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We all know someone who found an unbelievable air fare deal on what was already a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. But the secret is that your friend probably didn’t just get lucky when they sat down to plan their trip. They instead probably heard about a great deal and impulsively bought it immediately. Or they performed a few tricks to make sure they had the cheapest flight. You can totally do this, too. One of the great things about living in Atlanta is easy access to a major international airport, the world’s busiest in terms of amount of people who travel through it daily. It’s not too difficult to travel just about anywhere, and there can be quite a few good deals to be had, both domestically and internationally. So how do you go about finding great fares before your friends do?
It’s honestly not that hard. I’m one of those people who impulsively digs through airfares to find the best deals. I take it seriously—I even make spreadsheets. That process has led to a decent chunk of savings and a few great successes. Sometimes you’ll have to act very quickly to pounce on a deal. Be ready to strike without a loose end or doubt left lingering in your mind. Know a few destinations you’d like to travel to, how many vacation days you can afford to use, when you can take time off, and the maximum you’re willing to spend on a flight.
If you want to travel internationally, you’ll want make sure your passport is up to date and in usable condition. There are a lot of resources out there to alert you about low fares. You’ll want to subscribe to newsletters, bookmark travel deal websites, and join certain Facebook groups to be notified quickly. Scott’s Cheap Flights is currently the ultimate newsletter for international deals. The free service is a good start, providing roughly a third of whatever travel deals founder Scott Keyes and his company find. 39 per year, sends every deal and mistake fare your way. Keyes’ team doesn’t have special algorithms or access to an airline’s fares.
Rather, they use many of the same techniques outlined here—just on a much larger scale, searching much more often. Domestic flight deals are a little trickier. For the most part, however, you’ll need to hunt on your own. Which leads to . Familiarize yourself with Google Flights; it’s arguably the best tool at your disposal. You’ll need a destination in mind first. Enter the cities you’re traveling between—not airports, otherwise you may miss out. For example, if you’re looking for a trip to Tokyo, typing NRT for Narita International Airport won’t show you any flights for Haneda Airport, which may be cheaper.
Next, when selecting dates, you’ll see the lowest price available for each day. If the cost is highlighted in green, you’re getting a discount. Don’t accept any price blindly, however, as it could be for a Spirit flight, a basic economy fare, or another option that might not align with what you actually want. Investigate your find before you decide to commit. And know that even if a fare is green, it might not be the lowest possible price. If you frequently look at prices for the route you wan to take, you’ll quickly learn when a deal really is worth it and when you should hold out for a better fare.
You want to start looking for international flights roughly six to three months out and domestic ones about a month or two out. Try to time your searches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays—occasionally you’ll find lower prices. When picking your travel dates, Fridays, Sundays, and anything near a holiday will be the most in demand, and you’ll pay a premium for them. Memorize each airline’s major focus cities (a hub, in the vernacular). If you’re traveling between one and another, the hub-to-hub airline will usually have the lowest nonstop fares. Also, for American, Delta, and United, there are often wide-body aircraft shuttling between the two hubs.
A Boeing 777 is more comfortable than a Boeing 737, even in coach. And if you’re traveling in a premium cabin, you’re going to pay domestic prices for international seating. Delta: Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. The only place to find Southwest Airlines’ fares is on their website. Not on Google Flights, not on Kayak or any other travel booking service. Coupled with free checked bags (two per person), you’ll often find this is the best bet price-wise for domestic flights. Atlanta is also hub for Southwest, which means there are a lot of flights from Hartsfield-Jackson to other U.S. The flip side, however, is Southwest’s unique approach to air travel.
People seem to love it or hate it. Power-flyers used to status and upgrades might not like joining the rest of us in the free-for-all that is open seating. There are no assigned seats, so if you want the best shot at getting a good seat, you’ll want to check-in for your flight exactly 24-hours before it takes off. A family with children, however, may love that finding seats together is generally much easier, especially with young children. One of Southwest’s best perks is family boarding, where groups traveling with children six and younger can board after Group A has been seated. Even if you’re in Group C, the last one, you can board before Group B. That means you’ll have roughly two-thirds of the plane open as you select your seats. Ultra low-cost carriers, like Spirit and Frontier, do offer significant discounts and are great for some travelers.
