cost carriers in Europe - in.
How to fly low-cost airlines correctly:
- Read the rules of the airline carefully!
- Take a minimum of things and do not pay for luggage.
- Check your hand luggage for compliance with permissible dimensions - see them on the airline's website.
- If you cannot do without luggage, add it to the order when buying tickets - then it will cost 500-2000 rubles more. When traveling with a group, take one piece of luggage for everyone.
- Buy tickets 2-4 months before departure - at this time usually the lowest prices.
- Find out the check-in rules for the flight. If it is paid at the airport, register yourself on the carrier's website and print out your boarding pass.
- When buying tickets from low-cost airlines, a commission of 1-5% for payment by card is almost always added to the final price. There is nothing you can do about it, just accept it as a fact.
Let's remember! Feel free to buy cheap flights from low-cost airlines, read their rules and enjoy impressive savings.
A typical dialogue between a passenger and a Pobeda employee. 13. Fly with a group
You will save: ≈ 5-20%.
Some airlines are ready to give passengers discounts if they fly with a company and book tickets for several people at once. I know such examples:
- Low-cost airline EasyJet usually gives a discount of 7-10 euros per passenger when flights are booked for two or more people.
- Wizz Air has a loyalty program - Wizz Discount Club. Membership costs €30 for two, €60 for up to 6 people. It gives the right to purchase any tickets for at least €10 cheaper during the year and other benefits. Membership pays off in 1-2 flights, and then there are savings.
In addition, when you fly with a company on a low-cost airline, you can save a lot on luggage - check in one bag for 2-3 people.
Let's remember! Fly with a group to get a discount and save on luggage.
(photo © demandaj / flickr.com)
14. Cunning deceptive zigzag
You will save: ≈ 10-20%.
Airlines like to make money on direct flights, because many are willing to overpay for convenience and time savings. Let's use this to our advantage and get the airlines to sell us the cheapest tickets. All it takes is to pretend. Pretend we don't want to go where we really need to go.
Let's say we need to go to Riga. Best price- 7341 rubles (direct airBaltic flight).
Expensive ticket to Riga for 7300 rubles. But do you remember that for the pleasure of flying a direct flight, a passenger has to pay more? The solution to this problem is simple: knowing that Riga is the hub (base airport) of airBaltic, and that tickets for its flights from Riga to Tallinn are usually quite inexpensive, we will simply check the cost of air tickets from Moscow to Tallinn. Voila, they ask for only 6099 rubles! Flight on the same day and at the same time. The plane flies with a connection in Riga - we arrive there, pick up our luggage and forget about Tallinn. Congratulations, we saved 17% from the cost of a ticket for a direct flight to the city we need!
A cheaper ticket to Tallinn via Riga for 6100 rubles. How to find such cheap flights? To do this, you need to be a little in the subject:
- know which airlines fly to the city you need;
- whether its airport is the main one for them;
- in what directions these airlines fly from the city you need at the lowest fares (in order to correctly substitute the destination city in the ticket that we will buy).
Use this knowledge and logic to design similar detours.
Attention:
- Check in your luggage not to the final destination, but to the intermediate one. You can come up with any argument: you are carrying a gift that you want to transfer along the way, in a bag you need a thing, etc. Better yet, fly light, without luggage.
- If you miss any segment on the flight, remember that after that the ticket will be canceled. Therefore, if you bought a round-trip plane ticket and missed a segment when flying there, then you will not fly back on this ticket. For example, you have an air ticket "Moscow - Riga - Tallinn - Riga - Moscow": by refusing to fly from Riga to Tallinn, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to fly later from Riga to Moscow. Therefore, for such purposes, you need to separately buy a ticket there, separately - a ticket back.
Let's remember! Buy cheap flights with connections in the city of your choice and get off halfway.
(Photo © benjaminlansky / flickr.com)
(Photo © caribb / flickr.com)
15. Earn miles from all airlines at once
You save: up to 100%.
