5 Ways To Get Cheap Flights On Your Next Trip DISCOVER MORE: travel advice global Every budget traveller needs to master the art of finding affordable flights. Our guide to the top 5 tactics to get cheap flight is here to help. Travel can be surprisingly cheap, especially when you stay with Generator, but if you have any hope of seeing the world on a budget you really need to get your cheap flight game on point. Our top five tips for finding cheap flights should help you track down a bargain next time you need to take to the skies. Go undercover Have you ever noticed that flight prices often seem to go up after you search them a few times? It turns out this is the airlines being sneaky by using cookies to identify your interest in a particular flight and increasing the price incrementally to scare you into a purchase. Shocking behaviour, right? Well, two can play that game! The best way to get around this algorithmic price manipulation is to go undercover and make sure you always search for flights in incognito or private browsing mode. This way your repeat searches won’t be spotted and the prices should stay low. Be flexible with your dates You may have heard that Tuesday is the cheapest day to book a flight, in fact the truth is rather less predictable that that. Yes, there are some broad assumptions that usually hold true – it’s usually cheaper to fly on a weekday rather than the weekend – but you’re generally wise to disregard any hard and fast rules and embrace a flexible approach to dates. The best way to do this is by getting up a ‘Whole Month’ view on the flight aggregator of your choice. This will allow you to see the lowest flight price for every day of the month, giving you the oversight you need to quickly find a compromise between convenience and cost. Be flexible with destinations By the same token, you might find that you can make significant savings if you’re able to be a bit flexible with your destination. Obviously, this isn’t always an option, but sometimes you might find that a nearby destination is significantly cheaper to fly to than your first choice. If you can complete your journey with a cheap bus or train the overall travel costs can work out a lot cheaper. Most flight aggregators allow you to search nearby destinations, so you can quickly assess if there are any savings to be made by flying to another airport. Don’t fly direct Again, flexibility is the key word when in search of a cheap flight. If you’re willing to countenance the idea of taking a non-direct flight you should be able to save money. Needless to say, it’s often cheaper if you pick a one or two leg flight over a direct flight, but keen bargain-hunters should consider going beyond unticking the ‘Direct’ box in a flight aggregator. If you’re willing to put some time and effort into research you may find that you can save money by booking two budget flights, potentially with two different airlines, rather than one. It might, for instance, cost £500 to fly from New York to Copenhagen compared to £350 to fly from New York to London plus £20 to fly from London to Copenhagen, meaning you’d save £130 by stopping over in London. If you’re taking this approach, do make sure you leave plenty of time between connecting flights (at least three hours) so you’ve got plenty of time to check in for the next flight. Get to know the budget airlines Wherever you are in the world, there will be a choice of budget carriers that should offer substantial savings compared to more traditional airlines. These airlines are offering more and more trans-continental flights, meaning it’s often possible travel a long way for remarkably little – carriers like Norwegian Air offer remarkably cheap trans-Atlantic routes. Here’s a list of budget carriers by region: Europe Ryanair Easyjet Aigle Azur Eurowings Flybe Norwegian Air Wizz Air Vueling United States Allegiant Air Frontier Southwest Spirit Sun Country Canada Flair Swoop Air Transat Porter Air Canada Rouge Jetlines Asia & Australasia Air Asia Tiger Air Jeju Air Jetstar Hong Kong Express Scoot Peach Air Spice Jet Spring Airlines Nok Air T’Way Airlines Vanilla Air CONTROLLA DISPONIBILITÀ