Buy a plane ticket as cheaply as possible. How to buy profitable air tickets. Where is the best place to buy plane tickets?

The issue of half-price flights worries many people. After all, only a few travelers manage to save on travel. Although any passenger who sets a similar goal for himself will be able to find cheap tickets. Let's learn about the nuances of this procedure and find out the secrets of budget flights.

Today, people who do not fly regularly are wondering where it is more profitable to buy plane tickets: at the airport or on the website. Travelers who spend a third of the year in the air are unanimous in their opinion: booking and purchasing a seat on board online is the most economical option. Shopping on the Internet is convenient, because you book a suitable seat on the ship, do not risk losing your travel card at the most inopportune moment, independently adjust the price range of offers and choose the route. Online registration is an additional bonus.

Today, experts call the best online booking sites aviasales, Yandex.Air tickets, buruki, onetwotrip, skyscanner.

To use this service, just go to a search engine and enter the name of the desired portal. We list the following sites where you can find the cheapest plane tickets:

• Yandex.Air tickets;
• buruki;
• onetwotrip;
• skyscanner.

Moreover, it is appropriate for a person who intends to truly save money to use several Internet generators at once. By comparing the proposed options, you will quickly find the optimal method. Here it is advisable to use clarifying criteria to find the right flight for an affordable price.

However, there are certain tricks that beginners do not know about. Such services remember the user who made the request. In addition, modern operating systems allow search engines to accurately determine to such programs the location from which the request was made, the type of computer, and the OS distribution. Purchase aggregators also use this information to differentiate the price range of offers.

Accordingly, in the future, marketing tricks and psychological techniques are practiced here with the aim of forcing people to purchase seats at a slightly inflated cost. Use incognito mode or clear your cache regularly to see actual airline deals. And yet, such generators are the best way for people who do not know where and how to buy the cheapest air tickets. User reviews about the work of such programs are usually positive - here you can quickly select the desired flight at a minimal cost.

Saving options

Now let’s decide when you can buy the cheapest plane tickets. In this matter, airline employees recommend early booking. After all, purchasing a seat on a plane three to four months before departure helps reduce the nominal cost of the flight by a third. Airlines set the highest price for travel 14–21 days before the flight. Accordingly, if you want to save money, it is advisable to refrain from purchasing during this period. a link to such a service of low-cost carriers is provided.

However, sometimes it is appropriate to act in exactly the opposite way. Resort routes require the availability of last-minute tickets, and here the answer to the question of when is the best time to buy discounted air tickets is the last 48 hours before the plane departs. True, such situations require the passenger to have experience in analyzing airline offers and subscribing to the targeted mailing list of these promotions. As for prices, such air tickets sometimes cost an order of magnitude less than face value. For example, a last minute flight to Tunisia will cost 6,700 rubles. against the average cost of a trip on the same airlines of 59,800 rubles.

Time intervals

Continuing the topic of saving on booking time, let's take a closer look at when it is cheaper to buy plane tickets: on what days of the week, dates and times. According to airlines, flights are especially booming on Friday evenings and weekends. The popularity of these flights also contributes to an increase in the cost of flights. So, when time permits, it is advisable to book a seat on a flight that flies on weekdays.

Having figured out how many days before departure it is better to buy tickets, it is appropriate to take a closer look at the time of the flight. The traditional influx of passengers, and, therefore, flight prices increase in the morning and evening hours. Choosing to travel at lunchtime or overnight will result in small savings. Try to adhere to these rules when time and situation permit.

Airline offers

Many people are interested in when is the best time to buy plane tickets for the summer in Russia so that it is inexpensive. Considering the surge in consumer demand for such routes already in March, employees of carrier companies advise booking seats in the winter. This recommendation is especially useful for passengers intending to purchase tickets under discount programs. Don't forget that purchasing a ticket during the peak tourist season will cost half as much as purchasing in advance.

In order to improve their image and develop a customer base, airlines periodically run promotional offers, offering discounts on flights to popular destinations. Such actions of the carrier can save up to 30% of the fare. To make sure you don't miss out on a great deal, ask your airline to send you email newsletters. In addition, try to book a round trip - this moment makes the price of the flight lower by 2-3%.

We are looking for charters and low-cost airlines

Cheap flights are offered by tour operators. True, there will be certain nuances here. You will either have to purchase a package tour, which includes a round trip, or catch “hot” offers a day before the planned departure of the ship. In addition, the geography of routes here is limited, as a rule, these are resort destinations. In addition, such flights are delayed and rescheduled - after all, at the airport the dispatcher gives preference to regular flights.

