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The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Jennifer is a contributing writer to The Points Guy where she focuses on family travel. She is also the founder of Deals We Like where she helps her readers travel on a deal.
Bill Fink is a freelance travel writer for outlets including AARP, BBC Travel, Frommer’s, Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Outside, SF Chronicle, and Yahoo Travel. Among many writing awards, Bill won Lowell Thomas Golds for Investigative Journalism and Newspaper Travel, and his stories have been included in The Best of Lonely Planet Travel Writing, Travelers’ Tales Best Travel Writing and the Best American Travel Writing.
also contributed to this story
July 19, 2024 • 12 min read
The cards we feature here are from partners who compensate us when you are approved through our site, and this may impact how or where these products appear. We don't cover all available credit cards, but our analysis, reviews, and opinions are entirely from our editorial team. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
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By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
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Quick summary
Travelers face ongoing challenges with high airfare, but various online tools and strategies can help secure lower prices.
Google Flights stands out for its intuitive search features, including flexible date grids, price tracking and a price guarantee program for eligible itineraries.
Other comparison sites like Kayak, Momondo and Skyscanner offer unique filters and visualizations to help identify deals, though some may not display all carriers or the cheapest combinations.
Subscribing to deal alert services and checking airline websites directly can uncover exclusive or time-sensitive offers not always found on aggregators.
What to consider
Some flight search tools may not display fares from all airlines, requiring additional checks on airline websites.
Price guarantee programs and deal alerts may have eligibility limits, such as a cap on total refunds or the number of active bookings.
Discounted or bundled fares may have restrictions, such as limited mileage accrual or eligibility for status points.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed breakdown of each tool’s features, expert guidance on maximizing airfare searches and nuanced tips for comparing cash versus award bookings.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Inflation is slowing down, but travelers may still feel the sting of high flight prices. Finding cheap airfare to your desired destination at your preferred time can be challenging. For people with flexible schedules looking for great deals and inspiration, the array of available planning tools can be confusing and intimidating.
Fortunately, TPG is here to help by sharing some of our best tools, tips and tricks for finding the cheapest and best airfares. We’ve covered the topic of cheap airfare extensively and included many tried-and-true methods our staff uses to book travel that can also work for you.
TPG also regularly posts deal alerts on some of the best airfares to help you find affordable flights.
Here are our favorite tools, tips and tricks for securing cheap airfare deals. Be sure to click on the related links for more details.
Google Flights
Google Flights is perhaps the most intuitive, straightforward and useful flight search tool on the internet. Its many features and functionalities help you identify the best flight prices and options for specific flight times and flexible itineraries.
You can also search based on what TPG recommends as the best times of day to book flights.
When you’re exploring Google Flights, examine the map search feature. It can show you the least expensive fares to various destinations, which can be a great source of inspiration. You can also click on the date grid to see flight pricing for entire months at a time and the price graph to see overall trends for pricing on your target itinerary.
Another useful feature is Google’s price tracker. The tracker appears on the search results page, allowing you to track overall prices on the route you’re searching. When you sign into your Google account, you can receive notifications for price changes, new offers and expiration dates for an itinerary you are tracking. You’ll receive notifications of price changes directly to your inbox, preventing the need to manually search multiple times a day in the hopes of a price drop.
Note that while this tool includes nearly all airlines, it won’t show ticket prices on some carriers.
Aggregate all flight options in one place with Google Flights. GOOGLE FLIGHTS
Google Flights also recently added a Price Guarantee program; this means you might be eligible to get a refund of the price difference if it drops. If a “guarantee badge” is next to the itinerary and the fare falls by more than $5, your flight is eligible for the program. You can receive up to $500 total per Google account across all eligible itineraries in a calendar year, and you can have up to three open Price Guarantee bookings at any time.
GOOGLE FLIGHTS
For more detailed information on how to use Google Flights, check out TPG’s how-to guides to some features and tips:
If you are flexible in your destination but still looking for the best flight deal, Google's "Explore" functionality is a great tool. Within Google Explore, you can be specific or flexible with your travel dates. All you need to do is enter your departing city — you can leave the return open-ended — and the map will show you various flight options and their respective prices.
Or, if you have a specific region in mind, you can also include a general location, such as "Europe" or "Caribbean."
Google Explore can help you find great airfares if you are flexible with your destination. GOOGLE EXPLORE
Points Path
What if you prefer to use your airline points instead of actually paying for your flights?
While many sites are available to help you find award availability, there's one tool that helps you within your Google Flights search. The Points Path tool is a top-notch web browser extension within Google Flights. It lists out the award pricing right next to the cash fare.
The tool will tell you which transferable points can be used with the airline you're considering and will also recommend whether you should use miles to book the flight (ensuring you are getting good value) or pay cash instead.
The tool is free, and once you find the itinerary that works best, you can book your flight as you typically would — either with Google Flights or through the airline's loyalty program for an award reservation.
Points Path makes finding award availability extremely easy within a tool you are most likely already using. All you have to do is download the Points Path extension (currently available with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge). The installation takes less than a minute and you can view great deals — for both paid and award fares — within Google Flights.
Use Points Path to compare award flights against cash fares. GOOGLE FLIGHTS
Additional flight-comparison sites
Google Flights is a great site to use. However, there are a few other sites that work in a similar fashion with slightly different features. Just note that even though Southwest fares are now included with Google Flights, Southwest fares are not pulled on many of the sites below.
