How I Saved Hundreds On My Flight To Europe

I put a lot of effort into finding the cheapest flight for my upcoming trip to Europe. I researched what days were best to buy, to fly, what months were cheapest, what airlines were cheapest....you get the picture. I think I've learned a few tricks to help find the best price:

1. Use comparison websites...

As I've mentioned, I'm quite addicted to Kayak.com. I've looked at a lot of different comparison-travel sites, but this one's my fav. It gives you ALL the options (from cheapo airlines to high-end) and lets you choose what you want to filter out.

One of my favorite features is the "flex month" option. It looks like this: 

However, this feature seems to work best for 8 or less days at a destination as it forces you to choose departure and return dates that are that close to each other.

For my longer Europe trip, I utilized the "+/- 3 days" feature much more.

This is for people who have a rough idea already of what their departure and return dates will be. This feature works equally well for those with short or long trips in the plans-definitely a pro.

2. Be flexible with when you travel...

Europe is a hugely popular travel destination and changing when you visit can help decrease the cost of the plane ticket (if not the whole trip entirely!). 

Peak travel season in Europe is June, July, and August. This is when they get the most tourists due to schools being out for the summer as well as the desirable warm travel weather.

Shoulder travel season refers to the "in-between" months that will be less crowded than the summer months, but not completely empty. These months include April, May, the beginning of June, September, and October.

Low travel season includes the remaining months: November, December, January, February, and March. And reasonably so because they are the coldest - no beaches or tropical getaways here. However, if you're goal is to save major mula...maybe a winter vacation is the answer for you.

I was able to save money by changing my trip from August to September. Weather wise, it may be a little colder, but still nice enough in some areas (like southern France and Italy) to keep wearing a few summer outfits and possibly take a dip in the ocean.

3. When to buy and when to fly...24 weeks out!

Here is the key to saving the maximum amount of money... What bugged me when searching for a ticket was watching flights and price alerts - I didn't understand how one day a ticket for a certain flight cost $900 and the very next day it jumped to $1050. 

Most of you have probably heard that Tuesdays are the "day to buy", but recently, that's become untrue. I had my whole family on research duty, and my dad found an interesting article from the ARC. You can read the whole thing here, but the takeaway is to buy 24 weeks out from your departure date. AND on a Sunday. 

I tried out this method, and it worked! Although I bought my ticket 26 weeks out (because I got nervous the price would rise!) for $836, the lowest price I ever saw for the same flight was on the Sunday 24 weeks out for $829. 

Yes, it was only $7 cheaper, but that is just one flight's example.