Many tourists use the services of low-cost airlines and fly charters in order to save money

Planning your own route allows you to combine several domestic flights with an international flight. That is, you fly directly to the desired country, choosing a cheap direct route. And then you use the services of local low-cost airlines to get to the desired point. Such schemes allow you to save up to 40% of the cost of a regular flight offered by airlines. A similar scheme is appropriate when flying within your own country.

Ways to fly cheap

Traveling with connections helps you save a third of the cost of your trip. This method is appropriate for long flights, especially when the passenger uses the stopover function. This concept means downtime lasting more than 24 hours at a temporary location. In such situations, airlines compensate for such inconveniences by providing overnight accommodation and meals. That is, the traveler will be able to walk around the country where the transfer is planned, and then safely fly to their destination, significantly saving on the cost of travel.

Transit flights using the stopover function are a good choice and save money

However, when planning your trip in this way, do not forget that in European countries you will need a temporary Schengen visa, so it is advisable to create a route that will allow you to avoid unnecessary costs for paperwork. In this case, the number of transfers does not matter - the main thing is that the flight is convenient for the passenger.

Sometimes it is appropriate to think about false transit - purchase a ticket for a long-haul flight with a connection, where the point of temporary stay will become the city you need. However, travelers find a lot of disadvantages here. Here they talk about the need to check in luggage to a transit point, the inability to fly back on the same flight, and the mandatory knowledge of tariffs and base points of the required airlines. Although some tourists speak positively about this opportunity.

Another way to buy a cheap plane ticket is to search for flights in the desired direction from other cities in your country. Moreover, the cost of a flight from the provinces is usually slightly higher than similar offers from capital carriers. Study the schedule and cost of trips from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg - perhaps you will find an economical and convenient route.

When purchasing air tickets on the Internet, use anonymizers and disable location-detecting services. Keep in mind that prices for flights from different countries over the same distance vary. Look for flight options that offer bonus miles. After all, such an offer allows you to save on flights, hotel rentals, and transfer orders.

The accumulative bonus miles program is a great way to save on your flight

To take part in such a program, you will need to register on the carrier’s portal and provide the required details of the purchased ticket. It also becomes useful to clarify the business partners of the airlines - after all, today, working on co-branding programs allows you to accumulate miles by making daily purchases in the supermarket and paying for them with a partner bank card. Sberbank of Russia and Alfa Bank cooperate in a similar way with the Aeroflot group.

Affiliate programs of booking aggregators are a good option for saving money. This offer is valid for the aviasales service. You register, make a purchase using a referral link, and receive an amount in your personal account that becomes the equivalent of several percent of the transaction.

Finally, when you see a ticket on sale at an unrealistically low price, hurry to purchase it. Don't forget, these company offers disappear quickly, so don't hesitate to purchase. Even when the program fails and the indicated cost does not correspond to the real price, in the worst case scenario, you do not risk anything.

Today, experts call the best online booking sites aviasales, Yandex.Air tickets, buruki, onetwotrip, skyscanner.
Buying an electronic ticket is much more profitable than purchasing an air ticket at the carrier's ticket office
Purchasing a last minute ticket reduces the cost of a flight by almost ten times
It is best to purchase flight tickets 3 - 4 months before the planned departure date
Airline promotions and bonus programs are a good way to take advantage of offers and save on your flight.

Tips for the most cunning travelers. In this article we tell you how to buy a cheap air ticket online. We share proven methods for buying cheap air tickets that we use ourselves. We teach you how to use airline aggregators to find an inexpensive plane ticket yourself.

We hope that this article will help you travel a lot and inexpensively.

1. Use special search engines for cheap air tickets (aggregators)

Forget about buying tickets through the box office or by typing “cheap s7 air tickets” or “cheap Aeroflot tickets” into search engines like Google or Yandex.

Savvy travelers have long switched to searching for cheap air tickets through airline aggregators.

The operating principle of aggregators: you set the direction and the site itself begins searching for tickets immediately among all major agencies, booking systems and among more than a hundred airlines. All search results are displayed on one page, and you can compare and select the tickets that best suit you by price and flight time.

Note : It often happens that buying a ticket on an aggregator website is more profitable than directly from the airlines. For some this may seem strange and implausible.

