How to Get Cheap Flights in 2025

Who doesn't love getting a great flight deal? As travelers, we live for those moments when our dream destination goes on sale.

However, finding cheap flights isn't always easy. That’s why I’ve pulled together my best tips for finding cheap flights for your next 2025 getaway. Take a look at the list below for some quick deals, and continue reading for my favorite insider travel tips.

Start Stacking Loyalty Points

Loyalty programs and frequent flier miles services are some of the best ways to get cheap flights on a regular basis. That being said, it can take a while to build your point balance if you focus all of your efforts and flight mile accrual on one specific airline.

Instead, sign up for a travel rewards credit card and earn miles as you spend on everyday items. Some cards are co-branded to certain airlines and give bonus points for spending with that brand, while others are more flexible to multiple airlines, like Amex, Chase Sapphire, and Yonder.

Most of these travel reward cards also offer sign-up bonuses to entice new cardholders. Usually, these offers grant tens of thousands of points for a minimum spend, like an extra 50,000 points if you spend $6,000 in the first three months. If you know you have some big purchases coming up, it's definitely worth signing up to take advantage.

Stacking points essentially means that you purchase your flights on a travel rewards card to get double or up to 5x the number of points, depending on your card, which can catapult you into higher point totals and help you enjoy free or highly discounted flights as soon as possible.

Use Skyscanner and Google Flights

The best place to start your search for cheap flights is to compare rates from Skyscanner and Google Flights. Both offer at-a-glance flight pricing insights, but the difference is that Google Flights only shows prices directly from airlines, whereas Skyscanner includes third-party booking websites like Priceline and Travelocity.

Both work similarly, with flexible dates, whole-month views, and “anywhere searches" if you’re unsure where you want to go on your chosen dates.

These filters and factors are crucial for finding cheap flights. The whole-month view lets you see the cheapest days to fly and set price alerts for certain flights. Google Flights even utilizes color-coded indicators to show you whether the price you're seeing is cheap, average, or expensive for that route.

Also, if you're using Google Flights, consider web extensions like Points Path. This cool, free extension shows you how many flier miles are needed compared to the cash value of the flight.

Be Flexible

If you want to get cheap flights, you need to be flexible. It’s an unfortunate truth that certain days and destinations are always going to be expensive. For example, flying to Europe in July or August is going to be expensive due to those months being at the peak of the travel season. So, it’s pretty unlikely that any deals will pop up for those destinations.

Another sneaky price-booster that can steal your purchasing power is weekend getaways, particularly those Friday-to-Sunday turnaround trips we all love. If you can shift your trip to Saturday to Monday or Thursday to Saturday, you'll likely find better prices.

Fly On Actual Holidays

It may sound obvious, but one of the best ways to find cheap flights is to fly on the days that aren’t desirable to most travelers. Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, and the 11th of September are all very cheap travel days for understandable reasons.

If you're not too bothered about spending these days in an airport, you can save a lot of money. If you aren’t living in the U.S., just most other countries' main holidays will provide similar savings opportunities.

Look Out For Error Fares

One of flight-hacking’s best-kept secrets is the holy grail represented by error fares. As the name suggests, these fares were released by mistake or showing at a much lower, incorrect price.

The biggest caveat here is that airlines can cancel these fares if they realize their mistake. However, sometimes they still honor the rate, meaning you can get transatlantic flights for ridiculously low prices (as low as $90 in some cases)!

I recently scored a business class seat on Air France for just 60,000 points when I discovered an error fare while experimenting with various departure dates and connecting cities.

There’s no truly reliable way to find and guarantee these steals, so don’t depend on error fares to carry your 2025 travel plans. Hold off from booking any accommodation or tours until the flight is confirmed, and sign up for the Secret Flying email newsletter for error fare alerts to maximize your chances of finding one the airlines will honor.

Invest In Good Luggage For Carry-on Only Flights

If you're serious about cheap flights, leave the checked luggage at home. By investing in some good quality carry-on luggage, you'll be able to skip hefty checking fees on cheaper airlines like Allegiant, Frontier, Spirit, and many small international airlines. On average, these larger checked bags can cost $30 per person each way for short-haul flights and up to $60 each way for longer trips.

While different airlines have different maximum carry-on luggage sizes (Europe’s Ryanair famously being the smallest), you can maximize space by using compression packing cubes and vacuum sealers. This will save you big in the long run and allow you to make the most of low-cost airlines’ carry-on-only flights, which often offer the cheapest available fares.

Fly Through Different Airports

One of my favorite hacks is to fly in and out of different airports for cheaper rates. For example, flights from Manchester, U.K. to Bologna, Italy run almost every day, but as it's a popular foodie destination, return flights start from $55-70 each way. By comparison, flights to and from Verona, Italy – just $10 by train and under two hours away – cost as little as $20 each way. Not only is it cheaper, but you get to experience two amazing Italian cities in one go!

There are plenty of smaller airports with routes by cheaper airlines, which means you can fly in for cheaper. Another European example is flying from Nantes or Rennes in Northwest France. They’re a short distance apart, but you might find dramatically cheaper rates flying into one airport and out of the other.

Try Skiplagging

Also known as “hidden city ticketing," Skiplaggin is a strategy that involves booking a longer route with a layover at your actual destination. For instance, instead of booking a direct flight from New York to Seattle, you can find a New York/Santa Ana with a layover in Seattle at a lower price and simply not embark on your second flight. According to Skiplagged.com, customers can save up to $180 on airplane tickets.

However, even though skiplagging is perfectly legal, airlines are not fans of this practice, which could have consequences. On Reddit, community members exchange stories of being banned from airlines and tips and hacks to do it as securely as possible, such as not booking your flights with your personal airline account or only booking your outbound journey this way.

Sign Up for Newsletters

Sometimes it’s best to have the deals just come to you rather than spending hours scouring the internet. Email newsletters like Dollar Flight Club and The Daily Drop offer painless access to weekly flight deals to help you plan your next big trip (or feed your deskbound addiction to daydreaming about exotic locales).