Special flights. Airline discounts: where to look for promotions and sales of airlines

Purchase cheap flights and information at the Vinsky Forum.

You can buy any air tickets using the website portal. The modern system will allow you to quickly find and book tickets to any destination of regular flights.

Low tariff for e-tickets.

To choose a plane ticket, on the website, in a special form, you need to specify some information: the city of departure and the end point of the trip, dates, number of seats and class. After filling out the web form, click on the "Find" button, and in a few seconds the computer will select the best offers according to your criteria.

You can also set a flexible selection of air tickets by dates, even approximately. You just need to check the box next to "± 3 days", which will make it possible to see the schedule of aircraft both for a specific date and for the next 3 days after and before it.

Often, the system provides the result within a few minutes. Do not forget that the processing of a request may take a longer time, as the speed of the search engine is affected by various indicators: the quality of the Internet connection, the speed of data arrival from carriers, the power of your PC. With the help of the "Add to favorites" button, which will appear as a result of the search, you will be able to save suitable flights.

There are filters to the right of the search, thanks to which you can easily select tickets according to several parameters: transfers, departure time, ticket price, transfer and flight time, air agency, payment methods, city for transfers.

Selection of the best offers for this month.

The search engine has a functional calendar. If desired, a link is placed on the page with the search result, clicking on which will open a table of ticket prices for each day in the period. Thus, you can see how much the ticket will cost on different days. If time does not matter, you can adjust the flight date by choosing the optimal cost.

The direct purchase of tickets takes place on the pages of the partners of the portal site. The service works without any commissions and other types of payment for ordering tickets and booking. That is, you get absolutely free access to the service database. After clicking on the "Buy" button, the system will redirect the user to a website where they can complete the purchase.

Sometimes it happens when the tickets you are interested in for a specific route and cost are not available. In this case, the service offers inexpensive tickets that are on sale.

Since we have told you on which portal you can easily and profitably buy plane tickets, it remains only to pick up the document. Purchased e-tickets are sent directly to the e-mail you specify when paying. Check the correctness of the address and mailbox. If you did not see the message with the ticket, check the "Spam" section. Print the document and show it at check-in at the airport.

How to find an inexpensive plane ticket (Vinsky Forum).

There are many indicators that significantly affect the price of a ticket.

If you listen to the following recommendations, you can buy cheap air tickets.
- Purchase or book a ticket in advance
- Travel in economy class
- Find routes to nearby cities
- Track special offers
- Book an air ticket online
- Best Orders round trip air tickets
- Keep track of seasonality

If you are still thinking about where to buy a ticket, use the site portal. Save time!

Good afternoon travelers!

Today we’ll talk about where to look for discounts on airline tickets, special offers and sales of airlines. What discounts are offered, how and where to buy air travel for a promotion - I will tell you in my new article.

The best way to save money on your upcoming trip is to buy discounted air tickets.

The reduced price of the flight will also help you choose the carrier company and the country of departure with a wide variety.

What are the discounts?

Usually they launch promotions that apply to economy class fares, they do not apply to business class.

In addition to seasonal airline sales and super offers, you can take advantage of discounts by age and social categories:

Children under 2 years old can reduce the ticket price up to 90%, for older adults 2-12 years old - up to 50%.
Young people under 24 can purchase a ticket up to 25% cheaper upon presentation of a document confirming their age. Each country has special rates for youth and rules for their use.
Students from 26 to 31 years old receive a discount on the ISIC international student rate.
Pensioners 55 - 65 years old can reduce the price by 15 - 25%.
The family tariff entitles one of the spouses to a 50% discount, but it can be used a limited number of times.
Special fare for a group of passengers from 7 to 10 people who fly together on the same dates and on the same route.

Airlines usually offer promotions on tickets 45 days before departure, thus attracting passengers with low prices. After that, their cost begins to grow, but if closer to the departure date the plane is still not fully completed, there is a chance to purchase a ticket much cheaper by 30 - 50%.

It must be remembered that all profitable promotions are quickly sorted out, since there are few offers, and there are many who want to save money. Therefore, if you see a bargain price, hurry up to buy or book a ticket.

Always have your passport details and your card details with you for prompt payment. If you are registered on the carrier's website or use a browser with autocomplete, then many of your data will be saved from past purchases, it will be easier and faster for you to fill out a new form.