I am a client Tinkoff Bank for over three years now. I think that it offers the best conditions for travelers. According to him debit cards I withdraw cash all over the world without a commission, and with a credit card I get a 10% cashback on all hotel reservations, 3% on air tickets and free annual medical insurance. Cashback is miles that can be spent on paying for air tickets of any airlines.
My personal experience. Thanks to the miles accumulated on the card, in 2017-2019 I flew for free to Istanbul, Phuket, the Maldives, Bali, and South Korea. I have also been receiving a free insurance policy for the third year already - also a good saving of money and time for those who often fly abroad.
This bank is scolded only by financially illiterate people who did not bother to read the rules and study the rates. They take cash from a credit card, exceed the limits, delay the payment deadlines, connect unnecessary services, and the bank is to blame for them. Well, what to take from fools?
Now the bank has a promotion - year of free service. So you can use this card for a year, and then decide whether you need it or not.
Do not buy insurance that the airline imposes on you when booking - a waste of money.
It is often cheaper and more comfortable to rent a house or apartment instead of a hotel - many interesting options from hosts can be found on the popular Airbnb service. This is definitely beneficial if you are traveling with a family or a group.
Rent a car to see all the most interesting and beautiful without excursions and public transport. Skyscanner Car Hire compares prices from different car rental companies and finds the best one.
Friends, I travel a lot and willingly share my experience and knowledge with anyone who needs it. Join
(Peter Greenberg). It is based on personal experience formulated some tips regarding the day and time of buying air tickets, which may help you save a couple of tens of dollars.
When?
Air tickets usually go on sale 330 days before departure. According to many travelers, it is best to book tickets 8 weeks before the trip - 2 months.
Greenberg believes that the optimal time to buy a ticket is 45 days. Six weeks. And that's why:
The number one mistake many travelers make is being too early booking. If your trip does not fall on high passenger traffic days, such as Christmas, then the chances of saving are much greater if you buy tickets 45 days (for domestic flights) and 60 days (for international flights) before departure.
Outside of the 45-day window, the airlines' computer programs cannot calculate the actual cost, but form it based on last year's passenger traffic. If a flight was full a year ago, then this year the price will be high. But this year there could be a collapse in prices (Bangkok is in turmoil - people are not going to Thailand), so booking tickets more than 45 days in advance, you risk overpaying for last year's forecasts.
In addition, Greenberg notes how important it is to "play around" with departure dates. If you do not have a strict binding to a specific number, then you can save a significant amount of money. Peter advises flying in the middle of the week, when most flights, except for business destinations, are practically empty, which means tickets are cheap.
What time?
As for the ideal time and day of the week to buy an air ticket, Greenberg calls - Wednesday night.
If you want to buy cheap flights, then there is an X hour for this. It is Wednesday, 1:00 (1:00 am). But it is important to keep track of the time zone of the place where the airline is located - exactly one hour must pass from the moment the day changes according to their time.
Why exactly the night from Tuesday to Wednesday? Greenberg explains: Most airlines announce discounts on tickets between Sunday evening and Monday evening. This means that passengers have a day to redeem them. On Tuesday, at midnight, the booked but not redeemed tickets are re-entered into the computer systems of the airlines.
However, Peter Greenberg warns that to use this trick, you should call the carrier and book a ticket over the phone, not on the Web.
You will learn even more about the tricks of airlines, as well as hotel booking services, in the article by Lifehacker editor Slava Baransky -.
A penny saves a ruble - this rule allows you to save a large number of Money. With the right approach, you can also save a lot on purchasing air tickets, the main thing is to know where, when and for how long to take the necessary ticket.
For the same flight in the same class, you can purchase a ticket for both $100 and $1,000. Why such a difference? The answer is simple: you need to be able to buy.
Sometimes a moment of ordinary luck works, periodically a personal acquaintance with employees of air ticket offices or travel agencies will give you the opportunity to purchase a ticket at a lower price.
When to look for a cheap air ticket?
