Hi! I feel flight booking tips often revolve around flexibility. Flying on Tuesdays or on Christmas Eve might be cheaper, but it’s quite inconvenient.
Instead, I am sharing three strategies I use to make high-demand / expensive flights a little more affordable. It won’t get you the absolute cheapest fare, but can help bring a $1300 super convenient direct flight to, e.g. $800.
1. Spare multicity
You all know about hidden-city flights. It’s a bit the same idea but without the inconvenience. Instead of exiting at the layover, you only fly a portion of an open-jaw itinerary.
One way ($500)
LAX → ORD (May 4) | Flown
Open-jaw ($300)
LAX → ORD (May 4) | Flown
ORD → JFK (May 16) | Dropped
Note that here ORD is not a connection, but a destination with departure on another journey. So you can check a bag and don’t have to worry about your flight being rerouted in case of delay / cancellation. Also, the risk of being penalised by the airline is pretty low. You’re not dropping a segment, simply having a no-show on another journey you won’t even check in for. In that sense, it’s very similar to a Throwaway Return ticket, but running the search with a different destination can sometimes yield better savings.
2. Long layover
It’s a pretty common way for flexible travelers to save on flights: turn a terribly long layover into an extra city stop and enjoy it instead. But you can also use it on a predefined itinerary. Say you have a 2-day stop in a city as part of a trip with several destinations; your first instinct might be to look for multicity tickets or separate tickets. Instead, use ITA Matrix to filter for a long stop where you need to be; it might turn up cheaper. If the flight is not available online, try calling the airline to book it.
3. Nested trips
You might know about back-to-back ticketing. When instead of booking two similar roundtrips sequentially, you nest them into each other:
Sequential
| Tickets | Trip 1.1 | Trip 1.2 | Trip 2.1 | Trip 2.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $500 | A → B | B → A | ||
| $500 | A → B | B → A |
Back-to-back
| Tickets | Trip 1.1 | Trip 1.2 | Trip 2.1 | Trip 2.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $250 | A → B | A → B | ||
| $300 | B → A | A → B |
Using open-jaw tickets, you can also achieve that with two trips that have different destinations, e.g.:
| Tickets | Trip 1.1 | Trip 1.2 | Trip 2.1 | Trip 2.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open-jaw #1 | Paris → LA | Denver → Paris | ||
| Open-jaw #2 | LA → Paris | Paris → Denver |
It’s not guaranteed to be cheaper, but it can help you reach minimum stay requirements that open access to lower fare classes.
These aren’t magical solutions, but running these extra checks every time I book flights got me a good amount of savings over time!
EDIT: Number #3 confused a bit people, so adding two elements:
- from u/SCDWS (thank you!): “It’s like booking a return trip and skipping the return flight, except instead of a return trip, it’s a multi-city trip with a different final destination”
- you can call the airline to cancel the flight you don’t need instead of a no-show (e.g. say you have a medical issue) - you might be able to get a refund for part of the cost (e.g. the airport fees).
this is game-changing.