But if you don’t know what you’re agreeing to, you might face trouble later. 65 if a gate agents utters the dreaded, "I’m sorry, you’ll have to check that." You can’t even avoid these fees with carry-ons. 65 at the gate. Need to print your boarding pass? 10 from a human—per pass. Want to pick a seat? 50 for the privilege. As you can see, any savings can quickly evaporate if you don’t read the rules and meticulously plan during booking. To add to the confusion, the big U.S. "basic economy." These fares are the lowest, but you might give up seat selection, early boarding, and sometimes even overhead bin access.
As with Spirit, if you know what you’re getting into and play by the rules, you can save some money. If you wing it, you may end up paying more than the standard coach fare. If you do want to take advantage of those "basic economy" fares, Delta, American, and United will allow you to regain a few perks as long as you hold their credit cards. Instead of boarding in the last group, you’ll board with the first economy group. You regain your normal carry-on amount and the credit card’s free checked bag privileges. While this approach still won’t let you pick a better seat in advance or earn as many miles on your flight, it will take most of the bite out of a basic economy fare.
If you keep looking up the same flights on an airline’s website, eventually you might see the prices start to creep up. Don’t worry, that great deal still might be there. These websites can track you and have been known to raise prices on individuals who repeatedly check out a flight but don’t commit. By simply engaging private browser mode, or better yet, using a VPN, you can sometimes see lower prices. There is some debate as to the validity of this tip, but you won’t lose anything by adhering to it. You should know that American Airlines, when booked directly through their website, allows you to place a hold on a reservation for free for 24 hours. If you see a deal with them but need to talk it over with someone first, lock in that price!
You might have heard of "hacker fares." This umbrella term can mean a few different things. Let’s say you want to travel from Atlanta to Los Angeles. You might find the cheapest deal by purchasing two one-way tickets—Delta out there and American back. Or maybe there’s a really good deal on Atlanta to Dallas, and another for Dallas to Los Angeles. You could buy two round trip tickets, ATL to DFW, and DFW to LAX. Buying two one-way tickets on different airlines is the safest option. It doesn’t interfere with any airline’s contract of carriage, and you can’t get stranded without options.
The downside is this doesn’t always save that much money. Combining two round trips into one opens you up to the risk of getting stuck somewhere. Using the Atlanta to Los Angeles example, what if you see a great deal from Atlanta to San Francisco with a layover in L.A.? Would anyone really notice if you didn’t make that connection to SFO? Yes, yes they would. And if they want to, they can make things difficult. This strategy of making a layover your final destination is against airlines’ policies. You risk ticket cancellation, losing any miles or status you held, and even a possible ban from the airline. Have a great flight and an even better vacation.
Based on historical and recent travel trends, INRIX, in collaboration with AAA, predicts drivers will experience the greatest amount of congestion Thanksgiving week during the early evening commute period, with travel times starting to increase on Monday. Drivers in San Francisco, New York City and Boston will see the largest delays - nearly quadruple normal drive times. In most cases, the best days to travel will be on Thanksgiving Day, Friday or Saturday. Drivers should expect increased travel times on Sunday as most holiday travelers will be making their way home after the long weekend. Across the country, travelers who take to the sky must account for long security lines, but also increased drive times to the airport.
INRIX expects delays getting to the nation’s busiest airports could be as long as an hour and a half. The busiest airports this year will be Dallas - Fort Worth, San Francisco, Denver, New York - JFK, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Chicago O’Hare and Seattle. 2.79 as of November 1, 31-cents more than a year ago. "Motorists have become accustomed to this year’s more expensive gas prices and won’t let higher fuel costs deter them from taking Thanksgiving road trips," said AAA gas price expert Jeanette Casselano. An analysis of AAA’s flight booking data from the last three years revealed that the Tuesday and Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving are usually the most popular air travel days and have the highest average price per roundtrip ticket.
Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day consistently has the lowest average price per ticket and is the lightest travel day. Travelers looking to save money this holiday season can fly the morning of the holiday and arrive just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. 459 between now and November 15. However, last-minute flight availability will likely be very limited. Travelers can expect to save on car rentals this Thanksgiving holiday season. 63, the average daily rate is 10 percent less than last year, according to AAA’s Leisure Travel Index. 166, a decline of six percent compared to last year. Many travelers will seek iconic American cities, theme parks and other warm-weather destinations this Thanksgiving. Orlando, New York City and Anaheim top this year’s top 10 holiday destinations based on AAA’s online and travel agency air and tour bookings. Punta Cana, Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami are all gaining popularity as holiday spots compared with last year.
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