Leaving on a (cheap) jet plane

How do you get the very best deal on flights? Sarah Wray guides the way

Hi – I’m planning a holiday for July and want to get really cheap flights (no packages) somewhere exotic. Any top tips for finding the very best deals?

There are a few ways you can make sure you get the best deal on your flights, saving you more money for cocktails on the beach. Firstly, book as early as you can. Unlike, say, supermarket bread, airlines don’t usually flog flights off cheap as the flying date approaches – business flyers often need last-minute flights and are willing to pay top whack for them. Sign up for email alerts when flights are released so you can be straight in there.

If you know exactly where you want to go and when, you can use a comparison site. You enter your planned times and destinations and - voila! - the site will search and compare the options from other sites, saving you a lot of time. However, they don’t all search the same sites, so you’re best off using more than one.

Examples of these comparison sites include Kayak, Skyscanner and Travelsupermarket.

Even though you don’t want a package holiday, if you’re going to a popular package holiday destination, you might be able to bag yourself a seat on a
charter flight. The airlines lay on flights for package tourists, but if the flights aren’t full, they’ll sell flight-only tickets at a good price. You can find out about these charter flights at sites such as Flights Direct and Avro.

Also, crazily, in some cases it can actually be cheaper to book a package holiday and then stay somewhere else than to just book a scheduled flight. Worth looking into for popular package destinations.

Happy holidays!

In a quandary? Post your question below