2017 RANKING & REVIEWS
TOP RANKING BEST AIRLINE DEALS
Is It Possible to Find Deals on Flights and the Best Airline Deals?
The commercial airline industry has seen record profits in recent years as more and more people are flying each year, but they’ve also continued to raise prices on both domestic and international flights.
The constant rising of prices has many consumers wondering whether or not it’s even possible to find deals on airline tickets and airline offers.
The answer is yes, there is still potential to find valuable deals on flights and airline offers, but to find the best airline deals you have to know where and how to look.
Award Emblem: Top 6 Best Flight Deals
This ranking of the best flight deals covers a range of things. First, it includes online websites that are excellent for locating some of the best flight deals.
This ranking of the best airfare deals also features a few Twitter handles that regularly post airline deals and airfare offers.
Finally, this list of the top places to find the best airfare deals also looks at one particular airline that regularly offers flash sales and unique airfare deals.
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AdvisoryHQ’s List of the Top 6 Ways to Find the Best Airline Deals
List is sorted alphabetically (click any of the names below to go directly to the detailed review section for that tip):
Top 6 Best Ways to Find the Best Airfare Deals | Brief Comparison
Finding the Best Flight Deals | How | Why |
| @TheFlightDeal | Visit TheFlightDeal.com or follow their Twitter handle @TheFlightDeal | Features not only the best flight deals curated all day, but also instructions on finding them |
| Airfarewatchdog | Visit the site to search and also sign up for custom alerts | Airfarewatchdog is one of the most carefully curated listing sites and also features tools such as the Flexible Dates search option |
| Google Flights | Use Google Flights website | Google Flights lets you browse different destinations, receive direct price alerts, and find ways to say money by traveling on different days |
| Hopper | Download the mobile app | Uses predictive data modeling to help users buy flights on the best days |
| JetBlue Airways | Follow @JetBlueCheeps | JetBlue is known for featuring flash sales and air ticket deals on Twitter and their website |
| SecretFlying.com | Visit the website or follow social media profiles | Features error flights |
How Can You Find the Best Airline Deals and Save Money Flying?
Along with the specific tools and websites included on this list of ways to find the best flight deals and airline offers, there are some other things you can do to save money not just on airline tickets, but the entire flight experience. Some of these tips include:
Along with using websites and tools to find the best airfare deals and the best airline deals, you can also think about when you fly. The prices of flights vary based on the month, day, and even the time of day you travel. You can use tools like Google Flights, which is featured on this list of the top ways to find the best airfare deals, to determine the cheapest times to fly.
Image source: Pexels
Mixing and matching flights can be a good way to save money and find deals on flights as well. You can fly into a main airport on a discount line, for example, and then get your final flight from that airport, which will likely save you money.
If at all possible, try to find cheaper airports that are in the region you’re traveling to. For example, if you were flying to Orlando, it’s often more expensive to fly into Orlando International than it is Sanford International, but the airports are relatively close to one another.
Don’t be sabotaged by the cost of luggage. Pack as lightly as you can, and make sure you weigh your baggage before you leave home. Overweight baggage fees can be very costly.
Always do an audit before heading the airport to ensure you’re not bringing any unnecessary luggage or items.
Research mileage and points credit cards. Many consumers feel their best method to find airfare deals and save on the cost of flying is to use a travel rewards credit card.
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AdvisoryHQ’s Selection Methodology
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Detailed Review – Top Ranking Best Airfare Deals
Below, please find the detailed review of each of the ways to find the best airfare deals. We have highlighted some of the factors that allowed these best airline deals and ways to find the best flight deals to score so well in our selection ranking.
@TheFlightDeal Review
@TheFlightDeal is both a popular Twitter handle and a website for not only finding the best flight deals and airfare deals but general travel deals. It’s a simple, easy-to-use resource for anyone who wants to find airline ticket deals, general travel information, and other money-saving opportunities.
Key Factors That Led to Our Ranking of This as One of the Top Ways to Find the Best Airline Deals
Specifics of why @TheFlightDeal is included on this list of the ways to find deals on flights and the best airfare deals are below.
