I really started to travel avidly in 2015, and now that it’s 2018 I have been able to find cheaper flights almost every time. I started out with round trip flights to Spain for around $700. Over the past few years I like to think I have really nailed down methods for flying as cheap as I can. Since 2015 I have booked numerous flights all from the Miami / Fort Lauderdale area that didn’t break my wallet, like the $70 one-way ticket I got to Copenhagen, a $380 roundtrip ticket to Paris (multiple times!), $340 roundtrip to Frankfurt, a $175 one-way to Madrid, and even few more deals. In fact, so far this year I have been to Amsterdam, Netherlands; Frankfurt, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Fes, Chefchaouen, and Merzouga, Morocco; and Paris, France all for under $1500. Here’s some of the places I’ve visited just this year with these methods.
There’s a few different ways you can fly to Europe without breaking the bank. A few different methods I use are Email Subscriptions, Budget Airlines, and Flight Watching Apps. I also monitor certain times of the year when I am aware of large sales going on.
Email Subscriptions
Scott’s Cheap Flights is a great, FREE resource to have. You sign up for email subscriptions and you get sent great deals found for all over the world. If you choose to do so you can sign up for a paid premium account where users have even more access to pricing mistakes, huge sales, and flash drops as well.
Next Vacay similarly sends you email subscriptions with a year membership of $25. But the deals are insane. $500 to Bejing round trip! With Next Vacay they draw from airports around you to send personalized deals that are perfect for you!
Budget Airlines
Norwegian Air has become my go-to airline. Except during peak times I can almost always find a round trip flight from Fort Lauderdale to Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and now even Rome for only $380. With budget airlines you have to be sure to read the find print, a lot of them don’t include much. Norwegian is the best of both worlds while it doesnt include meals and seat choice it does include a carry on bag and a personal item. Often you will find that carry-ons are only available for purchase with other airlines. So with Norweigan its a flat fee unless you really, really need a checked suitcase. But with two bags included who needs that? Bring some snacks and a sandwich for the flight and if you get too hungry or thirsty they have a great array of snacks and drinks on board. Make sure to sign up for emails on the website and they’ll notify you of ongoing sales and new routes.
Wow Air was my orignal solution for budget airlines until the discontinued service out of Miami. I am super bummed to lose out on Wow Air but it’s okay because they fly to many large and secondary cities all over the United States. While luggage is not included along with seat choice and meals these flights are often the cheapest deals you will find. Bonus! you can do a stop over in Iceland on the way to which ever destination you choose.
Air Europa is not quiet as cheap as the other budget airlines I use and it is not available at as many airports however, you recieve meals, luggage, and seat choice with your ticket price. It’s a good choice for you if you prefer things all inclusive.
Flight Watching Apps
Hopper is a great tool for monitoring flight prices. It will watch specific flights, it can watch specific dates, or destinations. If youre flexible about when you can travel its a wonderful way to keep track of trends. Recently they have added a hotel feature to the app as well to find cheaper places to stay.
Skyscanner works basically the same way but I enjoy that it will research entire countries to find the cheapest city or airport to fly into. I have found a lot of my sales through Skyscanner alone.
There are also specific times of year when you’ll find great sales for flights such as around Black Friday and Valentine’s Day. Knowing you’ll find a great deal at these times try to save up a stash of money to buy a flight thats super on sale helps to break up travel costs for the upcoming year. Buy it a few months out just because its on sale and you’ll end up saving hundreds of dollars in the planning. Plently of people use credit card rewards to book free flights. We learned a few tricks to that too and we can’t wait to share them with you. As you can see however, you don’t have to have decent credit to take advantage of these deals. Need help earning some extra cash to buy your flights? Check out our side hustle of teaching English online.
-Meghan