Therefore, we explain: The fact is that when you connect to an aggregator, for example, Aviasales, well-known companies provide access to special rates. Therefore, when searching for tickets using airline aggregators, discounts, promotions and special rates for specific dates and destinations from many airlines are taken into account. This helps you find a cheap air ticket much faster.

Not for the sake of advertising, but for the benefit of: The most reliable airline aggregators are Aviasales and Skyscanner. These are the ones we use when searching for cheap air tickets.

Advice : use 2 sites at once when searching for a cheap ticket. The difference in price may not be significant (2-7%), but it will save you money.

Photo © janjf93/pixabay

Tips from airline aggregators for finding a cheap ticket

Each aggregator has additional tools to make it easier to find a cheap air ticket. For example, Aviasales has a bunch of useful additional features: a price calendar, a subscription to track price changes, cashback, a low price map, and a “difficult route” function. We like Skyscanner's advanced (non-specific) search. Read more about these miracle tools below.

Low price calendar

The low price calendar allows you to see price dynamics for a specific destination throughout the year. The cheapest tickets are highlighted in green.

Flexible search allows you to track months and days with cheap air tickets. Sometimes a difference of one day can allow you to buy a ticket at a big discount.

Try to choose your destination and city yourself, set the duration of your stay, etc.

Low price calendar from Aviasales

See the extended version of the cheap air tickets calendar.

Subscription to track price changes

Airfare prices rarely remain the same; they change every day, every hour, every 15 minutes. In order not to sit and track prices every day, the aviasales service has developed a subscription to track prices for specific dates or flexible dates.

All you need to do is enter the correct postal address and enter your travel parameters.

After subscribing, you will receive emails with information about the dynamics of price changes (by how much the price of air tickets has increased or decreased) and how much the ticket costs now. The letters also contain small tips (whether it’s worth buying now or whether it makes sense to wait for lower prices).

Note : We prefer to receive notifications through the Aviasales application, since it is not always possible or willing to check email. You can install the application using the link for Android or iPhone.

A convenient thing, especially if you are looking for cheap tickets for specific dates. You can try the form on the Aviasales website yourself: enter the route you are interested in in the search and leave your e-mail in the special form on the left.

Subscription form on the websiteAviasales

Low Price Card

An excellent service for those who want to travel, but do not know where to go. After you specify the departure city, a map opens with the cheapest prices from the specified city.

On the right are filters that allow you to filter out unsuitable options based on price and visa (Schengen, without a visa, with a visa). Prices can be viewed both one way and return. You can set the length of stay and the expected time of travel (summer, winter, autumn, spring or a specific month).

Low price card from Aviasales

To change your search options, click on the map or this link. The map will open in a new window with search options on the right.

Difficult route

For advanced travelers, Aviasales and Skyscanner have a special opportunity to create a complex route. This tool allows you to create a route with a transfer for more than a day (for those who want to see the transfer city using a transit visa), flights with an open route (different arrival city and next departure city).

What's the point? Drawing up such routes allows you to find a plane ticket cheaper than buying a ticket for a regular (simple) flight. For example, we found tickets along the route a couple of times Moscow → Bangkok → Ekaterinburg(the plane flies to EKB with a transfer in Moscow), which were 4-5 thousand cheaper than a ticket for a simple route Moscow → Bangkok → Moscow. You can buy such a ticket to EKB and safely get off in Moscow, saving several thousand rubles. Thanks to Etihad Airways for this glitch.

To avoid misunderstandings, here are a couple of route examples:

• Simple route: St. Petersburg → Moscow → St. Petersburg; or Moscow → Tivat → Moscow.
• Difficult route: Moscow → Hong Kong, Hong Kong → Bangkok, Bangkok → Moscow; or St. Petersburg → Paris, Paris → Madrid, Madrid → St. Petersburg.
• Flights with an open route (Open-jaw): there Moscow → Berlin, back Berlin → St. Petersburg; or there Moscow → Rome, back Milan → Moscow;

Main plus complex routes - an opportunity to visit several cities in one trip and at the same time save money.

Main disadvantage : It’s difficult to catch a cheap ticket this way. Such failures do not happen so often, the main thing is to find them in time.

Create a difficult route on the Aviasales and Skyscanner websites, you might get lucky (just don’t forget to click on “difficult route”).

Example of filling out the “difficult route” form

Advanced (non-specific) search

3. Buy your ticket at the right time

There are 3 periods of time when the opportunity to buy a cheap air ticket increases:

• One year before the trip
• 2-3 months before travel (50-60 days)
• A few days before departure (high risk - not a guarantee that a cheap ticket will be found)

No one guarantees that at this time the price will be the lowest, it’s just that most often during these periods the prices for air tickets are low.

