How to find cheap flights: a step-by-step method

The single biggest lever on price is flexibility. Before you search, decide which parts of the trip can move: the exact dates, the length of the trip, the departure airport or even the destination. Each extra option you allow gives you more fares to compare.

Most flight search tools have a flexible-date or calendar view that shows prices across a week or a month. Use it to spot cheaper days around your preferred dates. Moving a trip by a day or two, or flying out midweek instead of on a Friday, often changes the price noticeably because demand is lower.

If your dates are fixed, flexibility can still come from airports, routes and fare types, which the next steps cover. If you are still deciding how long to go for, our guide on how many days you need for a trip can help you choose a length that leaves room to compare dates.

Many cities are served by more than one airport, and smaller airports are sometimes cheaper to fly from or into. Check every airport you could reasonably reach, then add the cost and time of getting there. A cheaper fare from an airport two hours away is only a saving if the journey to it costs less than the difference.

Look beyond nonstop flights, too. A route with one connection can cost less than flying direct, especially on long-haul trips. Weigh the saving against the extra travel time and the risk of a tight connection, and prefer connections on a single ticket so the airline is responsible for rebooking you if the first flight is late.

You can compare routes and airports for your own dates with our flight search, which currently shows example fares from a test environment for planning.

Return tickets are not always cheaper than two one-ways. On many short-haul routes, especially with low-cost airlines, fares are priced per direction, so combining two one-way tickets, even on different airlines, can work out cheaper or give you better times.

The trade-off is protection. With two separate tickets, a delay on the outbound flight is not the return airline's problem, and a missed connection between separate tickets is usually your responsibility. Separate tickets work best for simple point-to-point trips with plenty of time either side.

Two fares with the same headline price can be very different products. Before comparing, check what each includes: cabin baggage, checked baggage, seat selection, changes and refunds. Basic fares are cheap partly because they leave these out.

Read the fare conditions for changes and cancellations. If your plans might change, a slightly more expensive fare that allows changes can be cheaper overall than a basic fare you have to abandon. Our guide to budget airline fees explains the common extras in detail.

The fare is only one part of the cost of flying. Add the extras you will actually need, the cost of getting to and from each airport, and the value of your time. A late-night arrival that needs a taxi instead of a train, or an extra hotel night because of an early departure, can wipe out a saving.

In the European Union, airlines and agents must show the final price including all unavoidable taxes and charges, and optional extras must be offered on an opt-in basis. That makes like-for-like comparisons easier, but optional extras such as bags and seats still need adding yourself.

You will often hear that one weekday or a fixed number of weeks before departure is always cheapest. Fares are set by demand and seat availability on each flight, so no single rule holds for every route. A more reliable approach is to start watching prices early and act when a fare looks good for your trip.

Set price alerts for your route and dates in one or two search tools. Watching the same flights for a while shows you what a normal price looks like, so you can recognise a genuinely good fare. For busy periods such as school holidays and major events, popular flights can sell out, so it rarely pays to wait until the last minute.

Comparison sites are excellent for finding options, but it is worth checking the same flight on the airline's own website before booking. The price is often the same or close, and booking direct can make changes, refunds and disruption easier to handle, because you deal with the airline rather than an intermediary.

If you do book through a third party, use a well-known company, read its change and cancellation terms, and make sure the final price includes everything you need.

Cheap tickets still come with passenger rights. Under EU and UK rules, passengers on many flights can be entitled to care, such as meals and accommodation, during long delays, and to a refund or rerouting, and in some cases fixed compensation, if a flight is cancelled at short notice or arrives very late, unless extraordinary circumstances apply.

In the United States, you are generally entitled to a refund if an airline cancels or significantly changes your flight and you choose not to travel. Rules differ by country and by airline, so check the official sources linked below for your trip. Once your flights are sorted, our AI trip planner can turn your dates into a day-by-day plan.