How To Save Money Flying

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I don't know very many people who don't love the idea of being able to save money while flying to Europe. Just like I am sure we would all love to fly first class or business class everywhere. Sipping champagne feeling like a king or queen with all the extra legroom and space.

But, if you are like me the extra cost can be painful. Don't get me wrong, if there is a chance to upgrade for free or cheap, I am all over that option.

However, spending the money on this upgrade when I purchase the ticket for the flight?

No. Do you know what else I could do with that money?

Probably a lot depending on where I am flying. Especially since this can be a difference of thousands.

With that in mind, here are some tips we used for our honeymoon to save money flying to Europe. After all, if you save on the flight without sacrificing comfort that just gives you extra spending power on your vacation!

My husband and I managed to book our tickets for our honeymoon to Italy for $466 for both of us ! That is only $247 per person after fees and seat selections! After our reward miles and a rebate, from our airlines (info below), we only spent $204 total for both of us. This was for flights in June too!

I know there are probably flights out there that you can get for cheaper, but I feel like we did really well for ourselves! We all know there are some notoriously cheap airlines out there. I have never used these airlines and haven't heard the best reviews, so I tend to avoid them.

My husband and I are also pretty tall, so legroom is a must for us. We also are very particular about where we like to sit on the plane, so we always check for seat selection pricing. So we do end up paying a little extra to make sure we aren't cramped.

Below are some of our top tips for saving money while flying to Europe while not having to sacrifice comfort.

Book in Advance

This should be a no-brainer, but this really helped us save money flying to Europe. This also helps if you are like me and have to have everything planned in advance. Although, you can get some last-minute flights for pretty cheap as well.

There's a saying that six or seven weeks before your flight is the cheapest time to buy tickets. We actually bought our tickets to Europe at the end of December for our trip in June, so a little less than six months in advance.

Why? Because I am crazy and had been planning that trip forever probably even longer than I planned our wedding.

Google Flights is Your Friend

One of the main tools I use when looking for flights is Google Flights. It lets you save flights and keep track of their prices over time. For our honeymoon I saved a few different flights with different airlines to my Google Flights. This way I received notifications on my phone whenever the price would go down.

The information on the flights I had saved were also "stuck" to my Google page on my phone. So every time I went to Google something, I could see the flight information right there.

They also provide graphs of the prices for the flights over time. I love this because it gives you a nice visual of what is going on with the price.

The graphs would show the change in price since you "saved" that flight. I would look for trends and waited until I thought they wouldn't drop anymore before I purchased the tickets.

See if the Airlines You are Purchasing From Offers a Price Drop Guarantee

Our airlines had a deal where if the price for the tickets dropped more than $50 CAD (about $36 USD at the time) they would honor the new price and refund you the difference.

The airlines we flew on (WestJet) has since ended their price drop guarantee. However, several other airlines have similar guarantees. Just make sure to read up on your airline's rules regarding this if you want to try to get some of the money back.

*To get this you may have to purchase your tickets from the actual airline's website. That is what we did after using Google Flights to research flights.

Be Flexible With Your Travel Dates

This is key when trying to save money while flying to Europe. We knew what month we wanted to take our honeymoon during, but hadn't decided on the exact days. So when we looked at tickets we saved flights to our Google Flights that were different days of the week.

Google flights will also let you know if different days will be better to fly out on. It will do this even if you don't input different days for the same week. This is handy as it will still show if flying out on that Tuesday is better than Wednesday, etc.

The only thing we were pretty sure about was that we wanted to have a red-eye flight to London. We did this so we could sleep on the plane and avoid jet lag.

Since we were flexible on our dates we chose a flight out on a Wednesday. Which was the cheapest day for us to fly out. I know for some people this would be a little inconvenient. However, since Kiefer had just graduated and my work was very flexible, it worked out well for us.

Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays were all days that we saw cheaper flights. Really, a key way to save money flying to Europe, or anywhere really, is just thinking about what times won't be as busy at the airport.

For example, it makes sense that tickets would cost more on a Friday than a Wednesday since Friday is at the end of the week and people are trying to take their vacations then.

Another thing to be conscious of is holidays, flying out around holidays will always , in my experience, be more expensive.

Try to Avoid Airlines Fees

Kiefer and I somehow managed to pack three week's worth of clothes in our carry-on luggage. All we had was our carry on bags and two "Garment bags".

Granted, we did cram a backpack into one of Kiefer's bags so that we could bring back anything we bought while we were traveling. Needless to say, our packing skills paid off as we didn't need to check any baggage with our airlines! Which helps save on airline fees.

