I have a trip coming up unexpectedly, and I’m scrambling to find a good deal on a last-minute flight. Does anyone have any tips or hacks for finding cheap flights when booking close to the date? Are there specific apps, websites, or strategies that work best for last-minute deals?
Google flights will be the best price. Unfortunately, cheap last-minute tickets are not really a thing anymore. Be prepared to pay more than usual for your ticket.
Cheap last-minute flights are practically a myth. Nowadays, planes average 90+% load factors, and airlines learned that the people most likely to buy last-minute tickets are business travelers who aren’t price sensitive at all, so generally they are going to be super expensive.
If you want to fly cheap look at red-eyes, skiplagging, or fly during the offseason.
@Brynn
Great points. I’d add that in addition to business travelers, last-minute buyers are also often leisure travelers who have to fly due to some urgent issue. So that’s another group that’s less price sensitive.
Not possible.
Google Flights is the best tool.
Cheap flights are hard to find now. All you can do is keep looking (Google Flights is a good place to shop most of the airlines at once).
If you change around dates to fly different days that may help save some money.
I know everyone has mentioned Google flights. When you look up Google flights use the incognito window so the cookies won’t be collected and jack up the prices.
Nova said:
I know everyone has mentioned Google flights. When you look up Google flights use the incognito window so the cookies won’t be collected and jack up the prices.
myth.
Nova said:
I know everyone has mentioned Google flights. When you look up Google flights use the incognito window so the cookies won’t be collected and jack up the prices.
myth.
Use a VPN and buy tickets on Tuesday. Lol.
I spent half of my adult life working for an airline, and even I can’t find cheap, last-minute flights. However, if you are looking at Thanksgiving or Christmas time, I can say that flying on the actual holiday is likely your best bet for a better fare (comparatively). That won’t help you on your way home, though.
@Dacey
Unless you can travel on Thanksgiving and stay a month to travel home on Christmas (assuming the traveler is in the US). lol
As many have stated, last-minute deals don’t exist anymore. Last-minute deals are more expensive as the flights run out of seats. You can still get deals if you follow sites or groups that aggregate deals, but you need to be flexible on destinations and dates, and it doesn’t sound like that’s you. Plus, many other people see those same deals so you need to get them right away. If your destination and dates are fixed, then the best option is to buy as early as you can because it won’t get any cheaper as seats are bought up.
Sky-scanner, just keep checking on a daily basis.
Check out Google Flights to compare multiple airlines at once. Sometimes budget airlines like Flair in Canada have deals, but watch out for extra fees. You could also look into redeeming credit card points—some cards offer last-minute booking discounts for flights and can be a lifesaver! It can be hard to earn credit card points in the first place because of how much you need to spend, but I do have a top-secret hack for you: pay your rent with a credit card. There aren’t really any platforms in Canada that offer this, besides one: Chexy. I recommend getting a travel rewards credit card, like a premium Aeroplan or American Express card, and charging your rent to it. This way, you can keep the points until you want to travel somewhere.
@Remington
Anyway to pay a mortgage with a credit card?
There are none. Flights are all 90% + full nowadays. Just the same methods as always, start with Google flights, then go from there to the airlines direct. About the only real ‘hack’ would be to compare nearby airports, one-ways, and skiplagged vs RT; sometimes you can find an outlier there and book cheap. The other one would be if you find it and think it’s good/reasonable then book it right away. Prices rarely go down anymore and I’ve literally missed a great deal by trying to search more.
I’ve had luck getting comfort plus for about the same price as basic economy when I do a Priceline blind deal. But in my case, I’m always 95% sure I know it’s a delta flight based on the timing and they are the only nonstop carrier with comfort plus on the route. Way less likely to have a connection on a premium ticket, since you’d be getting a premium seat on two flights.
Google flights is always my go-to.