When a new promotion is launched, the terms for purchasing a ticket and its validity period are indicated. That is, you can and should purchase it at a special price in the near future, but use it for a certain time and fly away in a few months.

As a rule, they are non-refundable, which is why such a low cost. Therefore, when buying such a ticket, you must be sure that you can fly out on these days, having a planned vacation or a free work schedule.

If you want to always be aware of promotions and discounts, subscribe to the airline's newsletter.

When searching for special offers, it is convenient to use the calendar and low price map that are available on many search sites. You will be able to see on which days and which countries the most favorable price, and choose the appropriate option.

Websites with air tickets

Sale tickets can be bought online at many sites.

1. Official websites of airlines

Discounted tickets are indicated with a promo icon. Most often, sales are launched during low demand for flights - in spring, autumn and after new year holidays. But no one can predict the exact start date of the action. It depends on the companies themselves, who analyze the workload and popularity of flights, compare past and current prices for transportation.

In the event of a shortage of passengers and deviations from the sales plan, air carriers use promotions to attract new customers and fill the aircraft with them. To be always aware of the best prices, just subscribe to their newsletter, and you can always buy online cheap tickets one of the first.

Flights within Russia and to other countries:

Aeroflot
Victory
Lufthansa
airBaltic
Pegasus Airlines

You will find more low-cost airlines and low-cost airlines in our article.

2. Mobile applications of airlines and search aggregators

Since many people use the Internet most often from their smartphone, most sites have their own applications for mobile devices. The advantage in this case is the ability to quickly receive push notifications about when profitable options appear.

3. Search aggregators, each of which has a section with special offers from air carriers:

skyscanner
Aviasales

4. Specialized sites where discounts of all airlines for any destinations are collected:

Pirates
Vandrouki
Vezdelet
skydiscounter
budget world

5. Travel agency websites

Sometimes it is more profitable to buy a last-minute tour, which will be cheaper than buying an air ticket. This applies to long flights to countries South-East Asia, for example. Plus, you will have a bonus hotel where you can stay or find another more convenient option.

View sale tickets from these operators:

Tez Tour
Fly.ru

6. Travel forums

For example, Vinsky's forum. Here you can not only find low prices and useful information, but also chat with travelers, find a fellow traveler or ask questions about the destination and airline services of interest.

Use all these services and fly more often with great discounts on air travel. If you find an interesting offer from an airline or a sale of tickets, share with our readers in the comments below, and also ask your questions. See you again.

Subscribe to airline notifications

Don't forget to monitor carrier websites. Usually sales are arranged in February - March and October - November. During such periods, servers may lie down. But with a little patience, you'll have a cheap ticket in your pocket. And some airlines offer to send messages if the price drops. Agree to have time to buy the right ticket.

Subscribe to Telegram channels

For search advantageous offers use Telegram channels. Information about discounts comes in the form of a personal notification. It is better to subscribe to several at once and monitor them by comparing prices. Here are three useful channels from cheap flights: Scooter, Travelradar and PassOnBoard.

And of course, use cheap flight aggregators such as Aviasales, Skyscanner, Momondo, OneTwoTrip. They are not tied to a specific airline, but compare prices from different sites and give you the best option. And in these search engines there are convenient charts and price calendars. With their help, you can shift the date of the trip and save a significant amount.

Most of these search engines have mobile applications.

2. Clear your cookies and cache

If you have already searched chip flights, the aggregator or the airline's website remembered both the country of departure and the approximate cost of the journey. As a result, you may see the old price, even if the tickets have fallen in price. In addition, the site will rush you and assure you that there are almost no seats left on the plane. Even if it's not true at all.

5. Buy tickets in advance

It's better to buy tickets in advance. Typically, airlines open a sale 330 days in advance. But, as practice shows, the most optimal booking time is 50–60 days before departure.

The fact is that at the start of sales, the program focuses on last year's prices, and then demand forms the cost and, as a rule, it decreases. A couple of months before departure, there are not so many bookings. And the more empty seats on the plane, the lower the price.

When buying a ticket, you should also take into account the time of day. Most buy tickets in the middle of the day. So book your flight late at night or early in the morning. There are not so many visitors on aggregators, demand is falling, prices are starting to creep down.

