Airfare: Find The Right Flight
- Updated: 04/08/2022
Part five continued of our ten-series “Amazeballs Guide To Better Family Travel.”
My first stop in flight research is always Google Flights.
In addition to being easy to use, Google Fights has terrific search and fare-finding features, such as my favorite – being able to view fare prices for all global destinations from my hometown – or any airport, for a given set of dates.
If you are already familiar with Google Flights and its fare finding features, skip the how-to and instead check out the recommendations for other flight search resources and money-saving tips below.
Table Of Contents
Use Google Flights To Find The Best Global + Domestic Fares
To view a round-up of available fares on Google Flights, I enter my departure city, “Chicago,” into the search bar and leave my destination blank. I pick a date range I think I may want to travel, and – Voilá! – I get a regional map of North America that shows me fare prices to different destinations.
To view global fares, all I have to do is zoom out (see the “zoom out/plus sign” button circled in yellow above), and the map will adjust to show me the fare prices to all world destinations from my origin point. Flights to Paris are looking good for spring break!
Once I find the ideal fare, I go back to the Google Flights’ main search bar to search fares across different dates to see if I can get the deal shown on the world map or get a better one.
I enter the name of my destination – for this example, Paris. When I type in my estimated departure date, the Google Flights’ calendar shows the fare-price for my entered date and all other dates for that month and the month before it.
This two-month fare snapshot offers the best data-rich visual I have found on any travel site. See below for a screenshot for spring break round-trip fares to Paris.
I can also conduct this same search to view the two-month fare spread for any destination I already have in mind, not necessarily one I found on the global fare map.
In this example, I select my best days to travel, which are Saturday to Saturday. Though, a quick look at the fare calendar shows me that if I am willing to have the kids miss a day of school, I can fly back on Monday and save $50 on each ticket.
Although the money saved in this example isn’t huge, I’ve often saved hundreds of dollars per ticket by viewing fares across Google’s fare calendar and then adjusting my travel dates. In addition to getting more vacation days, changing my travel dates to save money, typically means I can cover my my costs related to the extra travel day (or days) and still have savings leftover.
I’ve often saved hundreds of dollars per ticket by viewing fares across Google's fare calendar and then adjusting my travel dates.
After identifying my travel dates, I click through to Google Flight’s search results where I view fare options across different carriers to select the best flight for my budget and ideal departure times. When I find the flight – see my example below for my $571 Paris fare – I click through to the airline’s website under the “Booking Options” to book the airline directly with the airline.
However, if I do not see a price I like and would like to wait to see if I can get a better deal, I can tap Google’s “Track Prices” button. See below for where to find it. Once I do this, Google will send me email alerts about price changes. I once saved hundreds of dollars on tickets using this feature.
Related: Know when searching for flights, Southwest Airline’s flights are never displayed in Google Flight’s search results, or on any other third-party search engine or agent booking sites. When looking for great fares, be sure to visit southwest.com directly as well.
Top Alternative Search Engines To Google Flights
In addition to Google Flights, I recommend looking at a few other flight search engines and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies, like Orbitz and Expedia) to confirm fare prices.
Travel search engines are different from OTAs because you cannot book directly through them. Travel search engines do what Google Flights does – find flights to a given destination for a range of dates – and provide you with a list of carriers and agencies you can click through to buy the ticket.
Good alternative search engines to Google Flights are Momondo and Skyscanner, which capture flight options from smaller and budget-branded international air carriers, making them helpful resources to price out one-way itinerary hops from country to country.
Since both search engines are known for offering savings on flights, I checked my Chicago to Paris fare on both – Skyscanner showed the same price as Google Flights ($571), and Momondo showed just a few dollars more ($573). So, no savings in this specific case. However, it was a quick way to confirm the deal I already found was a good one.
Confirm Fares & Check For Deals On OTAs (Online Travel Agencies)
To be thorough, I search fares on other online agencies like Orbitz or Expedia to check for deals and confirm pricing.
Expedia, Inc. owns both sites, so I did not expect a difference in prices – when checking my Chicago to Paris fare – between the two. And, no deals. The best Chicago to Paris fare price offered on Orbitz costs the same as the Aer Lingus flight I already found on Google Flights. And on Expedia, the same flight oddly was priced at one dollar more.
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Frequent Flier Miles: Use Them And Maximize Them
When booking airfare, another option I love to use – if available to me – is redeeming frequent flier program points to save money on the purchase of plane tickets.
Every airline has a program, and most travelers are members of one or more of them. I am a United Mileage Plus loyalty club member, mainly due to location – we fly them or their partners, most frequently through their Chicago hub. I have United’s Mileage Plus credit card – which I find offers a good return on the annual fee with the complimentary baggage allowance alone.
