How to Find Cheap Airfare to Amsterdam for Queens Day

One of the biggest holidays in the Netherlands is Queen’s Day, celebrated each April 30th throughout the country. As it’s the capital of the country, however, Amsterdam is where you’ll find the biggest and most boistrous celebrations – so if you’re contemplating a trip to party with the Dutch on Queen’s Day, Amsterdam is the place to be.

Thankfully, Amsterdam is home to one of Europe’s big international gateway airports, Schiphol – and April isn’t technically part of the European high season yet, so airfare to Amsterdam prior to Queen’s Day isn’t typically as expensive as airfare to the Dutch capital can get in (for instance) June or July. Still, airfare is usually the biggest expense of any trip, so if you can start off with a cheap flight to Amsterdam you can stretch your travel budget that much further.

>> In 2011, Queen’s Day is on Saturday, April 30.

Stay Flexible

The best way to save money on airline tickets, no matter where you’re going or when you’re traveling, is to avoid limiting your search to only one travel day. The cost of airfare goes up and down throughout the week, and even on any given day, so if you start your search by looking at a few potential travel days you’re more likely to find one of the lower fares.

Most airfare search sites these days have a button that says something like “my dates are flexible” near where you enter your travel information – look for and check this box before you begin your search, and the site will automatically look at fares within a few days on either side of your target date. This way, if there’s a much lower fare a day or two before or after when you originally thought of flying, you’ll see it in the search results.

Know When Flights are Cheapest

As mentioned above, the prices on airfare go up and down throughout each day and week, and even if you’re choosing the “my dates are flexible” option it helps even more to know when flights tend to be cheapest so you can begin your search there.

This isn’t set in stone, but the cheapest flights tend to be on Wednesdays, followed by Tuesdays and Saturdays. The cheapest flights each day are usually first thing in the morning, followed by late-night departures (including red eyes). Start with flights on these days and at these times, choose “my dates are flexible,” and you stand a much better chance of finding the best fares that week.

Consider Flying to a Different Airport

If you’re planning a trip to Amsterdam, you want to fly to Amsterdam, right? Why would you choose a different airport than the city you want to be in? Well, sometimes there’s enough of a discount for flying into a different city that you’ll still save money even if you still have to buy a second ticket to get where you wanted to go.

Yes, Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is a large international gateway for Europe, but it’s not the biggest international airport in Europe – not by a long shot. If you’re not finding great discounts on flights to Amsterdam when you want to go, try checking flights into London, Paris, and even Frankfurt as well. Those airports are enormous gateways for Europe, have regular flights on budget carriers to cities all over the continent (including Amsterdam), and you never know when a great deal to one of those cities will pop up. In some cases, you can even hop on a train from your arrival city to get to Amsterdam quickly and for even less than the cost of a second plane ticket.

Look at Budget Airlines

Depending on where you’re flying from, you could fly directly to Amsterdam on one of the many budget airlines that flies into Schiphol – and this is especially true if you’ve opted to fly into another city or country and are looking for a cheap flight on a budget airline for the final leg of your journey.

In addition to the many budget airlines that fly only within Europe, there are a few that fly into Amsterdam from across the Atlantic, too – including Air Transat (from a few airports in Canada) and US Airways (from Philadelphia). Even if you can’t fly on a budget carrier all the way from your home airport, if you’ve got a layover at any point on your trip you can check to see if it’s possible to switch to a budget airline along the way to save money.

photo by katielips