Curated Daily
One of the best features of the @TheFlightDeal Twitter handle is the fact that deals are curated daily. You can follow the Twitter profile and find outstanding deals that are updated not just daily, but throughout the day, and there will be accompanying information so you can take advantage of the airline offers they feature.
For example, at the time this article was written, the site featured a deal on nonstop flights from Newark-Athens for only $489 roundtrip and airfare deals for flights from Philadelphia to Honolulu or Maui roundtrip for $592.
Image Source: @TheFlighDeal Twitter
Website
While the Twitter handle for @TheFlightDeal will give users quick Tweets on flight deals, the website features detailed versions of these best airfare deals. You can visit the site and find sample travel dates for the featured deal, as well as fare availability. There are details on whether or not the airline deals are likely to be gone within a certain timeframe as well.
What’s great about the website is that it also shows the fare class, routing, and mileage information, such as how many miles are flown, elite qualifying miles, and redeemable miles.
Searching for Availability
Another reason @TheFlightDeal is part of this ranking of the ways to find the best air ticket deals and the best airfare deals is the fact that they provide detailed instructions for searching for availability for the airfare deals they feature. Often with other sites or social media profiles, you might see there’s a deal, but it’s nearly impossible to actually find that deal.
With @TheFlightDeal, when you visit their website they show you, in detail, how to locate the availability of the flight using the ITA Software Matrix Airfare Search. They also have a guide to using the Matrix by ITA Software, and guides to understanding airline rules and restrictions.
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Airfarewatchdog Review
Airfarewatchdog is one of the leading and most popular resources to find airline deals and the best flight deals. The site is part of the Smarter Travel Media Network, as created by a travel journalist who specializes in consumer issues.
Key Factors That Led to Our Ranking of This as One of 2017’s Top Ways to Find the Best Flight Deals
Below is an overview of how Airfarewatchdog can help consumers when they’re searching for top flight deals and deals on airline tickets.
Smaller Airlines
One of the many unique ways Airfarewatchdog is distinct from other sites that feature airline deals and airline offers is the fact that they list smaller airlines and airlines not usually listed on deal sites, including Southwest fare as well as fares for Allegiant. This gives site users the opportunity to explore all of the available airlines, rather than a select few.
Also, Airfarewatchdog features all weekend fares, which is something a lot of other airline deals sites don’t do.
Carefully Selected Air Ticket Deals
Airfarewatchdog is included on this list of ways to find the best airline deals not just because they bring together a lot of different fares in one location. Any site can do this. Airfarewatchdog is unique because their focus is on bringing the consumer quality rather than quantity.
First, the site’s team checks seat availability before listing fares. When a fare is recently lowered, there is often little or no seat availability, so if Airfarewatchdog checks airfare deals and sees there is a low inventory or no availability, they won’t list that fare.
Airfarewatchdog also includes airline website-only fares. Many airlines will feature their best prices on their own website, and Airfarewatchdog is the only third-party site that integrates these fares into their search engines.
The Airfarewatchdog team also looks for value and not just the lowest fares.
Flexible Date Search
Along with focusing on quality and the needs of the consumer, Airfarewatchdog is unique in the fact that they provide a variety of search tools, including their Flexible Date Search. As mentioned at the start of this ranking of the ways to find the best airline deals, the dates you fly can have a big impact on price.
Users can visit the Airfarewatchdog site and enter where they’d like to leave from and where they’d like to go, and then they can incorporate how flexible they can be with their dates to find a range of dates and the lowest possible prices.
Other tools and features include the Airfarewatchdog Top 50 Fares list, which is a roundup of the day’s lowest fares, and the option to set up customized alerts, so you’ll get an email when airfare prices drop.
Google Flights Review
If you’re searching for airfare deals and deals on flights, Google Flights is one of the best options. It’s preferred by people traveling for business and personal reasons because it’s easy to use and it makes it fast to find the best airline ticket deals and top flight deals.
