How to Get Insanely Cheap Flight Tickets

How Do Airlines Choose Cheap Flight Tickets?

There are several common misconceptions regarding flight prices and how airlines gauge demand. Most ideas center around the idea of tracking. Airline companies track your online movements and ramp up the ticket costs as soon as you visit the site, using cookies to keep tabs on you. Could that be true?

Airlines Do Use Dynamic Pricing and User Profiling

For all the airlines like to deny how they use cookies against potential customers, there are some strong indications otherwise.

Dynamic pricing structures do consider user location, customer accounts, previous flight data, shopping trends, and more, to create specialized individual flight prices that differ from customer to customer.

Currently, each airline has just 26 fare classes. That’s one for each letter of the alphabet (literally). Airlines can update the prices for each fare class four times per day for domestic flights, and hourly for international flights.

Dynamic Flight Pricing Leads to Price Discrimination

There are more than a few people voicing concerns regarding dynamic fare pricing. One of the biggest issues dynamic pricing presents is the tracking and grading of individual customers, which will undoubtedly lead to flight fare discrimination toward any number of potential customers.

Any system that gauges a customer’s suitability for a specific price should remain open for analysis. The reality is that the backend of such a system will never see the light of day, lest it exposes shady and discriminatory practices.

Flight Route Profiling

Flight route profiling has existed for a long time. For instance, a flight from London to Lanzarote is primarily marked for leisure. Airlines know that demand during school holiday periods will dramatically increase.

A switch to dynamic profiling is unlikely to change this scenario. It could, however, impact in other ways.

If you’re checking out flights on a high-end Mac, in San Francisco, the dynamic pricing might assume you have higher income and show you higher prices. How about checking prices for a return overnight trip from New York to Chicago?

Dynamic pricing might assume you’re a business person, check your previous flight purchase history, and show you price knowing that you will pay it regardless of cost.

5 Flight Hacks to Find Cheap Tickets

Everyone wants to find an insanely cheap flight. The reality is that the ridiculous flight deals are few and far between. You might get incredibly lucky from time to time and find a flight ticket with a massive discount. But the reality is that airline ticket prices react to demand and the proximity to the flight.

Still, there are a few handy tricks you can use to knock a few dollars from your airfare.

1. Use a VPN to Find Cheaper Flight Prices

If the airlines use dynamic profiling, you can fight back by using a VPN to change your location. For instance, you can use ExpressVPN.

NOTE: Using a VPN will not always help you find discounts, so you’ll have to play around with locations to figure out what works. It is also trip specific. The VPN server and flight combination might give you a discount at one time, but not others.

2. Be Flexible to Find Cheap Flight Deals

Flexibility is key to finding a cheap flight deal. If you can travel at any time, you can work your way through the cheapest dates for your destination.

If you cannot travel at any time, try and remain flexible with your destination. Skyscanner and other flight comparison sites allow you to search for “Everywhere” using the Cheapest Month option. It'll show you the cheapest locations, in the cheapest month, from your departing location which will get you cheap first class flights.

3. Alternate Airports

Following on from flexibility, you can try and fly from and land at different airports. Many of the major global cities have multiple international airports. Switch between them to check for price differences (though make sure to factor in your travel into the city too).

Switch up your departure location, too. If you can travel between several different outgoing airports, include them in your base search so you can compare fares easily. For instance, trip-building site Kiwi.com lets you do both (add different departure and destination airports).

4. Book Your Flights Early And at Specific Times

I’m a little skeptical of this, and so are other online flight specialists. However, in the quest to find cheap flights, you’ll try anything, right?

You should always attempt to book your flights early. Although the figures differ, the best time to book a flight is between three to six in advance.