How to Find Cheap Flights During Peak Travel Times

The holiday season (Christmas through New Year Day) is notorious for being one of the most expensive times of year to fly. If you’re not booking your airfare 2 to 3 months ahead, you’ll be paying hundreds of dollars to get a flight through most major airlines. 

However, it’s not impossible to fly on the cheap around the holiday season. The nature of airline scheduling means that there are often empty seats on flights, especially last minute. Empty seats mean the airline is losing money, so they’re usually incentivized to fill those seats no matter what. There are other lesser known airlines that are far less expensive than some big names. 

In this piece, we’ll help explore your options for holiday travel. Keep in mind the pros and cons of cheaper flights during the holiday season.

Pros and Cons of Cheap Airline Tickets

Pros of discounted flights:

• Cheaper (obviously, this is the most important factor!)
• Additional sales, promotions and other cheap package deals may be included
• Fly further to popular destinations 

Cons of discounted flights:

• Long layovers
• No choice on seat selection
• Very early or late flight times
• Hidden fees (baggage fees, food/drink costs, etc.)
• No refunds

As a general tip, even if you’re booking through a major airline, we recommend testing out travel on different days around the holidays. Some days, like Christmas Eve or the day after Christmas, are known for being very expensive to travel on. 

Here are some resources for finding cheaper, discounted flights, no matter where you’re traveling as well as package deals for cheaper round-trip vacation planning. 

Tool for Researching Airline Deals: Kiwi

Kiwi is a travel planner that allows you to search for flights by destination and departure/arrival dates. The best part is that Kiwi lets you specify how many bags and passengers you want to have on your flight. From there, you can explore the different flight options with your specific criteria. You can even preview the costs of flights changing depending on the day you want to travel. 

Once you set the airports that you want to fly out of and pick your dates, you’ll have a bunch of options for airlines and flight times. You can even sort by how many stops or layovers you have, as well as the times that you prefer to travel. Remember that the more picky and specific you get on travel dates/times, the more expensive flights will be!

Kiwi provides options for your flight dates close to or around your selected dates, so you can see how prices compare if you stay an extra day or leave a little earlier.

Pros:

• Good resources for finding cheap flights
• Excellent tools for narrowing down your search to specific times and flights
• Gives an idea of what dates are more expensive or cheaper to fly on

Cons:

• Some reviews cite poor customer service
• Often cited issues with changed/delayed flights
• Not as good for international flights

Overall, reviewers say that Kiwi is a great tool for finding cheap flights. However, they recommend actually booking the flight directly with the airline rather than through Kiwi, especially if there are multiple stops in your journey, or you’re planning on flying a very long distance. 

Find Affordable Flights With Expedia

Expedia is a well-known airfare tool that helps you book round-trip, one-way, and multi-city flights from airports or cities to anywhere you want. Expedia lets you select specific airports and even suggests other airports nearby. You can then explore pricing options to get an idea if it’s generally cheaper or more expensive to fly on specific days.

Once you select your dates, you’ll be given options for one-way or round-trip travel as you plan your trip. Expedia allow you to filter your search by the type of trip, the airline you want to use, how much baggage you have, and the general times that you want to travel (morning, afternoon, or evening). We especially like the suggested departing dates that are separate from the suggested returning dates, so you can toy around with different travel plans to find the cheapest option. 

Expedia also offers email alerts as prices change in case you want to track the price of travel far in advance to book at the cheapest possible time. 

Pros:

• Well-established name in the business
• Great for finding cheaper flights when you’re trying to book a complete travel plan
• Tools for comparing flight prices and times

Cons:

• Poor reviews when booking hotels/lodging
• Can run into a lot of problems if your travel plans go wrong or the flight is delayed
• Tries to get you to buy trip protection/travel insurance

Overall, Expedia is a decent third-party travel booking service that has a more robust customer service system than some of the other services we’ve mentioned. However, many reviewers cite issues with rescheduling/changing flights and having a very poor experience when something goes wrong with travel. Expedia’s trip protection/travel insurance does not help with this, as it only covers health emergencies. 

Best Airfare Search Engine: Skyscanner

Unlike the other options we’ve mentioned so far, Skyscanner isn’t a third-party booking service. Rather, it’s a search tool specifically for flights, hotels, and car rentals. Skyscanner lets you search for travel directly to and from specific airports and explore travel dates and times to find the cheapest available options. You’ll be able to get an idea of which travel dates have less or more expensive times so you can find the best available option for travel. 

Once you’ve selected your flight, you can narrow your search down by departure time, how many stops you want, and even the duration of your trip! If you prefer a specific airline, or have points saved up with an airline, you can narrow your search down to just flights using that airline. Once you select a flight, rather than checking out through Skyscanner, you’ll be redirected to that airline’s website to book your airfare through them, rather than Skyscanner.

Pros: 

• Lots of options for cheap flights across all available airlines
• Ability to narrow down your search based on certain criteria
• Set up price alerts for new, cheaper flights 

Cons:

• Have to book travel through the airline, not Skyscanner
• No baggage price comparison

If you’re comfortable booking your flights directly through the airlines, Skyscanner is an excellent tool to make it easier to find the cheapest possible flights. Skyscanner is not a third-party booker, so they won’t handle any of your travel arrangements or book flights, hotels, or car rentals for you. Once you find the flight you want, you’ll deal with the airline rather than Skyscanner. 

Best Air Travel Site for Frequent Flyers: Expert Flyer

If you fly a lot, you may want to explore Expert Flyer as a possibility for finding the seats you want on the flights you need. This service is unique in that it’s a subscription, so it’s specifically meant for frequent flyers. Expert Flyer lets you search for exact airports, airlines times, dates, and more specific criteria so you can narrow your search to exactly the flights you need. You can’t book flights through Expert Flyer, but you can get a lot of info about flights and travel plans through this service. 

Expert Flyer is unique in that you can set up seat alerts to get specific seats on flights. If you want to be toward the front of the plane, or in the window seat, this is a great way for finding when new seats pop up. You can also narrow your search down to connecting through specific airports, if you wish to avoid a particular airport or prefer to connect through a city/airport. For planning your exact travel plans, this is one of the best tools on the market. 

Pros:

• Hyper-specific search results for your journey
• Tracking tools for flights by airline code or flight number
• Seat maps and set alerts to get specific seats you want
• Free 5-day trial 

Cons: 

• Paid subscription to use
• Only for flights, not for hotels or car rental
• Usually meant for frequent fliers rather than one time holiday travel arrangements
• No mobile app

Overall, if you’re finding yourself flying more and more and want to optimize your itinerary, we recommend trying out ExpertFlyer. If you want to not only book, but also track flights, ExpertFlyer may be the right service for you. 

But if you’re looking for a free flight tracker, check out the flight tracker app in the OneLaunch apps library. This free tool lets you search by flight number, route, or airport to get updated information about different flights throughout the U.S.

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