You’re Overpaying for Flights (Here’s How to Stop)

You are almost certainly overpaying for flights. And it's not your fault. Airlines are counting on it, and they've gotten really good at ensuring you do. Airfare is the biggest expense in most people's travel budgets, and for many, it's the thing holding them back from traveling more. But here's what airlines don't want you to know. The first price you see is not the price you have to pay. I've used five specific methods to save my family and I over $150,000 on flights, and today I'm going to walk you through each one of them step by step so you can take more trips and stop overpaying for airplane tickets. But first, let's talk about how flight pricing actually works, because there's a lot of myths and frankly just dumb information out there. Back in the day, airlines had these pretty simple price buckets. Economy K, Economy L, M, etc. When the cheap seats were gone, the price jumped up to the next bucket. And some version of that still exists, but now, prices can move in tiny jumps up or down all day long. So the price you see isn't some posted price that sits there until Tuesday night, it's a live number being set by a machine that's watching everything. Non-stop. How many people want this flight? How many seats are left? What other airlines are charging? How close you are to takeoff? What time of year it is? Big events. All of it. Which is why advice like book on a Tuesday at midnight because prices reset is outdated. There's no reset. An incognito mode does not stop this. Airlines aren't punishing you because you searched more than once. Prices change because the cheaper seats get grabbed, the competition shifts, or a travel site updates what it's showing. Bottom line is, this is supply and demand. More people want it, higher price. Fewer seats left, higher price. Business route, higher price. Superbowl weekend to the host city, higher price. I'm oversimplifying a bit, but if you understand this, you can stop relying on superstition and arm yourself with information to help you get the best possible price in light of this reality. Which brings me to method number one for finding cheap flights. When a lot of people search for flights, they go directly to the website of the airline they want to fly, they pop in their airports and their very specific dates, and they just take what they get. If you take one thing away from this video, please stop doing that. Instead, use a flight search tool. There's a number of good options for this, but I recommend Google Flights as your first stop. It's free and it searches flights and prices across most airlines, then recommends itineraries based on your parameters. The basic way to use it is to plug in your departure and arrival airports, your dates, and hit search. You can also add a ton of different filters to enhance your search, like airline alliance, price maximums, departure and arrival times, etc. Select the itinerary you like, and then Google will give you the options on where to book. Now, one of my favorite features is the date grid, which shows you optimal pricing based on shifts in departure or arrival dates. Once you've searched, just click date grid, and Google will highlight the best price days in green. What you'll notice is the more flexible you can be about when you travel, the more potential savings you can rack up. Oftentimes, if you have any margin, leaving even one day later or one day earlier, it can add up to huge savings. You can also look below any flight you're interested in at this graph here, which shows you how prices trend over the next few months. You can visually see where the valleys are, and based on historical data, it tells you if this is a good time to book or not. This right here is the most basic way to navigate how flight pricing today works. You can't bully the algorithm into giving you a deal, but with enough information, you can control the inputs it's reacting to. Okay, so what else influences price? Departure and arrival cities. On Google Flights, you can search up to five different departure and arrival airports at the same time, so it can be helpful to punch in a bunch of different airports within a short drive, just to see if any of those will be cheaper than your closest airport. I often use this for departures mainly. On the arrival side, if you're not too familiar with the alternative airports in the area that you want to go, there's another really useful tool that you can use. Let's say you want to visit the Bay of Cotour in Montenegro. Some YouTuber on the internet told you that's a cool place to visit, but the prices you're seeing to get there are outrageous. So instead of searching from your airport to the Bay of Cotour, just go your airport to Europe. Google will show you a map with prices to every airport in Europe. If you find a cheaper flight to a neighboring airport, you could then use that as a way to get across the pond cheaper, and then to get to your final destination, rent a car, take a bus, take a train, or because budget airlines are so prevalent these days, a $20 Ryanair flight. My family and I do this all the time. Now, a couple things to watch out for when you do bookings like this. First, build in enough time to make your connection because these are going to be separate itineraries. If your first flight is delayed, your second flight won't know to wait on you. Next, I really don't advise stacking multiple flights on separate itineraries if you're checking a bag. This works best if you're traveling carry-on only. And in fact, not checking a bag is also a fantastic way to save money on flights. The cheapest flights that you see on Google are almost always basic economy. The airline shows you a $400 price, but they're betting that you're