Make sure you check with your airline(s) to make sure that your luggage is a carry-on size if you wish to avoid checked bags fees.

Also, if not enough people have checked their bags, airlines will ask people to check their bags at the gate, usually for free! This is usually what I would do for my work trips and I've never had to pay for it.

The only thing to consider is that if you check your bag at the gate, but have another flight you booked separately, you might need to get your bag at the next airport before continuing to the final destination. Due to this, we do not do this with trips where we are taking more than one flight.

Something else to consider is that when you are booking your flights be sure to check the "airline fees" or "tax details" before finishing your order. This is important because you may end up paying enough in fees to end up paying more than a different flight would have been.

If the airlines has a lot of fees consider looking at another option that may have a slightly higher initial ticket price. Maybe their seat selection will cost less, or they have free Wi-fi. While the company with the less expensive initial ticket price is going to charge you extra for some of these items.

Be Flexible With Where You Fly Into

We started our honeymoon in Sorrento, Italy, so we needed to make it to the Naples area. However, instead of just searching for flights from Seattle to Naples or Vancouver, B.C. to Naples we looked for flights from Seattle or Vancouver to other airports around Europe then booked our second flight separately.

We ended up deciding on flying into London Gatwick Airport, Heathrow's less intense little sister. Other cities you should look into when trying to find the best deal are Copenhagen, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, and Reykjavik.

These will vary depending on the city you are flying out of. So when you are using Google Flights be sure to use the map tool to look at other airports.

Something to consider is that flights between countries in Europe are VERY affordable in comparison to flights between states in the United States. If you weren't able to catch an inexpensive direct flight see if there is an airport in a different country or city that will cost less to fly into. Then be sure to check flights from that airport to the airport you want to ultimately end up at. Some flights are as low as $25!

For example, I searched for flights from Seattle to Rome and was given a fare of $429 per person before fees and taxes. That "flight" was 22 hours long as it had a 10 hour layover at Gatwick airport.

No thanks!

With those same dates, I could fly from Seattle to London Gatwick Airport for $255 per person before taxes and fees, then fly from London to Rome for $60 and only have to spend as much time at Gatwick as I needed to switch flights. So a total of $315 before airline fees and taxes. $114 less than the "direct" option, and without the long layover!

Don't Just Rely on Travel Websites to Show You the Lowest Rate.

Make sure that whenever you find a flight that you are interested in on a website or service such as Google Flights you also check that airline's website for their price. Sometimes using the airline's website will get you an even lower rate. This also applies to hotels.

Sign Up for Frequent Flyer Programs

We do this for every airlines we fly on. It is a slow process building up the frequent flyer miles, but eventually, it will pay off. You can use the points/miles to purchase upgrades, hotel reservations, or even flights. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the ones that you use regularly. You don't want to miss out on free things!

Optional: Get a Travel Rewards Card

Kiefer and I got the Capital One Ventureone card before we left. (I am not affiliated with them, I just have loved the perks of the card). With this, I only had to spend $1000 in three months at the time to get $200 off travel expenses. We used the $200 signup bonus for our flights to discount them further.

For the $1000 we needed to spend in three months we used the card to prepay for things for our vacation. Such as our hotels and our tours. It was all going to be things we were going to be purchasing anyway. So we didn't feel guilty putting the money on the credit card. We just paid it off with our regular debit cards after a few days.

Another reason we got a travel credit card was because they offered 0% interest for 12 months. Which was a major draw since we weren't exactly sure how much money we were going to spend on our trip.

And let me tell you, it was definitely more than we estimated.

Okay, like way more. Oops. But, our thought process was that we only were going on one honeymoon so might as well make it big.

So having that extra time to pay off our overspending on our trip without having to worry about interest was definitely a huge perk!

As a note, there are other great travel rewards cards out there, but this is the one that I am most familiar with. Just do your research and see what works well for you and your spending if this is something you decide to look into.

Bonus for those living near the Canadian Border

When the Canadian dollar is down compared to the USD, head across the border to fly out of an airport there. We flew out of Vancouver, Canada instead of Seattle, and ended up saving a few hundred dollars. This worked because the Canadian dollar was $1.39 for every USD. So we saved almost 40% on our flights booking them through Canadian websites.

So, there you have it. Our top tips we used to help us save money while flying to Europe for our honeymoon. Hopefully these tips can help you save money on your next vacation to Europe, or really anywhere.

What are some of your favorite tips or tricks?