While I build points through spending, the card also gives me other perks such as priority boarding, greater point redemption flexibility when booking award travel, and a few lounge-passes each year. If I traveled more on other airlines, I would join their programs as well.
I am not passionate about my frequent flier points – though there are plenty of people who are. And can go deep into the subject of point maximization. I know other travelers who approach this topic with zeal – turning their point accumulation and redemption into a full-time hobby.
Although, I lack that kind of dedication at the moment, I do know the thrill involved with redeeming points to get free tickets. When I realized I had enough miles to get four free non-stop one-way tickets from Bangor, Maine to Chicago – saving over $1,000 – I was ecstatic. It feels good to save on travel.
When I realized I had enough miles to get four free non-stop one-way tickets - I was ecstatic. It feels good to save.
For more on this subject, I recommend checking out The Points Guy website. On it, you will find detailed analyses on both travel reward programs and credit cards that provide the best sign-up bonuses and mileage returns. The writers on this website go deep. And for those willing to join them on the journey – the rewards are there for the taking.
Best Resources For Cheap Flights
For travelers who do not have a big stock of frequent flier mileage socked away, I recommend checking out Scott’s Cheap Flights, a subscription and member site, as another way to save money on airfare.
Although I do not have the subscription plan, which includes member deals, I find Scott’s Cheap Flights free emails are a great resource for top flight deals to be had. A friend who pays for the site’s premium membership used Scott’s Cheap Flights to track down and purchase $400 round-trip spring break tickets for his family from Chicago to Greece – a phenomenal deal.
Another good resource, if your need to stretch every travel dollar is paramount – and you have a flexible schedule allowing for early AM and overnight flights – can be found in these excellent fare-saving tips from Nomadic Matt, a fellow blogger.
And a final option – though not my favorite – is to explore booking with consolidators – like Air Treks, who sell cheap tickets from airlines with whom they have contracts. To learn more about purchasing from consolidators, I found this helpful article.
The (major) drawback with purchasing from consolidators is if an issue arises with my flight or my ticket, the consolidator may be – depending on the terms of purchase – my main point of contact to fix the issue.
If I was a solo traveler, I might be more comfortable with this, however, rearranging flights for a family of four is more complex, and one of the main reasons I prefer to book directly with airlines.
Benefits Of Booking Directly With The Airlines
When it comes to booking a flight, as long as the fare prices are similar, I prefer to book directly with the airline versus an online travel agency (OTA), like Orbitz or Expedia, or a consolidator – like AirTreks – for a few reasons.
First, I want to visit the airline website to clarify reserved seating and baggage policies. Especially to make sure I am not accidentally purchasing a saver-fare – a more affordable fare class for travelers willing to travel without a reserved seat or checked baggage.
In my Paris to Chicago $571 fare example above, although Aer Lingus does say one checked bag is free, I still want to confirm bag weight limitations, and check to make sure seat reservations are included for no extra cost. I also reserve my seats while I am on the site.
Sitting together as a family is a priority – particularly for a long haul flight. It brings peace of mind, reduces stress, and allows for better sharing of gum.
And even though traveling without checked baggage is possible – as was done by a family of four I know who impressively took carry-ons only with them to Australia for a two-week trip – I am comfortable checking my bags. I am willing to accept the risk my bag might go on a walk-about and embrace the convenience of having more stuff and less laundry on vacation.
Plus, the odds are in my favor – with a smaller than 1% chance my bags might get mishandled (data point for US airlines), I am willing to roll those dice right along with my checked bag.
Another reason I go to the airline website directly to purchase my tickets is as an insurance policy. If issues occur with the flight, such as delay, re-route, or cancelation – which has happened more than once – I find it easier to negotiate directly with the airline for my re-route instead of an OTA, such as Orbitz, or a consolidator, who typically have smaller customer service teams.
Unless I find the price savings to be huge, I stick with the reliability of buying from the big carriers.
And although OTAs sometimes offer lower prices than the airlines due to passing on their commission or deciding to take a loss, I have not found great price savings on them for a few years. Instead, I regularly find buying my ticket directly through the airline costs a few dollars less than on OTA sites.
For more on the finer points on whether to buy a ticket through an airline or an OTA, check out this excellent article from membership site, Scott’s Cheap Flights.
Bottom line – unless I find the price savings to be huge, I stick with the reliability of buying from the big carriers.
With flights figured out, booking a car rental might be the next thing on your to-do list. Check out how to “15 Tips On How To Raise the Bar On Car Rentals,” part five continued of our ten-series “Amazeballs Guide To Better Family Travel” guide.
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Hi, I am Janice and and I run the Gather and Go Travel blog. I am a travel writer, blogger, and bookhound, specializing in family and group travel. I have traveled extensively domestically and internationally to 40+ countries. I am fascinated by other cultures, religions, and languages—and love to share what I have learned in my writing. For more on my background, read my bio, our story, and how to work with me.
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