6. Keep documents close at hand

Keep your passport information with you at all times. You don't have to carry your passport with you. It is enough to take a photo of the necessary pages or write out the data in notes. Special offers usually come at the most inopportune moment. And cheap tickets, most likely, will not survive until the evening. So when planning a trip, be ready to book tickets at any time. And, of course, do not forget about the money on the bank card.

The ticket price directly depends on the flow of tourists. On holidays, school holidays and the high season, the cost of the flight usually increases. So be sure to check prices for other dates. Sometimes a flight with a difference of a couple of weeks is several times cheaper.

So, a ticket to Asian countries with a departure at the end of December is almost twice as expensive as at the beginning of the month.

And do not hesitate to travel in the off-season. First, it's much cheaper. Secondly, there are no crowds of tourists and queues at museums. In Europe, for example, everyone goes to new year holidays. It is much more profitable to fly there in early autumn.

8. Buy round-trip tickets

Buy tickets immediately in both directions, do not postpone for later. Firstly, when buying round-trip tickets, you save about 20%. Secondly, remember: the closer the departure, the more expensive ticket. For example, tickets Moscow - Paris and back cost 14,000 rubles, and if you take them separately, you will have to overpay more than 2,000 rubles.

9. Go beyond the capital

If you want to get, for example, to France, it is not necessary to fly directly to Paris. Look at tickets to neighboring cities: sometimes you can get there much cheaper than in the capital.

Then you can travel by trains, trains, buses or planes. Just remember: abroad it is better to book tickets for intercity trains and buses in advance, at least a couple of weeks in advance. That will be cheaper. In Europe, this can be done online, through the websites of carriers.

Many acquaintances are surprised how I manage to buy air tickets 2-3 times cheaper than others. Some do not believe that tickets abroad can be bought much cheaper than within their own country. Yes, there are some tricks here. I have long wanted to write this post and collect everything you need to know to buy cheap tickets. And finally :)

In this article, I will not tell platitudes about airline miles programs, and that it is better to buy tickets in advance at sales - everyone knows about this. I'll try to give more practical advice. But I'll start with the obvious... Many independent travelers ignore charters, but in vain - it can save a lot of money.

Life hack 1. The first and most obvious is to take cheap tours or charter tickets when traveling abroad. But keep in mind that in this case you are limited either by the number of days of your stay, or when using a ticket only “there”, you can buy a return ticket very expensively.

Once I was lucky to buy two tours for the price of one flight “there” - this happens especially often in regions where there are not always direct flights even to Europe, but charters fly.

On the tour, you can use only the flight, and settle down where it is more convenient, or arrange your own trip around the country. You just need to make sure that the return plane does not fly away without you - after all, charters are often transferred. To do this, arrange for a travel agent to keep you informed, or return to the base hotel the day before departure.

It is better to plan a trip in advance and buy a single ticket immediately there and back - usually such tickets are non-refundable and all changes can only be made for an additional fee, so the trip must be planned without changes.

Life hack 2. Round-trip tickets are usually cheaper than round-trip tickets, so always check round-trip tickets, not just one-way tickets.

But keep in mind that having bought a round-trip ticket, if you don’t fly “there”, then the return ticket will be lost. However, you can get sick and not go at all, and then what? Then even a non-refundable fare can be returned by additionally purchasing insurance.

Life hack 3. Fearing that you will not be able to fly, buy travel insurance that includes not only medical services, but also “trip cancellation” - this is cheaper than buying additional insurance on the airline’s website. But carefully read in the conditions what is insured - usually insurance does not compensate for losses if you just change your mind, but if you get sick and present a certificate from the hospital, then the money will be returned even for a “non-refundable” rate.

About what is better to take travel insurance, I already wrote.

In the photo: S7 airline specialists skillfully work with each passenger

Some people think it's best to sign up for "reduced ticket prices" mailing lists on airline websites, but that's just an airlines trick to get your e-mail. Thus, you will only receive advertisements and news about promotions that are already known to everyone. Therefore, it is enough to subscribe to news and promotions from the airline in social networks.

Life hack 4. It is better to monitor low prices on your own, because. there are usually few really cheap air tickets, they are quickly sorted out and such information does not reach mailing lists.

But what is the right way to search? If there are many airlines flying from your city, then it is quite difficult to monitor all sites in search of cheap air tickets. I tell:

What is the best website for cheap flights?

