How to save money on flights

New Year’s Eve in Paris. Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Summertime in Tahiti. It can be easy to let your imagination run wild when you’re planning a trip. But you’ll probably want to look for ways to save, too. 

Take your plane ticket, for example. Saving on flights isn’t an exact science, but there are travel hacks that could help make your trip both amazing and affordable.

What you’ll learn:

• A number of factors can impact the cost of your plane ticket, from extra fees to the time of year you’re traveling.

• There’s no ideal day of the week or season to buy or fly. But there are tips you can try to help find a better price. 

• Online travel tools, like those offered through Capital One Travel, could help you save on your plane ticket. 

• With a Capital One travel rewards credit card, you can earn unlimited miles on every purchase and then use your miles to book flights and other travel.

When you’re planning your next getaway, you’re likely to find that your flight is one of your trip’s major expenses. There can be lots of reasons for that, from airline fees to the time of year. 

But there are ways to try to make your flight more economical, including these.

When it comes to saving on flights, a little flexibility can go a long way.

Don’t have to leave on a particular day? Consider traveling during the week rather than the weekend when there’s likely to be more demand for your seat. 

You may also want to avoid peak travel season in an area—fall in Vermont or ski season in Colorado, for example—because prices can be higher then. Scheduling flights outside school breaks could also help. So could steering clear of cities when they’re hosting a major sporting event.

Avoiding high-demand flights just before the holidays could also be a good idea. On the other hand, flying on the actual date of a holiday rather than a day or two before might help with your ticket price. 

You could always try to save by reverse engineering your flight. That could mean finding an affordable ticket and then planning your trip around it, from hotel rooms to favorite local restaurants.

Lots of people prefer direct flights, for obvious reasons. But if you’re trying to save money, you might want to be open to the idea of connecting flights.

A connecting flight is defined as one in which you fly on two or more planes before landing at your final destination. A layover, on the other hand, is the time spent in an airport while you’re waiting to make a connecting flight. 

Because connecting flights can increase travel time and may be considered less convenient than direct flights, they may be more affordable.

What about the day of the week that you book your flight? There’s no hard-and-fast rule, but TRAVEL+LEISURE magazine and online travel agency Expedia recommend booking on Sunday.

What about the day you actually fly? There’s no clear consensus here, either. Expedia says Saturday and Sunday are the best days to fly if you’re trying to economize. TRAVEL+LEISURE advises flying on Monday or Tuesday.

In any case, it may help to do some research before you book a flight. For example, you might check out the same flight on several airlines and compare costs.

Why not reward yourself while you’re saving? When you have a Capital One travel rewards card like Venture or Venture X, you’ll earn unlimited miles on every purchase you make. And as a new cardholder, you can earn 75,000 bonus miles once you spend $4,000 within the first three months of opening your account. When you book trips through Capital One Travel, you can earn as much as 10X miles on hotels and rental cars and 5X miles on flights and vacation rentals.

Once you earn rewards, you can use them to cover the cost of travel purchases like flights, rental cars, hotels, cruises and more. Plus, Venture and Venture X cardholders can also get a credit of up to $120 for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®.¹

Using online travel tools could be another option for saving on flights. For instance, Capital One Travel can help make flights more affordable and convenient with:

• Price prediction and alerts: Capital One Travel predicts flight prices and alerts you when it’s time to book. That could help you save an average of 15%.²

• Price drop protection: If you book your flight when Capital One Travel recommends and the price drops within 10 days, free price drop protection means you’ll get up to a $50 travel credit.³

• Price freeze: Want a little extra time before you decide to book a flight? For some flights offered through Capital One Travel, you can “freeze” the price for a specific period of time by paying a small fee.

When you’re planning your next trip, you’ll likely want to find ways to save on flights. There are tips and travel hacks you can try, including being flexible with your travel dates and taking flights with connections and layovers.

And with a Capital One travel card, you could earn rewards on your purchases and then use those rewards to book flights and other travel purchases.