5 Money Saving Tips For Booking Direct Flights Online

Saving money on booking flights doesn’t mean settling for multiple layovers or budget airlines.

My goal is to arrive at my final destination as quickly, comfortably, and cheaply as possible. I don’t want to waste my precious vacation time in an airport terminal or spend 5 (+) uncomfortable hours without any leg room.

To save money booking direct flights, the key is knowing when to book, and how to use the right tools. This is the first step in planning your next adventure; booking your flight should be exciting, not stressful! So let’s dive into my money saving tips for booking your next flight!

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

1. Use Google Flights To Find The Best Deal

To get the best deal on direct flights, I only trust Google Flights. I haven’t booked a flight any other way in years. I don’t use any of those other websites like Cheapflights or Momondo. I find their cheap flight options usually have at least one layover, and frankly, it’s not my cup of tea. Unless it’s a really long flight, and a break might actually be welcome! 

Google Flights is useful in more ways than one to save money on flights…

It Gives You A Calendar View Of All The Prices

The main feature I love on Google Flights is the calendar view where it shows you all the prices by date. This lets me see the price differences if I choose to leave a day earlier or later.

This is crazy helpful when trying to save money on flights if you don’t have a strict schedule that you need to follow. Push your trip a day later or earlier and you can potentially save hundreds of dollars!

Google Tracks Prices Over Times

Google Flights also has a price tracker option so you can see flight prices over time. It shows you the highest price and the lowest this flight has ever been. This way, you can gage if you’re paying a reasonable price or not.

Booking Round Trip Flight Tickets

Google also tells you whether to book round trip tickets or not. Surprisingly, it’s not always cheaper to book round trip flights.

After you’ve chosen your preferred flights, Google directs you to the best site to book your tickets. On this page, it’ll also say whether to book departure and return separately.

I’ve saved up to one hundred dollars on countless trips just by doing this.

2. Get A Multi-City Discount On Flights When Possible

Booking multi-city flights is a convenient way to fly into one destination and leave from another.

It’s usually cheaper than flying back to your original destination and then flying home. Not to mention it can also be a lot quicker. But not all airlines will give you a discount for booking multi-city roundtrip flights with them. 

So far I’ve found that AirCanada doesn’t give any discount, but AirTransat will. For example, I wanted to fly to Brussels and return from Lisbon. With AirCanada it was going to cost over $1000, whereas, with AirTransat, it was only $650. That’s a $350 difference!

It’s important to do your research for multi-city destination discount on flights!

3. Timing Is Key When Booking Direct Flights

When trying to save money on flights, the key is to time is properly. We all know that the prices of flights don’t stay the same – it all depends on when you’re booking…

Use Hopper To Save Money On Flights

When I know I’m going on vacation, I always use the Hopper App. I put in my destination with my preferred dates and click “watch flights”. The app will send me a notification when it’s a good time to book.

Never use this app to actually book your flight though, they’ll never give you the best deal. When Hopper tells me it’s a good time to book, and the price will likely go up if I wait, then I head back to Google Flights. The flights will be considerably cheaper (and direct).

As A Rule Of Thumb – Wait Until At Least 6 Weeks Before

As a general rule of thumb, the best time to book a flight is about 6 weeks before departure. I’m not exactly sure why, but the price always decreases around this time. This rule can’t be relied on for holiday seasons, like Christmas or spring/summer breaks though.

For regular travel times, 6 weeks before must be a sweet spot, not too close or too far from the date. When you book too much in advance, you pay a premium; the airline isn’t concerned with selling seats at this point. And obviously, when you book too late, the airlines can charge whatever they want for that last minute booking.

It takes a lot of self-control to wait it out, but it’s almost always worth it. The only time when this isn’t the case is if there’s only one date and time that work for you. At that point, you don’t want to risk the flight selling out (even though it probably won’t). You just have to trust that the price will eventually go down.

This recently happened to me when I was booking my latest flight home from Las Vegas. There are only two flights to Montreal every day, but only one time was convenient for me. So I caved and booked, thinking it probably wouldn’t go down anymore.

Boy was I wrong! I checked back 6 weeks before my departure date, and sure enough, the price had gone down by $70. It really pays to wait.

4. Tips For Booking Flights: Avoid Weekends

You want to avoid both booking and flying on weekends…

When Booking Direct Flights

Airlines know that most people book flights on weekends. So I’ve noticed that on Thursday and Friday, the prices start to rise.

The best days to book a direct flights is closer to the beginning of the week, on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

When Flying

It’s usually cheaper to fly during the week (on a Tuesday or Wednesday) as well.

This is where Google Flights helps, it’ll show you the cheapest dates to leave and return. Sometimes the weekend actually isn’t that much more expensive.

5. If All Else Fails, Use SkipLagged

If flights are still out of your price range, there is one final option: SkipLagged. This is a website that looks at flights connecting through your final destination.

So if you want to get to Las Vegas, there might be a layover there for flights heading to Hawaii. The trick to book a flight where Las Vegas isn’t the final destination but the layover stop.

The flight will be cheaper because it’s a layover. You just “never make it” onto your flight to Hawaii.

You don’t want to abuse this site too much, that’s why I keep it as a last resort. But every now and then, especially when it’s a lot cheaper, there’s no harm.

You also don’t have to worry about using a third party site to book, they’ll forward you to the airline. SkipLagged just shows you which flights to look for.

But there are a few things you should know before booking final destination layovers flights…

• You can’t book round trip flights (must always be separate bookings).
• You have to fly with a carry-on (if you check a bag it’ll go all the way to the final destination).
• You also shouldn’t use any frequent flyer numbers.

Now that your flights are booked there are a few more things for you trip. You’ll need to buy a suitcase,  learn how to pack it like a pro. Then you’ll have to actually plan your trip, and once you’re there, find out how to buy a souvenir you won’t regret. 

Quick Links – My Amazon Travel Favourites

Guides For Better Travels

• Why Air Canada Business Class Is Unbelievably Priceless On Long Flights
• How To Plan Your Vacation In 9 Simple Steps
• My Top 11 Travel Essentials I Never Leave Home Without

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Last update on 2024-05-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API