You can buy cheap air tickets on the airline's website, or you can use aggregator sites. Where is better? If the price is not as important as the airline, we are waiting for sales on the airline's website; if it is important to buy cheap tickets, and at the same time you don’t care which airline, we use aggregator sites, which are also called cheap flight websites. Moreover, on these sites you can find low prices, and as a result, buy on the airline's website - such sites also show prices in airlines, and even low-cost ones! Below I will show you how and where to look.

Many people know, for example, Yandex.Avia, but not everyone knows sites where you can not only compare tickets from different airlines, but also choose the most cheap month; and if you have already chosen a month, then the cheapest direction to fly to. It is very convenient when you want to fly somewhere, but cheap :)

Life hack 5. With the help of sites of cheap air tickets you can find most cheap city where to fly, and cheapest month and not just a day!

Where to looking for? I tried many different aggregators, but settled on Skyscanner - it is most convenient to search not only for cheap flights, promotions and discounts, but also for the cheapest month for a flight or the cheapest destination. Moreover, you do not need to sort through all the cities, but you can simply ask:

Imagine that you would like to travel inexpensively .... somewhere in Europe. Which city to choose, where is it cheaper to fly? Really it is necessary to touch all cities and dates? Not! I will explain in detail how this is done. But first, I’ll show you how to use such a site in general using the example of searching for a cheap air ticket within one country.

How to buy cheap flights within the country

We are looking for the cheapest direction using the instructions below. For example, consider searching for tickets from your city within one country. Let's see where it is cheaper to fly and in what month.

Instructions on how to find cheap flights, step by step

Life hack 6. To fly cheaper:
- just take it with you hand luggage so that you do not have to pay extra for luggage;
- check in online on the airline's website, not at the airport;
- get on the plane full :)

What is included in hand luggage? Read in detail:. And also keep in mind that different airlines have different conditions - you will find details only on the airline's website.

If you are flying as a family and you have a lot of luggage, then first calculate how much money you will end up with: ticket price + seats to sit next to you + luggage + food on the plane. Perhaps flying on low-cost airlines is ultimately unprofitable for you, then choose the next airline in the list (Step 4) and see the conditions.

Life hack 7. When searching for cheap flights, use the filters. For example, you can exclude unloved airlines from your search results, or you can only search for direct flights.

In other cities and countries, you need to look for air tickets in the same way as in the instructions. Here are some more useful links to where to fly the cheapest:
– from Novosibirsk cm.
– from Kyiv for Ukraine, see
– from Alma-Ata for Kazakhstan, see
If it is not clear how to search, ask in the comments, I will help.

What is a low price calendar

If you know exactly where you want to fly, then finding the cheapest dates is easiest using the low price calendar, as described above - Step 3. Or click on the link Moscow - Sochi, where instead of Moscow / Sochi, drive in your cities “from” and “ where".

The cheapest flights from Moscow to Simferopol
The cheapest flights from Kyiv to Odessa

How to buy cheap air tickets for direct flights

Most often, flights with transfers are cheaper than direct flights, but this is not always convenient. Therefore, if you want to save money, but still fly on a direct flight, then you need to start looking for a ticket 6 months in advance using the low price calendar, as in the instructions above. Either the city that you need, you must search among the Hidden City (intermediate city). This travel hack is based on the fact that transfer tickets are cheaper than direct ones.

Life hack 8. The passenger is not obliged to fly to the end, he can get off at an intermediate stop! Such flights are sometimes more profitable than direct ones. This trick is called Hidden City.

Let me explain what Hidden City is. For example, you need to go to Paris, and the tickets are very expensive. However, you have learned that there are cheaper flights that fly somewhere else but stop in Paris. We take such a ticket, but we check in luggage only to Paris, and in Paris we leave. Ready!
Keep in mind that this only works with a one-way ticket!!!

Example.
I'll show you how it looks and where to watch Hidden City.
You have to take a direct flight from Moscow to Paris. We look, - the lowest price is 6348 rubles, here:

In the photo: a calendar of low prices for a direct flight Moscow - Paris

If we look for flights with “hidden city” (we look at the cheapest flights from Moscow with one transfer - check the box “1 transfer” as in the picture below), then we find that a flight from Moscow to Frankfurt with a stopover in Paris costs 3781 rubles.