Key Factors That Led to Our Ranking of This as One of 2017’s Top Ways to Find the Best Airline Deals
Features of Google Flights that make it one of the best ways to find deals on flights and the best airline deals are detailed below.
Image Source: Google Flights
Discover Destinations
Sometimes you might know you want to take a trip, and you certainly know you want to be able to take advantage of the best possible fare prices, but most flight search engines require you to enter your dates and destination.
Google Flights is unique because they give you the opportunity to do something they call “Discover Destinations.” This means you can search for destinations based on your interests such as adventure travel, beaches, food, islands, or wildlife.
You can also maintain flexible dates so you can shop the best available fares from your home airport, even if you don’t yet know where you want to go.
Price Warnings
If you use Google Flights on your smartphone, you can receive alerts that will let you know when prices for specific flights are about to rise. This isn’t available for all routes, but it is an incredibly helpful feature to find the best airline deals and airline ticket deals if you’ve had your eyes on a route for a while but haven’t yet bought it.
Google Flights will let you know not only that a price increase is probably going to happen, but also the window of time you have before it occurs.
With price tracking tools and features from Google Flights, users can also share their tracked flights with family and friends to simplify planning.
Tips and Recommendations
When you enter a destination or trip into Google Flights, it will pull up a list of the best flights. It will show the details of these flights, and it will highlight the trip that’s likely to be the best. These itineraries are based on a combination of pricing, duration, number of stops, and in some instances, the airline’s amenities and baggage fees.
Google will also provide automatic date tips when you search for flights. This means that they will show you how much money you could save leaving on one day over another. For example, you might save $300 if you left on a Monday and returned on a Friday, versus a Sunday and a Thursday.
You can also look at the calendar view to see when prices might be lower, and you can look at the price graph tool, which compares the prices of this same fare over weeks or months.
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Hopper Review
Hopper is a mobile app that is designed to help consumers know not only when to fly but also when to buy to make sure they’re getting the best flight deals and deals on airline tickets. One of the unique things about Hopper as compared to the other tools on this ranking of ways to find the best airfare deals and deals on flights is that it is mobile-only, which many people prefer.
Image Source: Hopper.com
Key Factors That Led to Our Ranking of This as One of the Best Ways to Find Deals on Flights
Details of Hopper, a great way to find the best flight deals and airline deals are below.
Data-Driven
While a last minute hotel tool such as HotelTonight is based on finding unsold rooms and then offering them at a discount, Hopper is based on a complex process of analyzing data. Hopper is built by a data science team that has an archive of trillions of flight prices.
That archive is then used to provide insight and predictions to consumers that can help them find the best airline ticket deals and airline offers. Hopper boasts a performance with 95% accuracy.
Simplicity
Much of Hopper’s appeal as one of the most popular ways to find the best airfare deals and air ticket deals is that while it’s based on comprehensive data and science, it’s straightforward and easy for the user.
You download the app and search for a trip by intuitively tapping dates on the color-coordinated calendar. Then, you receive predictions about when it will be cheapest to book the flight. Hopper makes a recommendation to the user as to whether they should wait or book.
If it’s recommended that you wait, you tap the set of binoculars on the screen, and Hopper will send you notifications if the prices drop.
Booking
Not all apps and tools used to find the best airfare deals and top flight deals allow you to also book through the platform, but Hopper does.
If you opt to buy a ticket versus waiting based on Hopper’s recommendations, you can do so with a few taps and swipes. You can also save your information and payment info so you can book more quickly in the future.
Hopper is also an accredited travel agency, which means that you can get help from real people anytime you need it throughout the booking process.
JetBlue Review
JetBlue is unique because they are the only actual airline listed on this ranking of the best ways to find deals on flights and deals on airline tickets. JetBlue has become known not only for leading the way regarding customer satisfaction among U.S. carriers but also because of their regular online airline offer options.
Key Factors That Led to Our Ranking of This Ranking of the Best Airline Deals and Air Ticket Deals
Below are some of the key reasons JetBlue is part of this ranking of the ways to find the best airfare deals and airline deals.