Off-season is the time for cheap air tickets. Flights on holidays (Christmas, New Year, May holidays, etc.), during the high season (summer, winter) are always more expensive. One way to buy a cheap ticket for such days is to buy your ticket as early as possible.

Best days to fly. Sometimes a difference of one day can allow you to buy a ticket at a big discount. According to statistics, it is better to look for a cheap air ticket with a departure on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tickets for the end of the week (Fri-Sun) or Mon are usually more expensive.

The cheapest tickets mean inconvenient arrival and departure(night, early morning) when getting from/to the airport is difficult (there is no public transport).

Advice: Don't wait, airfare prices are volatile and won't stay low forever. If you find a good air ticket and the price suits you, buy it!

Photo © Oliver Mallich/flickr.com

4. Remember the 2-ticket rule

Buying a round-trip ticket is always more profitable than buying a one-way ticket. Savings can reach up to 30%.

5. Divide and conquer: international flight + local airlines

It will be cheaper to buy a ticket to some major hub (major airport), and then continue on local airlines.

Large hubs are usually located in the capital of countries. For example, hubs can be the airport(s) of Moscow (all three), Dubai, Bangkok (Suvarnabhum), London (Heathrow), Madrid (Barajas), etc.

Example for the route Moscow → Bali:

• A ticket Moscow - Bali costs from 27 thousand rubles.
• A ticket Moscow - Bangkok costs from 13 thousand rubles. + ticket Bangkok - Bali from 4.6 thousand = 17.6 thousand rubles.

Main disadvantage: you need to find tickets on your own where the transfer between flights is not too long (take into account the change of airport, if any). But it’s better to spend 2-3 days in the city to take a break from a long flight and see the sights.

6. Khitri: leave early

A direct flight is often more expensive than a flight with transfers. Therefore, we are cunning and look for a plane ticket with a transfer in the city we need.

Let's say you want to get to Riga. The cheapest ticket from Moscow to Riga will cost approximately 7,300 rubles. If you pretend that you are not going to Riga, but, for example, to Oslo, then the cheapest plane ticket from Moscow to Oslo with a transfer in Riga will cost about 6,000 rubles. Just get off at the stop earlier.

Note : The main thing here is not to forget that luggage must not be checked in until the final destination. If you only have hand luggage, then the problem disappears.

The main disadvantage of the method – You won’t be able to buy a round-trip ticket. If you are going to cheat, then buy a separate ticket “there” and a separate ticket “back”. Cause: By skipping one of your arrival airports, you give the airline the right to cancel your ticket.

If you are planning to look for cheap tickets in this way, we advise you to find out:

• Which airlines fly to your desired city;
• Which airlines are based in this city;
• Which destinations do these airlines fly from your desired city at the lowest fares?

It won't take long to find this information. May Yandex, Google and holy Wikipedia be with you.

Try playing with directions and directions yourself.

7. Leave your suitcase at home and travel on low-cost airlines

Photo © Robert Orr/flickr

Low-cost airlines are budget companies where you can always buy a cheap plane ticket.

Flights are usually short, and payment only includes a seat. Low ticket prices are mainly due to the lack of service: no food, paid baggage allowance, etc.

How to fly a bow cruiser correctly:

• Leave the extra stuff at home and travel light. Low-cost airlines carry luggage only for an additional fee. fee (sometimes the fee may be more than the cost of the ticket).
• Use low-cost airlines to get to Europe. For a long time now, many European and Russian low-cost companies have been plying between Europe and Moscow and St. Petersburg.
• If you are from Moscow or St. Petersburg, then it is better to buy a ticket departing from the nearest European cities (Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, etc.). As a rule, here you can buy a cheap air ticket not only to Europe (€ 10-30), but also to other destinations (Israel, Turkey, America, etc.).
• Many low-cost airlines allow you to explore Europe or Southeast Asia for pennies. Therefore, do not limit yourself to a trip to one country and feel free to build a complex route.
• When buying a ticket from low-cost companies, carefully read the information about the ticket: what is free and what is paid. Pay attention to the size of your hand luggage.

Popular budget companies:

Asia- Air Asia, Nok Air, THAI Smile, Firefly, etc.

Europe- Wizz Air, airBaltic, Air Berlin, Vueling Airlines, Ryanair, etc.