In the photo: ticket price Moscow - Paris using "hidden city"

We simply check in our baggage to Paris, and, well, we leave, respectively, in Paris! In total, we bought a direct flight to Paris almost 2 times cheaper.

Finding Hidden City is not easy, but possible - for example, on the Skiplagged website (eng) or in Russian - Skyscanner.

How to fly abroad cheaply

We are looking for flights in the same way as already described above in. Choose desired country:

Just keep in mind that tickets to popular cities can be much more expensive than less popular ones, from which you can comfortably take a bus for a penny, and at the same time see another city and.

In the photo: on the way in the Flixbus bus, wifi even worked

By the way, such bus trips are especially popular in Europe.

Life hack 9. Combine air travel with bus travel. If you are planning to visit a city where there are only expensive flights, check the ticket prices in the nearest cities, and you can get to the main city by bus - this way you can save up to 70% on air tickets!

For example, I want to fly to Vienna. Air tickets to Vienna are usually expensive. We open a regular map and find the nearest cities where air tickets are cheaper - Bratislava, Budapest (usually a flight is 2 times cheaper than to Vienna). It takes 1 hour to travel from Bratislava to Vienna by FlixBus bus, it costs 5 euros. From Budapest to Vienna it takes 3 hours by bus, it costs 14 euros.
FlixBus is quite a convenient low-cost bus in Europe, I traveled a lot with them. see instructions,

Mega instructions on how to find and buy plane tickets for the cheapest price! 11 tricks that will help you significantly bring down the price of air tickets.

How to learn how to search and book tickets correctly?
How to take full advantage of all the opportunities that airlines and ticket search engines give?
How to break the system and force airlines and agents to turn their cunning tricks against themselves?
How to deal a crushing blow to the "Empire of Air Transportation", to know the Force and use it for the benefit of free travel?
How the hell do you finally learn to travel a lot and cheap?

The answers are in this article!

Reading the articles and news of the site, you have repeatedly noted for yourself a number of ways to buy air tickets at the lowest price, sometimes at an indecently low price! In this article, I will systematize all the knowledge and skills of finding and buying cheap plane tickets and briefly reveal them in 11 points. I love to travel, fly on planes and always try to do it cheaply or even for free. I have accumulated enough knowledge and skills - now I share everything I know here.

I will list the ways to purchase cheap tickets in ascending order of their steepness and non-triviality. Let's start with basic knowledge that anyone should have independent traveler, and gradually come to advanced skills and the most cunning ways to bring down the price of air tickets, which even an experienced traveler will find useful.

The article is long (what to do, a lot of tips), so be patient - who knows, maybe it will change your life, significantly increasing the time you spend in flight and travel.

Go!

How to Find Cheap Flights: The Basics

1. Use the power of search engines at 100%

Cheap flight search engines (aggregators) are the easiest and most reliable way to find tickets at the lowest price. The essence of their work is to compare ticket prices for the destination you need among hundreds of airlines and all major agencies and find Best offer.

If you are looking for tickets exclusively on airline websites or, God forbid, by typing in Yandex or Google requests like "buy cheap Aeroflot flights" (I checked, a lot of people do this), or don't buy tickets online at all, but go to aunties in ticket offices, then the cheapest plane tickets will always bypass you. With this approach, you simply have no chance of meeting them.

I consider three services to be the best search engines: Aviasales, Buruki and Skyscanner. Their use when searching for cheap flights is about 80-90% success. However, to get the full benefit from search engines, you need to use their capabilities at 100% - and not everyone does this: even travelers who are well acquainted with them do not know about a number of excellent features of these aggregators.

Advice: Before buying tickets, check the price in all three search engines for greater reliability - this way you will increase your chances of finding the cheapest plane tickets. Sometimes the price difference can be about 2-7% of the ticket price.

Well, now about the useful features of cheap flight search engines that you need to know and put into practice.

(photo © jrpboo / flickr.com)

A. Advanced (non-specific) search for cheap flights

The Skyscanner search engine has this amazing opportunity - it will solve the problem of anyone who does not have specific plans for where and when to fly, but wants to do it as cheaply as possible. In a crisis, that's it! So, in the ticket search form, you can specify not only specific cities / airports and clearly fixed dates, but also uncertain options.

