You can find affordable flight deals to Europe if you know where to look.
As demand for travel is picking up and we’re heading into a busy summer, you’ve likely noticed that flight prices have been rising along with the temperatures. However, not all is lost if you’re looking for low fares. Although flight costs might not be what they were before the pandemic, you still can find deals, and we’re here to show you where to look.
For Those With a Destination in Mind
In most cases, picking a vacation destination beforehand won’t be the least expensive option. Flight deals pop up unexpectedly, usually to random destinations that are not necessarily on your travel radar, and you have to be flexible to make such deals work. However, if you’re patient, you can choose a destination and wait.
Popular search engine Google Flights lets you track prices for a certain city pair, dates, and cabin of service and set up alerts for when the prices drop. When a significant change in cost occurs, Google Flights will send you an email notifying you of the change, and you can decide whether you want to book or wait longer. Remember that this might not happen, and you could end up waiting a long time for that desired destination, so it’s better to be flexible with your travel plans and destinations.
For Those Who Just Want a Good Deal
Those who are happy to go anywhere as long as the flight is cheap will find great use in flight deal subscription services that send you email alerts once a flight deal from your preferred airport pops up. The deals can be to any random destination, including domestic and international destinations, so you need to have a little sense of adventure to take advantage of them.
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Some of the best flight deal subscription services are Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights), Thrifty Traveler, and Dollar Flight Club. An annual subscription can cost $49 to $199 but can save you hundreds of dollars on a single flight deal. The key is to be flexible with travel dates and the destination.
For Frequent Flyers
For those looking for deals in business class, we recommend FlyerTalk’s Premium Fare Deals page. FlyerTalk community members scout the best airfare prices at the time and share them on the forum for anybody looking to fly in business for less.
Some examples include U.S. cities to Geneva, Switzerland, for $2,400; Barcelona, Spain, to Sao Paulo for $1,200; and Boston to Amsterdam for $1,890. Multiple new premium economy and business-class deals are posted daily. All you have to do is pick one and go.
You have to be creative because not all of these fares originate in the United States. The deals include all kinds of destinations for citizens of the world, but they might come in handy if you’re working on a complex itinerary that includes travel across multiple continents.
For Those With Extra Time on Their Hands
If you have free time, we recommend browsing websites specializing in flight deals or mistake fares. Take a look at Fare Deal Alert, Secret Flying, and The Flight Deal. These sites are similar to the flight deal subscription services but are free to use for finding fantastic fares to worldwide destinations.
Recent economy flight deals include Raleigh, North Carolina, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for $266; Washington, D.C., to Lima, Peru, for $399; and San Francisco to Madrid, for $477.
With Secret Flying, you can narrow down your search to a continent and look at every deal posted for that day. When a fare is gone, the site marks it as expired so that you don’t end up wasting time looking for a deal that’s gone. Most fares are in economy class, but the site lists some business-class gems when available.
All of these websites also have Twitter feeds, which is another way of getting notified of airfare sales. Simply subscribe to the desired feed, and you’ll receive push notifications on your smartphone every time a new tweet is posted. This way, you’ll be the first to know about an airfare sale.
However, because not all sales will be applicable to you and your departure city, you might end up with tons of unwanted notifications. If you have lots of free time, you might choose to check each website individually instead of flooding your phone with Twitter notifications. Of course, you risk missing a fare deal in this case, as most of them die rather quickly after being posted.
The Bottom Line
Although demand for travel is higher than ever and airlines are increasing fare prices, you might still be in luck by booking a flight deal. It might not be on your preferred dates or even to your preferred destination, but flying for less is not impossible. As long as you’re flexible, the deals are still out there.