Our example person saves $62 - $343 on their flight using this method!
Airfare has dramatically increased as a consequence of COVID. However, the process to get the best prices for you vacation remains the same. This first article will illustrate one methodology I use to find great airfare pricing.
If you prefer video....
First, wherever possible, follow a few guidelines to maximize what you save….
1. Be open to WHERE you travel.
2. Travel during non-peak is less. Generally speaking, peak travel (most expensive) is summer, Spring Break, Christmas, and Thanksgiving.
3. Be flexible about the days of the week you will fly - Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are generally less expensive.
Second, use all the guidelines available to you to follow the process….
Let’s make this realistic. Not too many people can just fly anywhere, anytime so let’s put some realistic parameters around this using an example.
IN OUR EXAMPLE, THE PERSON:
- - Lives in Chicago
- - Can have any 5 days off in April
- - Must be home for Easter (April 9)
- - Require an assigned seat (preferably window or aisle) and checked bag
- - Likes the idea of Paris but definitely wants Europe
- - Maximum budget of $700 but preferably closer to $600 per person for the flight
TWO-PART PROCESS
I. Part one. Check pricing on Google Flights. THE GOAL is to identify appealing vacation cities with a price less than your budget and date ranges that are close to your criteria. Additionally, this part of the process likely identifies cities you may not have considered.
Generally speaking, investigating 3 places of interest should yield some options and/or deals.
STEPS TO FOLLOW:
A. Check Google Flights using the broadest area that you want to visit. In the example, “Europe” is the broadest area (you could also put “Carribean”, “Central America”, etc.).
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| Step A Example |
B. Change the dates from ‘specific’ to ‘flexible’ and choose your month and timeline. You probably have to hit ‘enter’ and do this on the second screen by hitting the calendar icon. In this example, the month is April.
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| Step B Example |
C. Filter out the number of stops you are willing to make (and any other options you want). For this example, I used “1 stop or fewer”. I find 1 stop opens up the options on where you can go and may deliver a better price. However, nonstop is always the most convenient!
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| Step C Example |
D. From the results, you can scroll the side panel for a quick view, then tap on the cities of interest to see high-level flight information.
E. Click on cities of interest to see which airlines are showing best pricing and flight durations. After clicking on multiple cities, for this example, I use Paris, Prague, and London. In each screenshot below, the city information is reviewed.
Paris. Google Flights shows that American and United offer competitively priced non-stops at $479 and $489, respectively. However, the date range is Monday, April 3 - Wednesday, April 12, requiring 7-8 days off, breaking two of the example criteria (over 5 days off and over Easter). However, the example also indicates an high interest in Paris so the search information can be used to point to potential airlines options.
Prague, Google Flights displays all airlines offer 1-stop options, but Swiss has the least flight time at 16 hours (versus 21 or 31 hours). The date range, Sunday, April 23 - Monday, May 1, for $456, breaks one example criteria, requiring 6 days off of work.
London. TAP offers a 1-stop flight Friday, April 21 - Thursday, April 27 for $520 meeting all the example criteria. (American/British Airways, both part of the OneWorld Alliance, might provide better options than 19 hour flights but for the sake of brevity and demonstrating a process, we are going with TAP.)
Part one results
THE GOAL of Part one was to identify appealing vacation cities with a price less than your budget and date ranges are close to your criteria. The table below illustrates how the cities of interest currently compare to the criteria.
II. Part two involves going to the airlines’ sites to refine and meet your criteria.
Chicago to Paris:
This part of the search refines our Google Flights results to meet our criteria. For Paris, the refinement includes adjusting to 5-days off, being home for Easter (April 9), and getting an assigned seat and checked bag. Google Flights pointed us to United and American for lower fares.
United: Their website allows the user to choose flexible dates, find the lowest fare, then choose from the 7-day calendar. Following these steps, the website leads us to the 19th - 26th (Wednesday - Wednesday) with nonstop flights for $727, including a seat and checked luggage. The outbound flight is in the evening so it might require a 6th day off or leaving a few hours early from work.
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| Flexible dates |
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| Low fare calendar |
5-day criteria exceeds max budget
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| 7-day fare calendar shows one day later is really close |
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| Price of Wednesday - Wednesday |
American - I could not find the flexible dates option on the American Airlines site so I used the United dates for comparability. The non-stop flights were $758 or, a one-stop flight there brings the price down to $660, under the maximum budget.
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| Airfare with 1 stop |
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| Nonstop airfare |
Chicago to Prague:
For Prague, the refinement includes adjusting to 5-days off and getting an assigned seat and checked bag. Google Flights pointed us to Swiss for lower fares with a reasonable flight duration. On the Swiss Air site, the lowest priced return flight takes over 24 hours to get home, so naturally, I pick a better flight. If you go Sunday - Sunday, you are paying $934, over the example budget.
However, Paris is in budget only if we push closer to a 6th day off, so it make sense to use the Google Flights dates returning May 1.
The lowest price has no luggage so we need to go “Basic” versus “Light” - and $80 difference. The price breakdown in second image shows all the other taxes and fees that ultimately take us to $616, closer to the ideal budget.
Chicago to London:
For London, the refinement includes getting an assigned seat and checked bag.
First, TAP airlines was glitchy on my phone and tablet so I had to use the app. Unfortunately, the dates in Google Flights (April 21 - 27, 2023) presented return flights over 30 hours. No person really wants a flight like that….
I adjusted dates for a return of April 28 instead. Round-trip is $966….I think. Quite frankly, the 200M is confusing. Either way, the $966 is over budget.
Part 3 - OUTCOME
Using very realistic example where a person….
- - Lives in Chicago
- - Can have any 5 days off in April
- - Must be home for Easter (April 9)
- - Require an assigned seat (preferably window or aisle) and checked bag
- - Likes the idea of Paris but definitely wants Europe
- - Maximum budget of $700 but preferably closer to $600 per person for the flight
First, we narrowed it down to Paris, Prague, and London. Then, we refined to meet our criteria. For most people, budget is a pretty important criteria so London is out.
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| Summary vs Criteria |
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| Summary of our Findings (Feb 11, 2023) |
Using budget as the ultimate limiting, this person could go to Paris ($660) or Prague ($616). Considering the example individual liked Paris from the start, the American flight for $660 most closely matches their criteria.
Did the person get the best price?
Last step….for me….I checked the Paris price against United, Swiss, and TAP using the matching dates, sorting by low fare, assuring seat and checked bag, and using 1 stop as acceptable. Furthermore, using the same process, I added Aer Lingus, and Air France to the comparison.
I also did what most people do…I slept on it.
Price Comparison on Feb 12, 2023
Airfare prices changes due to any number of reasons - a topic for another day. If this person waited one day to book, they would have paid closer to their maximum budget at $695. (And it will change many times again before those dates.) However, compared to the other airlines in this particular example, plus a couple extra (Air France & Aer Lingus), this person still received the lowest rate saving between $62 - $343 on the flight.
Give it a try and tell me how this method works for you!
Sources:
Google Flights https://www.google.com/travel/flights
Aer Lingus www.aerlingus.com
Air France www.airfrance.com
American Airlines www.aa.com
Swiss www.swissair.com
TAP www.flytap.com
United Airlines www.united.com
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