In the graph "Where" you can specify the entire country (all its airports) - for example, write "Russia", "Ukraine", "Belarus" or, say, "Zimbabwe". Plus, you can check the box "Add nearby airports."
In the graph "Where" you can enter "Everywhere" or leave the field empty, then the search system will look for the cheapest flight options to all countries of the world.
In the fields departure and return dates you can specify "Entire month" or "Entire year" at once.

Here is an example of how you can fill out the Skyscanner search form:

B. Subscribing to Ticket Price Reductions

Ability to mark specific dates or search for several months at once;
Ability to set the duration of the planned trip;
The presence of filters to filter out the excess;
Comparison of specific days of departure among themselves;
In a number of areas, the system displays information about interesting events and holidays in a given month.

D. Mobile application

It is very useful to have a search engine for cheap tickets always at hand. It is easy to implement - just install the mobile application on your smartphone. Aviasales has convenient and streamlined applications for both Android (download) and iPhone (download). Interestingly, according to Aviasales statistics, almost half of their users search for and buy tickets through these mobile applications, and this program is installed on every 8th iPhone in Russia.

D. Complex (composite) route

This feature is available on Aviasales and Skyscanner search engines. It allows you to create routes with three or more flight segments and "fork routes" when the city of arrival and subsequent departure differ (non-closed flights). Also, thanks to this function, you can purchase tickets with a stopover (connection longer than a day).

Simple route example: Moscow - Barcelona - Moscow.
Complex route example: Moscow - Barcelona, Barcelona - Paris, Paris - Moscow.
Fork example (open-jaw): 1) Moscow - Barcelona, Madrid - Moscow; or 2) Moscow - Barcelona, Barcelona - St. Petersburg.

About the benefits of "forks" and complex routes and how they allow you to buy tickets cheaper than for simple flights, read further, in the advanced skills section, in paragraph.

E. Cheap flights for the holidays

Selections of plane tickets at the best prices can be seen on the Buruki service on the page "Fly away for the holidays!".

Select your city and the holidays for which you are looking for tickets (for example, May or New Year), and the system will give you a list of the best offers for those dates. You can sort the issue by destination (Europe, Asia, America, etc.). A very handy thing for planning a vacation!

G. Low Airfare Map

Another interesting and original feature. Allows you to search for cheap tickets by flexible parameters:

Travel dates: exact, tickets for weekends or holidays, search by month or season.
Possibility to search only direct flights.
Visa filter: visa-free countries, Schengen, other visas.
Length of stay range.
The budget that you are willing to allocate for the purchase of air tickets.

Try using the low price map for Aviasales or Skyscanner.

2. Follow promotions for air tickets

From a strong and unbearable desire to buy the cheapest air tickets, you can break loose - rashly subscribe to the mailing lists of all existing airlines and agencies. Do not do this - take pity on yourself and your mailbox, a wave of garbage pseudo-promotions will simply crush you and discourage all desire to be interested in special offers in the future.

What the airlines call "shares" and "interesting offers" far from always they are - most often it is just a marketing ploy to attract attention with calls to buy tickets as soon as possible. Sifting the wheat from the chaff in this area is not easy work, requiring a clear understanding of what ticket price is considered normal and which is promotional.

This is what we are doing here - only information worthy of attention appears in it, and everything doubtful and false is eliminated. So stay tuned for our news! The easiest way to do this is by subscribing to ours - announcements of the latest news appear there instantly, and sometimes I publish some news about the appearance of cheap tickets only there (when I don’t have time to write about it here on the site).

3. Wait for the right moment

You can buy the cheapest air tickets only in certain time, all year round, for weeks on end, the minimum prices will never hold. Therefore, always adhere to the rule - as soon as there is a chance to get cheap tickets, you need to use it. As soon as you read the news about the sale or found an attractive option on the search engines yourself, do not hesitate - buy it.

You also need to know the periods when plane tickets can be bought cheapest:

a year before the planned trip;
2-3 months before departure;
a few days before departure.

Of course, the rule is not ironclad - it is rather a trend. Keep in mind that relying on the latter option is always risky.

4. We buy an air ticket with a departure from a neighboring city

If you live in St. Petersburg - check the prices for flights from Moscow and Helsinki, if you live in Perm or Chelyabinsk - ask if it is possible to buy cheap plane tickets departing from Yekaterinburg, and so on. Sometimes this can save more than one tens of thousands of rubles. For example, when you see news like "", you don't need to hope that a kind wizard will please the residents of Perm, Tyumen and the entire Ural region with similar prices, you just need to take and book such incredibly cheap tickets while there is a chance.