going to pay $50 or $75 each way for a carry-on bag. So unless you can travel with just an airline-compliant carry-on or personal item, your cheap flight isn't that cheap anymore because of all the fees. This ties in perfectly with the sponsor of today's video who helps offset a different type of fee, data roaming fees. Our phones are essential travel tools these days, and you could do what a lot of people do, just go with your home carrier's international plan. But those are often really pricey. That's why I recommend eSIMs, which have the benefits of physical SIM cards, but you can buy them online in seconds and you don't have to go anywhere, talk to anyone, or physically put anything into your phone when you land. My eSIM of choice is Olafly, which offers eSIMs in over 200 destinations worldwide with unlimited data, no roaming fees, 24-7 support, and you can hotspot. Plus, for folks using repositioning flights like us, you could buy a regional plan instead of just a country-specific plan. Look at how much cheaper this Europe plan is than my home carrier's international plan. Unlimited data, no caps, and no hidden fees. Setup is easy. You download the Olafly app, choose your plan, install the eSIM, and land with peace of mind. If you're ready to get started with Olafly, head to the link below and use the code AWAYTOGETHER for 5% off your eSIM purchase. Big thanks to Olafly for sponsoring today's video. All right, so those past couple of tips were about how to search for deals for yourself. This next one is about how to get the deals to come to you. There is a reality where you could just be going about your normal life and suddenly you receive a notification about a flight to a place you've been wanting to go for 50% off. This reality exists thanks to flight deal alert services. You set up your preferences and then the deals just come straight to your inbox. Basically, you tell it your preferred airports and destinations. These tools sift through thousands of flights every day looking for deals. You get the deal sent directly to your phone or email and then if you like how it looks and the dates work for you, you go book it. And yes, the flights are completely legit and they're on major carriers. This type of service is exactly how my wife and I were able to start traveling internationally on a consistent basis. Our first flight deal was a trip to northern Italy, less than $500 round trip. We got similar pricing to Morocco, Southern Italy, Bavaria, and every single time, we got more than 50% off our flights. And we don't even live near a major hub. If you live near a more major airport, the deals can be way better. There's a number of players in this space and I've used many of them. Going, Daily Drop Pro, and if you're outside of the US specifically, you could check out Mighty Travels. My top choice is Daily Drop Pro because you get way better bang for your buck working with them. Their tool includes flight deal alerts, but it also includes alerts about points deals and some other very useful booking tools. Not sponsored, they don't even know I'm making this video, but I personally use this tool and you can get a discount if you use my link below. And just one more note about flight deal services because I get this question a lot. When a deal comes through, do you need to pack your bag tonight and be ready to hop on a plane tomorrow? No. The deals that come through are typically for a range of time, sometimes multiple months. For example, I got this deal to Warsaw, Poland for dates November through March. You don't need to be ready to travel this week, but you will probably need to make a decision this week. When a great deal comes through, you need to be ready to pounce because it's probably not going to last long. Now you might be thinking, dude, I don't even know if I can take off work on those days. I'm going to need to get approval. Well, it might comfort you to know that in the United States, at least there's a regulation that guarantees you can cancel a flight within 24 hours of booking. This means if you see a great deal come through, you can book it on the spot. And if you decide within 24 hours, it's not going to work. You can cancel for a full refund. I've used this to my advantage a couple of times. Once I couldn't make the exact dates work. Okay. Cancel. Full refund. Another time I found a better deal the next day and I booked that one, then went back and canceled the other. Full refund. To be able to take advantage of the 24 hour rule, the flight needs to depart more than seven days from the date of booking. You need to book directly with the airline and it's gotta be a flight that originates in or is flying to the USA. Other countries do have versions of this, but it's a bit more airline by airline, case by case. If you don't do any of those things, you're not going to get a refund. My absolute favorite way to save money on flights saved us over $30,000 on flights last year alone. It's how I flew my whole family to Europe and back multiple times in first and business class for pennies on the dollar, including flying all three of us to the Balkans to visit the Bay of Kotor in business class for only $172 cash. It's how I was able to fly around the entire world in first class last year. It's how I was able to send my wife to London on a solo trip in Virgin Atlantic upper class both ways. It's strategically accumulating points and miles earned through travel rewards credit cards and redeeming them for flights and hotel stays. This method is exactly how my wife Allie and I were able to travel for six straight months when we first started this channel. And in this video right here, I give you a deep dive into exactly how you can do it too. Thanks so much for watching. Happy travels.