help me find cheap flights

Tube

Hey guys, I'm looking to fly from London Heathrow to Seattle, WA, departing between the 17th-20th of June and returning around the 15th of September (my max stay is 90 days). Travelocity has found me flights for around 500 pounds, but I'm sure someone knows a trick that can knock something off that. Any hints?

darkmayo

For me I usually sign up with airlines to get info on when they have seat sales, just bought tickets from Calgary to Halifax for a paltry sum thanks to a seat sale. Unfortunately this means you have to wait for the sales to come to you which may or may not help.

kuhlmeye

The biggest hint is to be flexible on travel dates (which it looks like you are). Generally, the cheapest dates to fly will be on Sundays - Tuesdays. Flying later in the week will increase fares. Also be flexible on what time you fly. Early morning flights (5-8 AM) will cost less than flights leaving when normal people are already awake (anytime after 10 AM).

Other than that, use multiple sight search engines to search all the flight booking sites at once. Bing.com is actually pretty good, and allows you to check a ton of sites at once. Check the actual airline's site too, as sometimes they will have sweet deals that places like Expedia/Travelocity/Orbitz won't get.

Liiya

I wouldn't risk BA if I were you.

Iceman.USAF

www.kayak.com if you didn't already hit that site.

Also, bing has a really neat feature that tries to predict pricing online. Might give that a whirl.

Tube

If I'm flexible about my days, is there any way I can register for a cancellation or something for cheaper tickets?

Iceman.USAF

You'd probably have to work that with individual airlines. You're basically talking about flying "standby" right? I'm not even sure they do it that way. Most folks who are on standby are unlucky fuckers who got stuck.

Wezoin

Check Air Transat/Thomas Cook. They tend to be the cheaper of the trans-atlantic airlines. Thomas Cook will charge you for drinks and food on board, Air Transat includes all that for usually about the same price so keep that in mind when booking. On second glance, looks like Air Transat only goes to Canada, not the US. Still, check Thomas Cook.

ceres

I use cheaptickets.com to book flights.

Don't fly Friday or Saturday.

Look into routes with connections.

Check odd times of day (very early in the morning, very late at night).

In my experience, some airlines give the best rates when you book up to two months in advance or less than two weeks in advance, but if you go for the latter you risk low or no availability. I've gambled and won, but if it's very important you be where you want to go by a certain time, it might not be worth the risk.

kuhlmeye

Iceman.USAF wrote: »

You'd probably have to work that with individual airlines. You're basically talking about flying "standby" right? I'm not even sure they do it that way. Most folks who are on standby are unlucky fuckers who got stuck.

A note about flying stand-by: don't count on it as a ticket, and never get your hopes up about getting on a stand-by flight. Most airlines give out stand-by tickets based on miles/loyalty standing. Even if you are the first person on the stand-by list, if other people who have flown on that airline more get on the list right before it takes off, that person will have priority over you.

It sucks, I've been stuck in the stand-by circle before.

Tube

Cheers guys, I managed to find a quick flight with one super fast stopover in Canada for 500 quid return. Y'all rule!