The final cost of the ticket also depends on the date of purchase. There is one easy rule - the sooner, the cheaper. If you have the opportunity to plan your trip in advance, then buy tickets in advance, too, at least a month before the date of the intended trip. Ideally, this period should be extended to 2 months.
The cheapest prices can be 6 months before the date of departure, however, not everyone can book their seats on the flight so far in advance.
The fewer free seats on the flight, the more expensive they are! This rule applies only to regular flights, with charter flights the situation is exactly the opposite. The closer the departure date, the cheaper the ticket.
However, when buying tickets for a charter there are some nuances:
- It is not always possible to purchase tickets for charters in advance., because tour operators do not break them earlier than a few days before departure (there are exceptions).
- The second disadvantage of charters is the limited travel options., because planes fly only on popular tourist resorts and each has its own season.
- Tickets for charter flights are usually not sold at ticket offices, they should go to the travel agency. For example, a charter flight Moscow-Antalya-Moscow will cost about 200 dollars, and on a regular flight the price will be twice as high, and the flight itself will be with a transfer.
How to find the cheapest flight ticket?
There are several ways to find cheap flights:
- independent search on the Internet;
- acquaintances who work in ticket offices or travel agencies.
At independent search it is recommended to open several sites on the Internet and enter the desired dates, and the search engine will find all kinds of options. On different Internet portals, the price may differ, so it is recommended to compare. 
There is also a price calendar that will show you the optimal cost of a flight within a certain date range.
By contacting air ticket offices or travel agencies, you can also save money, because airline auction offers are not always available in search engines.
Get travel medical insurance
What are promo tickets?
A variety of airlines regularly arrange promotions, using which you can fly to anywhere in the world at a fairly economical price. For example, a flight Moscow - New York - Moscow can cost about $400 .
Promotional prices are most often available a few months before the intended date of travel, during the off-season, as well as during the low season.
What you need to know to start looking for a cheap ticket?
There are also several ways of cheap flights, using which you will save a lot:
Method 1 - Fly with transfers
Often, an airline offers an option with a transfer much cheaper than a direct flight, the main thing is to pay attention to the total duration of the flight and the duration of the connection.
As a rule, the longer the connection, the cheaper. This option is not always convenient, but significantly reduces the cost. When flying with transfers, you should check in your baggage to the end point of the route.
Method 2 - Low cost
Low-cost airlines are low-cost carriers that, by reducing the range of services, provide the cheapest possible cost of a flight.
In particular, you can save on luggage, because it is not included in the cost of the flight, so it is best to take with you a minimum of things that can fit in hand luggage.
Low-cost airlines also save on check-in - you can check in for a flight via the Internet for free, at the airport this service will be paid. Also, these airlines do not have meals on board. Each country has its own low-cost airlines, in particular, WizzAir and RyanAir planes fly to Russia.
Method 3 - booking speed
When looking for a cheap air ticket, there is always the possibility of missing out on a suitable option, because the ticket price is online systems can change very quickly. Accordingly, if you have found a suitable option, then book it, because in 10-20 minutes it may rise in price.
Method 4 - always buy a return ticket
When buying an RT ticket, those in both directions will not be an order of magnitude lower than the one for which you take tickets in both directions separately.
Where to buy cheap flights?
The easiest way to search for cheap flights is on Internet portals that combine offers from hundreds of air carriers. It is worth remembering that when buying tickets at air ticket offices or at the office of travel agencies, the cost also includes agency income, employee salaries, etc.
What days are plane tickets cheaper?
The difference in airfare may also depend on the day of booking, time of day, as well as the day of departure. In most cases, it is cheapest to book tickets at night or early in the morning, at this time of day the price will decrease. 
Also, cheap tickets can be on Monday at lunchtime, because business trips start in the morning, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the price will also be cheaper.
It is most expensive to fly on Saturdays, as well as on weekends and holidays.
In search of the best price, you should also rely on luck, because the search for cheap air tickets is like a lottery, so luck can visit everyone.
