How To Find Cheap International Airfare

You’ll find plenty of articles online – including on this site – about how to find cheap airfare for various holidays or even particular popular destinations. But what about if you’re just in the mood to take a trip to a foreign country, with no specific timeframe in mind, and perhaps not even a specific country in mind. You just want to take an international trip, as long as you can get cheap international airfare. Then what?

The good news, especially for anyone who’s been reading up on how to find cheap airfare in general, is that you’ll use basically the same tools to find cheap international airfare, too. The even better news is that because international airfare often costs more than domestic airfare to begin with, the savings you could find are even bigger.

Here are the main things to keep in mind when you’re looking for deals on international flights, so that you find the cheapest airfare possible.

Be Flexible

The top tip when it comes to finding cheap airfare, whether it’s across the country or around the world, is to be flexible. By keeping your flight dates open, you stand a better chance of catching a cheap fare in your search. The prices on airline tickets fluctuate regularly throughout a day and a week, and if you’re only searching for one specific day – or, worse yet, a window of a few hours on a specific day – a lower fare may be just beyond your parameters and you’d never know.

Look for online booking sites that help you keep your search flexible. If you see a box near where you put in travel information that says something like “my dates are flexible,” that’s a good thing. Check that box and you’ll usually get an array of fares spanning 2-3 days on either side of your target dates.

Know When Flights are Cheaper

When you’re looking at a domestic flight, you can generally count on certain days of the week – Wednesday, Tuesday, & Saturday – and certain times of the day – early mornings and late nights – being cheaper than others to fly. When it comes to international flights, however, the same rules don’t apply. For one thing, there are fewer international flights to a given destination every day, so being picky about a departure time isn’t necessarily an option.

Mid-week flights still tend to be cheaper overall, so that’s still a good place to start. Weekend flights are typically most expensive when flying internationally, so begin your search by looking at Tuesday-Thursday flights. Saturday flights can sometimes offer good prices, but that’s not as reliable with international flights.

Beyond looking at particular days of the week or times of the day, however, the biggest favor you can do for your wallet when it comes to international airfare is to book your trip in one of the shoulder seasons. You probably know summer is generally the most expensive time to travel internationally, and winter is the least expensive. Fall and spring often have the ideal combination of decent weather and reasonable prices.

Do Your Homework & Book Early

You’re doing the right thing by doing research now (like reading this article!), because it’s not a good idea to go uninformed into any big purchase. In particular, one easy way to do your homework is to let the booking sites send you the updates you need, when you need them.

Sign up for email alerts from whatever booking sites you prefer, so that when a particular route you’re watching goes up or down in price by a specific amount, you’ll know about it. That means you’ll know what the average fares have been for a few weeks or months, and you’ll also know when airfare prices drop enough to be considered a true “deal.”

For international airfare, you want to know what the going rate is by 4-5 months before your intended departure, because that’s when you should start looking for deals to come out.

Take Advantage of Last-Minute Deals

If you’re more of a risk-taker by nature, you could always wait and see what the last minute travel deals are a week or two before you’d like to go somewhere. If you’re just interested in taking a trip and aren’t so bothered about where you go, there are often excellent bargains on last minute travel to be had.

In particular, look for steep discounts on package tours and cruises that are looking to fill berths that would otherwise go empty for a trip that’s already scheduled to go. You’re not going to get the pick of the litter when it comes to destinations – you might have to deal with colder weather, for instance – but intrepid travelers can make lemonade out of those lemons if the price is right.

Figure Out if You’re Eligible for Discounts

This tip will only apply to a sub-set of people who are traveling internationally, but it never hurts to ask, right?

There are some great discounts available to student travelers, so if you’re currently a student – and especially if you have an international student ID card – you may be able to score a better deal on an international airline ticket. If you’re a AAA member, don’t forget that the organization has travel discounts in addition to providing tow-truck service. Call them or stop into a local branch to find out what discounts they can offer you.

Get Creative with Itineraries

Your ideal international itinerary may include stops in London and Paris, with a few points in between, but that doesn’t mean you should look only at flights into the international airports in London and Paris. With the many super-cheap budget airlines in Europe now, you could save money if you find a steal of a deal into a different international hub – like Frankfurt or Amsterdam – and then catch a flight on a budget carrier to where you really want to be.

In addition to looking at other international hub airports to see where the cheapest flights are, don’t forget to also check the departure points wherever you are, too. The closest airport to your house might have the best prices on flights, but it might not – be sure to look at all the alternative airports that you can get to easily.

This kind of creative itinerary stuff does sometimes require more logistical planning on your part, and may require that you have a little extra time to play with, but it could also save you quite a bit of money. It’s at least worth looking into.

photo by swimparallel