Residents of Moscow should not yawn either. Yes, 80-90% of all promotions and interesting offers of airlines are relevant only for flights from the capital, but this does not mean that you need to forget about the remaining 10%. It makes sense to check if there is anything interesting for departures from Pulkovo.

5. Low-cost airlines

You can read about what low-cost airlines are in, and specifically about low-cost carriers in Europe - in.

Proper use of low-cost opportunities means:

Fly from cities in Europe closest to us: Vilnius, Kaunas, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, Lappeenranta, Tampere. From the airports of these cities, you can fly for 10-30 euros to almost anywhere in Europe, as well as extremely cheaply - to Israel, Georgia, Morocco, the Canary and Azores and not only. Read more about this in the article about.
Do not forget that some discount airlines also fly to Russia: for example, from Moscow you can fly cheaply to Budapest on board Wizz Air or fly to London on EasyJet. From both of these cities, you can also fly cheaply anywhere in Europe.
Invent, based on the directions in which low-cost airlines are especially pleased low prices. We planned to go to Barcelona and suddenly found out that from there you can fly to Malta for 28 euros (1880 rubles), and from there to Milan for 10 euros (650 rubles)? So why not assemble a rich and very rich route from such pieces? budget travel(). It's simple and fun!
Refuse baggage, because most low-cost airlines carry it separately. Sometimes you can buy very cheap tickets (for €10, for example), and pay three times more for luggage. Travel light - it's cheaper and easier.

6. Fly with a group

Some airlines are ready to give passengers discounts if they fly with a company and book tickets for several people at once.

For example, the EasyJet low-cost airline usually offers a discount when booking flights for two and three people: the discount can be 7-10 euros for each ticket. Wizz Air has a loyalty program - Wizz Discount Club. Having bought a membership in it (€30 - for two, €50 - up to 5 people), you can purchase any tickets at least €10 cheaper during the year (that is, membership pays off immediately).

You can even fly with imaginary friends - they can also help you buy plane tickets at a good discount. More on this below, in the section on advanced skills for knocking down airfare. And in general, all the most interesting things are ahead!

Advanced Skills for Buying Cheap Flights

7. Fictional baby

Interestingly, sometimes you can just invent a "friend" for yourself and get free discounts on your air tickets. Our imaginary friend must be an infant (children under 2 years of age usually do not need to pay for a ticket). It is worth adding an infant as a passenger when searching for plane tickets, as a discount is applied to your ticket - sometimes quite tangible. This trick does not always work - it all depends on the agent selling the ticket, the airline and the search engine. As far as I know, the trick so far only works on Aviasales (most often for Transaero tickets).

I have already written more than once about using this tricky way to buy tickets cheaper than the original price (the cost is indicated for round-trip tickets):

Tickets from Moscow to St. Petersburg or vice versa for 1408 rubles. instead of 2670().
To Georgia from St. Petersburg for 4904 rubles. instead of 6200().
To Vilnius from Moscow for 3952 rubles. instead of 4508().

Of course, no babies will fly with you - when checking in for a flight, just come up with a good reason why the baby did not fly (he fell ill, stayed with one of his relatives, etc.).

8. Cunning deceptive zigzag

Airlines like to make money on direct flights, because many are willing to overpay (sometimes a lot) for convenience, speed and the absence of tedious connections. Well, let's think of workarounds and get the airlines to sell us the cheapest tickets.

All it takes is to pretend. Pretend we don't want to go where we really need to go. Are you going to Tallinn? Do not rush to look for flights to this city, let's better pretend that we need to go to Oslo. See for yourself, the best offer for tickets to the Estonian capital is 5430 rubles on a direct flight of Estonian Air.

But do you remember that for the pleasure of flying a direct flight, a passenger has to pay more? The solution to this problem is simple: knowing that Tallinn is the hub (base airport) of Estonian Air, and that tickets for its flights from Tallinn to Oslo are usually quite inexpensive, we will simply check the cost of air tickets from Moscow to Oslo. Voila, they ask for only 4045 rubles! The flight is carried out through the Tallinn we need - we arrive there, pick up our luggage and forget about Oslo. Congratulations, we saved almost 30% from the cost of a ticket for a direct flight to the city we need!