Kayak
One of the original fare-comparison sites, Kayak is a one-stop shop for finding the best price. The site pulls fares directly from the airlines and lets you compare them against third-party booking websites, such as Expedia and Orbitz.
KAYAK.COM
Kayak also offers many enhanced filter options. You can search by a specific airline, an airline alliance, aircraft, layover airport and more.
If your dates are flexible, there’s also a calendar grid allowing you to see pricing up to three days before and after your desired dates. You just need to make sure to include that in your search.
Kayak also goes one step further than some other sites and displays the pricing of a round-trip flight with two separate airlines — one for the departure and one for the return — if pricing is, in fact, cheaper.
Momondo
MOMONDO.COM
Momondo is great for those who love a visual. If your travel dates are flexible, it’s very easy to find the least expensive dates at a quick glance. The site offers many filters and allows you to set up price alerts if the fare goes down. Momondo will also advise whether now is a good time to purchase or if you should hold out based on recent fare trends.
Unfortunately, though, if booking a round trip, the site will not display the cheapest airline for the departure and return; it will only list fares from the same airline. This means you’ll want to search as two one-ways, which can be time-consuming.
Skyscanner
SKYSCANNER.COM
If you are looking for a cheap flight to any destination, Skyscanner is the site for you. Just enter your departure city and select “Explore everywhere” in the “To” field. It'll deliver a list of destinations in order of price.
The site is incredibly easy to use and can open your eyes to new parts of the world if you are destination agnostic.
Skyscanner also allows searches based on certain routes and even multicity flight options. But similar to Momondo, the site will only display fares from the same outbound and return airline.
The Flight Deal alerts
If you want to receive real-time deal alerts without searching for them yourself, following The Flight Deal on X is a great option. This team constantly finds deals from many destinations, and you might be lucky enough to find one from your home airport.
X.COM
To get the most out of it, you should set up your X account to receive push notifications from The Flight Deal. This means anytime the team makes a post, you’ll receive a notification on your phone. That way, you don’t have to keep checking X.
Subscription sites
GOING.COM
Many independent travel websites promise to find you the cheapest deals available. However, not all of these websites are worthwhile. Some are even flat-out scams that will direct you to travel agencies selling expensive tickets with hidden fees or extensive surcharges.
When looking for deals, TPG scans a few websites that generally provide reliable airfare notifications and highlighted offerings.
Many of these websites offer premium paid subscription services that could be worthwhile, depending on your appetite for travel and passion for deals.
Registering for regular email deal alerts from these websites and subscribing to their X feeds can provide regular travel inspiration and alerts for breaking deals to your favorite destinations.
Note that many of these deal websites include links to “hacker fare”-type itineraries involving multiple airlines, circuitous routings, and extended layover and travel times.
Discounted fares on these flights may not include mileage awards features or be eligible for status points. So read the fine print and itineraries closely on these deals.
Assuming the details work for you, scanning or subscribing to airfare deal websites can be a great way to find super-discounted flight prices that may not appear on Google Flights or other standard booking platforms.
Don’t overlook Southwest in your search for inexpensive flights. SOUTHWEST.COM
When trying to hack the system and find the best “secret” airfare deal, people often neglect to search the place where many of these deals originate: the airline itself.
Virtually every airline features a deals section on its website. Many of these so-called deals can be underwhelming. However, sometimes airlines offer incredible, short-term deals that will likely be fully booked before they even reach some deal-consolidating websites.
For example, Southwest has recently been offering many sales where tickets must be booked with a specific coupon code directly on the Southwest website.
You can find out the latest by regularly checking the deal pages on the websites of American Airlines,Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. Many airlines also offer package deals combining hotels and rental cars; however, you should price these out individually, as the real value of these offers can vary.
Subscribing to airlines’ newsletters about deal alerts can be another way to discover the latest offers, but you’ll risk inundating your email inbox with destinations that might not interest you. Still, these push alerts may inspire you to take a last-minute vacation you didn’t think was affordable.
It's worth watching out for airline miles and status promotions, too; you can use these to maximize your rewards. Usually, you'll need to book these deals directly on the airline’s website.
Southwest Airlines is a special case for finding airfare deals because its fares are not generally available on many third-party websites. For example, you can book Southwest flights on the Kayak for Business website but not on consumer searches. It may be worthwhile to double-check any fare deal you find with a similar itinerary mapped on the Southwest website.
Particularly when booking directly on an airline website, branded airline cards can be a good call for earning status and rewards specific to those airlines. Options include the United℠ Explorer Card (see rates and fees) and the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (see rates and fees).
Booking tools can help you find the most economical flight option for your next trip, but using the right credit card to pay for the flight is also important. There are a variety of top travel rewards cards that could fit this bill, but a few stand out:
The Platinum Card® from American Express: This card offers 5 points per dollar on flights booked directly with the airline or through American Express Travel® (up to $500,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1 point per dollar), a terrific return of 10% based on TPG's July 2024 valuations.
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: This card is one of the simplest to use, offering 2 miles for every dollar you spend on all purchases. This isn’t spectacular, but it can still be a great option for buying airfare, thanks to the way it allows you to redeem miles at a fixed value. It allows you to use miles to cover the cost of any travel purchase, though you also have the option to transfer your Capital One miles to airline partners.
Finding the lowest airfare can be more of an art than a science, but a number of strategies and tools can help you with this search.
Everyone’s travel goals and circumstances differ. However, using one or more of the above strategies will put you on the right path to snagging that much-wanted trip without such a high price tag.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