NearEast- Air Arabia, AnadoluJet, Flydubai, etc.

Our favorite search engines Aviasales and Skyscanner cooperate with many low-cost airlines, so right now try to find a plane ticket for a budget company.

8. Check the ticket from a neighboring city

If you live in Moscow (or near it), then you can safely skip this advice; your neighbor has a chance to find a cheaper ticket, but it’s small.

For everyone else, before you buy a ticket, check the cost of a plane ticket from a nearby city.

For example:

• If you are used to traveling from St. Petersburg, then pay attention to flights from Helsinki or Moscow.
• For residents of Chelyabinsk, Magnitogorsk, Perm, it makes sense to look at tickets departing from Yekaterinburg.

9. Remember the miles

Photo © manuchi/pixabay.com

A method for those who often fly with the same airline or the same alliance.

All airlines have a loyalty program that allows you to accumulate miles and bonuses. They can be exchanged for a discount when purchasing an air ticket or for an upgrade from economy to business.

What you should pay attention to:

• Under what conditions are miles accumulated and how much do you get for purchasing one air ticket?
• Scope of the program: within a specific airline or extends to the entire alliance;
• Validity period of miles and bonuses (for many companies, all miles expire after a year or two);
• Where and on what you can spend miles and bonuses. Some programs allow you to spend bonuses not only on buying tickets, but also on hotel bookings, car rentals, spa treatments, etc.;
• Does the program provide for crediting bonuses from purchases made using a credit or debit card? For example, with Sberbank cards you can accumulate bonuses from Aeroflot. Tinkoff Bank has an All Airlines card.

Photo © geralt/pixabay.com

10. Don’t be scared by the low price: you found the wrong tariff

Sometimes programs and people malfunction and suspiciously cheap air tickets appear on the Internet.

The main rule: I saw a ticket with a low price - buy it.

You shouldn’t call the airline or agency and ask “is this price really?” As soon as an error is reported, the tickets disappear. So it is in your interests and in the interests of all humanity that no one finds out about this mistake.

Minus way - big risk. The airline may cancel your ticket. The money will be returned in full and you will have to look for a new ticket. It is also not possible to return a ticket or change dates, since in this case the airline will learn about the error.

Note : Just in case, collect proof that you bought and paid for the ticket, and it was issued. Save and print all documents: confirmation email, screenshots of tickets being available in booking systems; You can also issue a bank statement with a transaction about debiting money from your account, etc.

If complications arise on the part of the airline, you can prove that the contract of carriage was concluded, and in this case the airline does not have the right to unilaterally terminate it.

11. Imagine a baby

Photo © Donnie Ray Jones/flickr.com

This trick does not always work and not on all sites.

The meaning of the trick: When searching for an airline ticket on the Internet, indicate your baby and get a discount (for babies< 2-х лет покупать билет не нужно). Просто при регистрации на рейс скажите, что ребёнок заболел, остался с кем-то из родных и т. д.

How to check air tickets purchased online

For those who bought an air ticket online for the first time and for simply suspicious citizens, there are several ways to check the authenticity of the air ticket:

1. Use the service Realticket.rf
2. If you buy from an unknown site, check its age https://whois.net/. Fraud sites do not last long (a month or two).
3. Go to the official website of the airline and check the ticket in your personal account.

Photo © JESHOOTS/pixabay

Useful travel links - services that make our lives easier

Hotel price comparison - Hotellook. Everyone has heard about such famous sites as Booking, Agoda, etc. As a rule, prices for the same room differ depending on the site. Well, Hotellook collects price information from all such sites and shows you the prices in one place.

Offline maps - Maps.Me. We found the app purely by accident a couple of years ago. The main advantage (in our opinion) is detail. In Vietnam, Maps.Me found such secret paths to attractions that are impossible to find on Yandex and Google.

Travel insurance - and. They work on the same principle as AviaSales: you select dates, and the service looks for insurance for all its partners. We like the service because we don’t have to crawl through all the websites, visit insurance companies and compare prices.
Services work with large companies such as Ingosstrakh, Allianz, Alfa Insurance, Liberty Insurance, VSK, ERV, Rosgosstrakh, etc.

Car rental abroad - and. Trusted car rental sites. MyRentacar operates throughout Russia, including the resorts of Sochi and Crimea, as well as in Montenegro and the Czech Republic. Economybookings.com is a global brand and operates worldwide.