How to find such cheap alternatives? To do this, you need to be a little in the subject:

know which airlines fly to the city you need;
whether its airport is the main one for them;
in what directions these airlines fly from the city you need at the lowest fares (in order to correctly substitute the destination city in the ticket that we will buy).

Knowing this and using logic, designing such detour flight routes is very simple and fun! Even if you are not in the know, then, armed with ticket search engines, Wikipedia and Google, you can easily get used to this issue and find a solution.

Attention:

Do not forget to check in your baggage not to the final destination, but to the intermediate one (you can think of any argument: you are carrying a gift that you want to transfer along the way, the thing you need is in your bag, etc.).
If you miss any segment on the flight, remember that after that the ticket will be canceled. Therefore, if you bought a round-trip plane ticket and missed a segment when flying there, then you will not fly back on this ticket. For example, you have an air ticket "Moscow - Tallinn - Oslo - Tallinn - Moscow": by refusing to fly from Tallinn to Oslo, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to fly later from Tallinn to Moscow. Therefore, for such purposes, you need to separately buy a ticket there, separately - a ticket back.

9. Complex (multi-part) flights

Sometimes you can buy much cheaper plane tickets if you build an extra segment into your flight route (whether you want to use it or not).

Cases from practice:

For example, the Etihad airline has repeatedly had an interesting incident with the pricing of tickets to Asia, if the route is formed as follows: "Moscow - Asia - Yekaterinburg". At the same time, it was not necessary to fly to Yekaterinburg on the way back - the flight was carried out through Moscow and it was possible to get off there. The savings amounted to about 3-5 thousand rubles. Here is the news about it.
I once wrote () about a great opportunity to fly for 29 thousand rubles to Dublin, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Paris in one trip. Just a dream for insatiable travelers for whom one or even two countries for one trip is not enough!

Such incidents happen precisely in multi-part routes on joint flights of several airlines at once due to the fact that the price calculation system is imperfect and in some atypical cases fails.

Bonus of this option: the opportunity to visit not one, but two or three cities in one trip and save money at the same time.

Alas, finding such loopholes and failures is not so easy. If such opportunities appear, I write news about them - stay tuned. However, you yourself can try your luck, try to build difficult route (you can do this on Aviasales and Skyscanner), including several flights to different cities in one form at once.

10. Wrong rates

As mentioned above, any price calculation system is imperfect and sometimes fails - it happens most often with complex flight routes, but sometimes it happens with simple ones.

The rule here is simple: if you find incredibly cheap flights (for example,), don't think for a second - take it. No need to call your brother / matchmaker / wife / friend - if everything works out, they will approve the initiative. No need (under any circumstances) to call the airline or agency asking why the price is so low. An erroneous tariff is erroneous because no one knows about it, and as soon as the fact of its existence is noticed by air ticket sellers, the shop will be immediately closed.

Yes, you need to be prepared for the fact that a ticket mistakenly sold at an excessively low price may be canceled by the airline. In this case, your money will simply be returned to you - every penny. So this is the worst case scenario - with what they were, they remained with that. But another outcome is also possible - tickets will be confirmed, your trip will take place, and you will save a hell of a lot.

11. Free tickets from Tinkoff Bank

Three years ago, I finally decided to order the famous credit card All Airlines "Tinkoff-Bank", which sharpened especially for travelers. The card and the bank exceeded all my expectations!

Current promotions of Tinkoff Bank: 6,000 miles as a gift to all new customers or a year of free service.

+ Optional: not a single ticket...

Yes, you won’t be fed up with cheap air tickets alone - having bought them, you also need to resolve the issue with hotels, car rentals, etc. Here I will list the most convenient and reliable services that solve these additional tasks.

Travel accommodation

Hotels by best price for your trips, look on the popular Roomguru service - it compares the prices of various booking systems and finds the best one. Read more about how to save money when booking hotels.

Sometimes it is cheaper and more comfortable to rent a house or apartment - a lot interesting options from the owners can be found on the popular Airbnb service. By the way, this is definitely beneficial if you are traveling with a family or a group.

Cheap tours

Car rent

You can rent a car using Skyscanner Car Hire online services (car rental worldwide).