Book Smarter, Book Cheaper

Travel is breath taking – you get to experience new places and cultures. But all too often, a great trip comes with pricey airfares. Fortunately, AEI has come up with a few tips to help you avoid these frustrations.

1: Always search for flights through a private browser:

Have you ever thought a flight price has changed after searching it a few times in your web browser? Based on the cookies in your browser, flight prices do rise when a particular path is repeatedly searched, as the site wants to push you into booking the flight quickly before prices get even higher. Always search for flights in a private browser so this doesn’t happen to you.

In Google Chrome or Safari, incognito is enabled by hitting Command (or “Control” if using PC), Shift, “N”. For Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, hit Command (or “Control” if using a PC), Shift, “P”. This will open a new browser window where your information is not tracked, thus not inflating prices as you search. Note: if you’re using an older version of OS X, open Safari then click “Safari” in the menu bar, and select “Private Browsing”.

2: Use a search engine:

AEI loves to use google flights – it does everything you need, like locate flights based on your ideal outbound time, inbound time and number of stops, along with comparing prices. A search engine is best used to actually book the flight only when you have multiple destinations. If you use a search engine when there is a snow storm it can be more of a headache than a blessing. Why? Because you will need to call that third-party site to switch your flight, along with calling the airline. That is why a search engine will save you time when starting your traveling process, but once you find the flights you want, you should go to the airlines website and book there.

3: Identifying the cheapest tickets:

While a lot of traveling guru’s say booking a flight on a Tuesday will save money, the reality is that is not always the case. Your best tactic is to get a monthly visual of prices to see what days are cheapest for your specific route. For example, go to google flights, enter your departure and arrival cities, select “one-way” just to determine the cheapest days to fly out first, then click “depart” and don’t enter a specific date, select “whole month” so you can view the cheapest days.

The key to traveling more is having the funds to do so! If you do your research finding the cheapest flights is fast and easy.