✈️ How to find the cheapest flight

Tips to get the cheapest flight: flexible dates, multiple sites, and Skyscanner regions.

Finding the cheapest flight is part strategy, part timing, and part knowing where to look. Here's a comprehensive guide based on what actually works, not clickbait myths about incognito mode or booking on Tuesdays. Search with flexible dates. If your travel dates are not fixed, use the flexible date or 'whole month' search options available on Skyscanner, Google Flights, and Kiwi.com. Prices can vary dramatically — sometimes by hundreds of pounds — between departing on a Wednesday versus a Friday. Mid-week flights are almost always cheaper than weekend departures. Red-eye flights and early morning departures tend to be discounted as well. If you have the flexibility, shifting your dates by even one or two days can make a significant difference. Compare multiple booking platforms. No single booking site consistently has the lowest price for every route. Skyscanner, Google Flights, Kiwi.com, Momondo, and Kayak each have different partnerships and pricing agreements with airlines and OTAs. Run the same search on at least three platforms before deciding. Google Flights is particularly useful for seeing price trends over time, while Kiwi.com can sometimes find creative routing with self-transfer connections that other platforms miss. Check different Skyscanner regions. This is where most people leave money on the table. The same flight can be 10–25% cheaper when viewed from a different regional version of Skyscanner. An economy ticket from London to Tokyo might show as £650 on Skyscanner UK but only £520 equivalent on Skyscanner India. You can check these manually by visiting each regional site, or you can use RegionFare to compare all regions in one step. Book at the right time. The idea that there is one perfect time to book (like 6 weeks before departure) is an oversimplification. The optimal booking window varies by route, season, and airline. As a general rule: for international long-haul flights, booking 2–4 months in advance tends to offer good prices. For short-haul domestic or European flights, 3–6 weeks ahead is often the sweet spot. Last-minute bookings are almost always more expensive unless you are targeting error fares or flash sales. Use price alerts. Set up price alerts on Google Flights or Skyscanner for routes you are interested in. These tools will email you when prices drop, so you don't have to manually check every day. This is especially useful for trips planned months in advance — you can monitor the price trend and book when it hits a level you are comfortable with. Consider nearby airports. Flying from or into a nearby alternative airport can sometimes cut costs significantly. For example, if you are based in London, comparing Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton can reveal meaningful differences. On the destination end, flying into a secondary airport and taking ground transport to your final city might save more than the inconvenience costs. Combining these strategies. The biggest savings come from stacking these approaches: search with flexible dates, compare multiple platforms, check regional pricing with RegionFare, and set alerts for price drops. A disciplined approach can consistently save 15–30% compared to booking the first result you see on your default booking site.