How to Find Cheap Airfare for Chinese New Year

Traditionally speaking, the Chinese New Year is a time when families get together and celebrate the new year. But more recently, it’s also become a time for more public celebrations including parades and fireworks. It doesn’t matter whether you’re more traditional or modern when it comes to Chinese New Year, however, since if you’re going to be traveling you still want to get the best deal you can find.

>> Chinese New Year is on February 3, 2012

For those of you who have one particular destination in mind for your Chinese New Year travels, you might have to be a bit more crafty when it comes to hunting down cheap airfare. Anyone who’s just looking for a great place to celebrate can compare airfare to several different cities and just pick the cheapest one.

But no matter which group you’re in, the tips listed in this article will help you find cheap airfare for Chinese New Year trips – and they’ll serve you well whenever you’re looking for cheap airfare, too.

Know When Flights Are Cheapest

This may seem like a silly thing to list here, since you’re consulting this article to find out when flights are cheapest, but this simply means that there are certain days of the week and times of the day that tend to have cheaper prices on airfare. Knowing which days and times tend be cheaper will give you a better chance at finding the cheap fares in among all the other ones.

The cheapest day of the week to fly tends to be Wednesday – and after that, it’s Tuesday and Saturday. As for times of the day, it shouldn’t surprise you that the cheapest flights are usually the earliest flights of the day. Other cheaper times to check are the later flights at night, and even overnight red-eye flights.

Stay Flexible With Your Plans

Travelers who absolutely have to fly on one particular day and at a particular time, who have no leeway in their schedule, are the least likely to find cheap fares they can take advantage of. Sure, you might have inadvertently picked the cheap window in that very specific date and time you planned to fly, but chances are better that you’ll have missed it.

By searching for flights on different times and days, you stand a better chance of uncovering one of those cheaper fares. You can do this manually by changing the your travel date and time, but if you’re using an airfare booking site with a box that says something like “my dates are flexible” near where you put in your travel dates, you can let the site do all the hard work for you.

Look at Alternate Destinations & Airports

As mentioned at the outset, part of this won’t work if you’ve got a specific place you need to be for Chinese New Year. If you’re open about where you celebrate the new year, you can check out some of the cities around the world that have famous celebrations and just choose whichever one has the cheapest flights.

>> Best Places to Celebrate Chinese New Year

But no matter where you’re going for the new year, you can always look at alternate airports to see if you might be able to get a better deal at a different airport. Many of the big cities around the world have more than one airport serving them, so check all your options to see if one is favored more than another by budget airlines (one reason why flights may be cheaper).

>> Alternate Airports to Major US Hubs

Check out Low-Cost Airlines

One easy way to pay less for your airline ticket is to avoid using one of the big legacy carriers. There are lots of budget airlines out there, many of which don’t even have any class but coach and may charge you for every little thing, but if you don’t mind going without a blanket in flight and bringing your own snacks you can sometimes save a bundle on the price of your ticket.

In addition to being on the lookout for budget airlines on the major airfare booking sites, don’t forget to check the actual websites for the budget carriers, too. Some of them don’t list their fares with other sites, and some of them reserve lower fares for direct customers.

>> Budget Airlines in the US
>> Budget Airlines Flying to Canada
>> Budget Airlines that Fly to Europe

photo by ajagendorf25