How to get the cheapest flights and which flight comparison sites show the best deals?
We could all do with a well-earned break
WE all dream of going on holiday and save up for a well-earned break.
Whether it’s exploring a European city or jetting off to an exotic location, most trips have one thing in common – how you get there.
How do you get the cheapest flights?
Most people will fly to their destination, and if you can afford first or business class, it may even count as part of the holiday itself.
People often will use comparison sites or book a year ahead to get the best deals.
Booking far in advance - or last minute - tends to be the cheapest options.
Some websites such as offer cheap package deals which you can book a day or two ahead of the departure date.
A lot of the budget airlines are well known, such as EasyJet or Ryanair, and offer low no-frills fares for many destinations.
It’s worth shopping around a few sites to get the best deal, but try and use an incognito browser or delete your internet history as cookies stored on your computer can raise the price.
Choosing what time of the year to fly is crucial as well.
It may be difficult to avoid, but flying during the school holidays will be more expensive.
Try and time your holidays so they don’t coincide with school holidays throughout the year.
Another holiday where prices rise is around Christmas, so if you want a festive getaway book well in advance, but still expect to pay a little more.
In general, flying at peak times, such as Friday nights, are usually more expensive than mid-week, and worth bearing in mind if you’re trying to cut costs.
Which flight comparison sites show the best deals?
compared the most popular sites for 10 different routes to see which was the cheapest.
They looked at Edinburgh to Athens, return to LAX from London and flying to Malaga one-way from the capital among other routes.
Looking at a range of websites, they came up with the top five cheapest sites.
They found was the cheapest of them all, offering the lowest fares for all 10 routes.
Following Momodo, in tied second place, was and , followed by and last was .
Website Skyscanner was found to be beaten on price for every single route - despite being widely popular.
Cheapest flight comparison sites
1. Momondo
2. Cheapflights
2. Kayak
3. Skyscanner
4. Google Flights
Which? said: “Our research included a range of flight scenarios for 10 popular holiday destinations, from last minute to bookings up to six months ahead.
“As the rankings show, in many cases aggregators displayed the same lowest fare, but there were also some savings to be had.
“The biggest disparity in price we found was on US flights.
“On one occasion that difference was more than £300 for a last-minute flight to Miami.
“While Momondo found a one-way fare for £464, the cheapest alternative with Google Flights was more than £770.”
LATEST ON TRAVEL
Despite Skyscanner coming in fourth place, Which? found it was the most popular comparison site with a score of 67 per cent.
Which? added: “Customers gave it a four out of five rating in all categories, while it was the only comparison site to clinch four stars for value for money.
“It suggests that even though it wasn’t the cheapest, users felt they were getting a fairer quote to begin with – without any nasty surprises later on.”