Everyone loves a cheap flight, but what’s the most efficient way to find one?
AFF members often discuss current airfare deals on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum. If you’ve subscribed to an airline mailing list, you may also be notified when that airline goes on sale. But if you need to book a flight to a particular destination, on a particular date, there are some handy online tools that can help you identify the best options.
Here are four of our favourites…
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ITA Matrix
ITA Matrix is one of the most powerful online flight search tools available to the general public. It’s free to use, and while you can’t actually book flights on ITA Matrix, the website can help you to find the best options for your trip.
With ITA Matrix, you can search for flights from multiple airports (as long as they’re all in the same country) to an unlimited number of destination airports. You can specify a particular travel date/s, or simply search for the cheapest flights over an entire month in one search.
What makes ITA Matrix unique is the ability to add “Advanced Controls” including routing codes and extension codes to your search. Using Advanced Controls, you can limit your search to:
- A specific airline/s
- A specific number of stops, or a specific stopover airport
- Exclude overnight flights
- Include or exclude specific flight numbers
- Exclude flights on turboprop/propeller aircraft
- Specify that you want a certain number of flights on a particular airline (useful for status runs)
- Specify a minimum connection time (or extra connection time above the standard minimum to “pad” the connection)
- Any combination of the above, and much more!
For example, if you wanted to search for the cheapest Qantas flights from Adelaide to Los Angeles via Sydney across the month of June, you could add “QF SYD QF” in the Routing Code field to specify that you want a Qantas flight, followed by a transit in Sydney, followed by another Qantas flight. ITA Matrix will then only search for routings that meet this criteria.
You can even use ITA Matrix to search for flights operated by specific aircraft types, which can be useful (for example) when looking for domestic widebody flights.
This tool does have some limitations. For example, it doesn’t usually show flights on low-cost carriers like Ryanair or easyJet.
ITA Matrix is owned by Google. It was recently overhauled with a new user interface, by the same basic functionality is all still there.
Google Flights
Google Flights is another very handy tool for finding cheap flights. It doesn’t have the “Advanced Controls” feature of ITA Matrix, but Google Flights makes it easy to find the cheapest flights to lots of different destinations with its “Explore” feature.
Unlike ITA Matrix, you can also directly book itineraries that you’ve found on Google Flights. After selecting your preferred option, Google will show you a range of websites where the flights can be booked including prices. (In general, we recommend booking directly with the airline – which is also given as an option.)
Skyscanner
There are lots of online travel agents that will sell you plane tickets such as Webjet, Kayak, Momondo, Expedia and Priceline. But how do you know which one has the lowest price?
This is where Skyscanner comes in. Skyscanner is the “Trivago” of airlines, aggregating all the options and showing you not only which airline has the lowest fare, but where to book to get the best price. Using the calendar feature, you can even find the cheapest available airfares on any route across the entire upcoming year – a handy feature if your travel dates are very flexible.
For simple bookings where you just want to know what the cheapest flight is, Skyscanner can be helpful. But beware that “ghost flights” are sometimes shown. It may also suggest an itinerary that is not practical or possible to fly, for example, due to COVID-19 border restrictions.
Most of the time, Skyscanner will direct you to complete your booking with an online travel agent. When booking with an online travel agent, beware that you’ll need to deal directly with them in the event of changes or cancellations to your booking. This can be quite painful if you’re dealing with an “OTA” with poor customer service. So, check the OTA’s reviews and consider booking more complex itineraries you’ve found on Skyscanner through a bricks-and-mortar travel agent or directly with the airline.
AZair
One key limitation of some of the major flight search options is that low-cost airlines may not be shown.
For example, Ryanair is the largest airline in Europe – but it doesn’t file fares in the GDS (Global Distribution System, which is used by travel agents). Instead, it sells all tickets directly to customers – bypassing travel agencies and negating the need to pay commissions. This means tools like ITA Matrix don’t display any Ryanair flights.
AZair is a niche website that fills this gap, only displaying cheap flights operated by 64 selected low-cost carriers based in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. These include AirAsia, easyJet, Wizz Air, Eurowings, Flydubai and of course, Ryanair.
Not only does AZair make it easy to find cheap flights on low-cost carriers, but it will even consider indirect routings that require multiple tickets or overnight stops at the airport. You can search for flights on fixed dates, or any date within a given range, and it will find the absolute cheapest options. (For better, or worse!)
Want to read more?
AFF Platinum members can learn more about the tools featured in this article – plus lots of other strategies for finding cheap flights – in the Australian Frequent Flyer Training.
With 10 comprehensive courses, the AFF Training is full of useful tips and practical advice to get more out of frequent flyer programs and to travel better, for less! Written by the experts from Australian Frequent Flyer, this structured, easy-to-follow training really is the ultimate resource for Australian frequent flyers.