@JetBlueCheeps
The best way to find the top flight deals and airfare deals from JetBlue is to follow their Twitter handle, @JetBlueCheeps. When you follow them on Twitter, you gain access to some of the very best airfare deals on last minute flights, and the Cheeps are only offered for a limited amount of time, so users have to act quickly when they spot one.
For example, one of the most recent Cheeps from JetBlue was listed on Valentine’s Day, and it was a two-day sale for fares starting at $49.
In addition to offering air ticket deals and deals on flights, you can also follow the Twitter handle to find deals on full vacation packages.
Deals
If you don’t want to wait on a flash sale to launch to find the best flight deals from JetBlue, they also have a page on their website focused on their current deals. You can choose the destination you’d like to travel to to see if anything currently matches, and then you can enter how much you’re willing to pay to filter the results accordingly.
You can also filter deals based on “Your Inspiration,” which breaks down cheap destinations into categories that include beaches, exploration, nightlife, and family.
Best Fare Finder
JetBlue strives to excel regarding airline deals and airfare deals not just for special sales, but in general. With that in mind, consumers can visit their “Best Fare Finder” page on their website and search for the lowest prices for their destinations.
Overall, JetBlue is a great airline for quite a few reasons, including their level of service and quality, but also because they’re frequently willing to offer some of the best flight deals and special limited time flash sales.
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SecretFlying.com Review
SecretFlying.com is a website where users can go to find some of the best airfare deals and airline offers. Users can also follow the @SecretFlying for regularly updated airfare offer options and top flight deals. The site is simple to use, and you’ll find possible airline offer options you might not find anywhere else.
Key Factors That Led to Our Ranking of This as One of the Best Ways to Find Airline Deals and Airfare Offers
The following are some of the specific reasons Secret Flying is named as a great resource to find deals on airline tickets.
Error Fares
The primary thing that sets SecretFlying apart from other sites claiming to help users find the best flight deals and airfare offer options is their focus on error fares. Users can get easy access to fares that are more than likely an error published by the airlines before they disappear.
SecretFlying encourages users to follow them across all of their social media platforms and to make sure they get Facebook notifications from them.
Users can also join the mailing list to receive information about error fares.
Image Source: SecretFlying
Error Fare Details
What’s great about SecretFlying is that they don’t just publish error fares to help users identify airline offers. They also give pretty in-depth information about these error fares. For example, they’ll let you know how much the trip will cost, but also the reason it looks like there’s an error being published. Knowing the reason can be important so you can make sure you’re taking advantage of a valid airfare offer.
SecretFlying also lets users know the sense of urgency they should use when scooping up an airfare offer, particularly if it is an error fare, and they provide the possible date availabilities.
Fuel Dumping
Another way users can maximize SecretFlying to ensure they’re able to find deals on flights and airline offer opportunities is by using their Fuel Dumping tool. Fuel dumping is a term that describes when an aircraft gets rid of fuel mid-air before landing. This typically happens when a plane has to lighten its weight to make a sooner landing.
However, there is another way the term fuel dumping is used. It is used on SecretFlying to describe pairing to separate flights on the same airfare ticket hoping that the fuel charge component of the more expensive flight is partially or fully eliminated.
SecretFlying breaks down the entire concept on the website in detail, and they also have the Secret Flying Fuel Dumping Tool that lets users find fuel-dumped tickets.
Conclusion—Top 6 Best Flight Deals
Purchasing flights can be expensive, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. There are quite a few ways you can find airfare deals and airline offers that are not time-consuming and are fairly straightforward. The above ranking and review of the best airline deals actually focuses primarily on tools you can use to identify deals on airline tickets and top flight deals.
For example, there are mobile apps that let users find the best flight deals and airline offers based on predictive data modeling that lets them know the right time to buy. There are also tools that let users simply track the price of airline ticket deals before making a purchase.
Also unique on this ranking of the best ways to find deals on flights are the social media profiles and Twitter handles that are included. Users can follow certain accounts on Twitter to find everything from flash sale airline ticket deals to published error flights.
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