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December is upon us, and we’re sure that everyone is preparing to have trips, short vacations, and Christmas parties somewhere around or outside the US. That said, we all know that sometimes, the most expensive part of trips is the price of flights. Luckily for us, there are several ways we can make it cheaper, especially now that the Christmas break is before, which means flights will increase in price soon. If you want to know these tips, read on.

Book Early

Usually, plane tickets increase in price three weeks before the set departure. If you want the cheapest flights possible, booking them at least a month before your trip should be in your best interest. You could also use sites like Google Flights that use algorithms about when the prices will decrease, increase, or stay the same. 

Of course, these predictions are not 100% accurate, but they can give you an insight into the possibilities regarding the price of the flights you want. Not only that, but by booking early, you could also pick the seat you want, especially for peak season flights, since many people will be fighting for those window seats. You might even get perks like discounts from Next Vacay travel deals or free food if you’re lucky enough.

Be Flexible with Your Destinations

If you can’t be flexible with your time, maybe you can be flexible with your destination. Being not picky with your destination will open up access to the cheapest flights possible in specific places. Airline search engines have made it really easy to search for the best prices in different countries nowadays so that you can compare prices through countries.

Not only will you find the best prices possible, but you could also accidentally stumble into an exciting place if you’re looking to get lost in a new and interesting destination. And if you could also be flexible with your time, you could even get more cheap flights.

 Go For Budget Carriers

In the past, the only airlines you could opt for to go out of the country were the usual expensive airlines. However, nowadays, there are already budget carriers that can do the same but at a lower price. Sure, they may not be as comfortable as the traditional ones, and you might even have to pay a premium for luggage, but when we’re talking about prices, they are the go-to airlines.

Usually, they are only used for short and medium hauls and international flights are fewer, but if you’re looking to go to another side of the US, then it should be no problem as there are quite a lot of them. It’s really easy to find a cheap flight with budget carriers, as long as you’re willing to sacrifice some of your comfort for a reduced price.

Don’t Fly Direct

Another thing you could be flexible on other than just time and destination is the route you could take. That said, don’t fly directly, especially when traveling internationally. For example, if you’re planning to go to London, you could take a budget airline to Amsterdam and fly directly from Amsterdam to London. 

For a more precise example, let’s say you’re going to Paris. The flight from the US to Paris is more or less $900. But instead of taking a direct flight, you could fly to Dublin for $600 and get a $60 flight from Dublin to Paris. The time to get there might be longer, but you could save at least $240.

However, one thing to note here is that when you’re planning to do this, you should have flights with at least three hours in between. This will give you a comfortable window of time to avoid getting left behind for your second flight. Getting left behind is quite common since airlines won’t wait for you since you booked from a different airline. Even if you booked the same airline, having a nice window of time to prepare for your next flight is still recommended.

Join a Mailing List

If you still have quite some time before you make your trip, it might be a good idea to join a mailing list for airline discounts. Sure, they might be annoying most of the time, but if you ignore them, you will miss many discounts and reduced flight prices. Many cheap flights usually get announced 24 or 48 hours before the time of the flight in the mailing list, so if you ignore them, you’re missing out on many discounts.

Final Words

There are a lot of ways for you to make your flights cheaper; you have to know where to look for them. But most importantly, being flexible with your time, destination, and route, is usually the best way to get cheaper flights. Sure, they might sometimes be a hassle, but if you’re looking for the best prices for flights, it’s the best way to go about it.