Transfer to/from the airport – . This is an international car transfer booking service. Sometimes it helps and helps you get comfortably from the airport in an unfamiliar city (country). Prices are at the same level and/or lower than local taxi services.

Tatyana Andropova

flies about 15 times a year

There are three types of sites for searching for air tickets:

• airline websites,
• agency websites,
• aggregators.

It is most profitable to look for tickets through aggregators, for example through aviasales.ru - this is the most famous of the aggregators, and prices there are usually lower than others.

Method one: directly from the airlines

Almost all major airlines have websites. With their help, you can buy a ticket online directly from a specific carrier.

Several websites of popular domestic companies:

• aeroflot.ru (“Aeroflot”);
• rossiya-airlines.com (“Russia”);
• utair.ru (“UTAir”);
• pobeda.aero("Victory");

Tickets appear on these resources as follows:

The airline sets the number of seats on a specific flight.

Based on the number of seats, the same number of tickets is generated in the reservation system.

The booking system is connected to the company’s website, so tickets appear there immediately after they are generated.

The cost of air tickets is calculated using complex mathematical formulas. Their price includes:

• basic tariff;
• taxes and fees;
• airport maintenance costs;
• aircraft operating costs.

The cost is also affected by:

• direction;
• date of purchase of the air ticket;
• demand for transportation;
• class of service;
• the amount of baggage allowed for free transportation.

If a passenger needs to return or exchange a ticket, he interacts directly with the airline.

The carrier is responsible for flight delays and cancellations. In case of cancellation or rescheduling of departure, the airline must notify you in a timely manner. In case of flight delay, passengers are provided with:

• soft drinks when waiting more than 4 hours;
• hot meals - more than 6 hours;
• hotel - more than 8 hours during the day and more than 6 hours at night.

If a passenger wants to return or exchange an air ticket, or correct errors in his first or last name, he will have to contact the airline.

pros

You will not encounter fraud.

You buy a ticket directly, without intermediaries. If problems arise, you will only have to deal with the airline.

Minuses

Not all airlines can purchase tickets through their websites. This is especially true for Russian carriers.

There is no way to compare the cost of a ticket with the prices of other companies.

If the airline does not operate direct flights, the passenger will have to look for connecting flights on other resources.

If the airline is foreign and does not have representative offices in Russia, then returning and exchanging air tickets will be problematic.

Some foreign sites are not even translated into English, let alone Russian.

Method two: on agency websites

Agencies are intermediaries between the passenger and the airline. They enter into contracts with carriers and sell tickets based on them. This allows the carrier to save on sales and attract more customers. The agency receives a commission.

When searching on agency websites, the user sees all possible flight options, including those with transfers. Here are the most popular sites:

The final price of a ticket consists of the cost that the airline sets for the agency and commissions.

If a passenger needs to exchange or return a ticket, he will no longer contact the airline, but the agency. But cases of flight cancellations and delays still fall on the shoulders of the airline. She is still obliged to inform passengers, provide drinks, food, etc.

pros

You can compare the cost of air tickets from different carriers.

Routes with transfers are offered.

You can set the maximum docking time.

Minuses

Returns and exchanges often require an additional fee, and the process can be lengthy.

In case of problems, the passenger is forced to interact with both the agency and the airline.

Method three: through aggregators

Aggregators or metasearch engines are sites that interact with airline and agency booking systems. In fact, they do not sell anything, but only search for tickets and redirect to the selling site.

Here are the most popular metasearch engines for 2019:

It is profitable for airlines and agencies to work with aggregators, because their work increases sales volumes. Search engines receive a commission for selling air tickets.

pros

The search is carried out across hundreds of resources simultaneously, so there is a wide choice.

The same ticket can be sold on several sites at once. The aggregator compares prices and offers the cheapest option.

The list of air tickets also shows flights with transfers.

Usually, aggregator websites have additional tools that help you “catch” a profitable ticket or simply understand on which days and for which destinations tickets are cheaper.

Minuses

There are no cons. The aggregator simply helps you find a profitable ticket, and the purchase in any case takes place on the website of the agency or airline. You have nothing to lose from the fact that you use an aggregator.

The cost of a plane ticket is initially determined by the airline. When calculating it, all costs of organizing the flight are taken into account.

If the carrier sells tickets through an agency, their price may be:

• like a carrier, when he separately pays commission to the agency;
• lower when the agency purchases them in bulk at special rates;
• higher when the agency makes a markup.

However, different agencies may have different prices. It all depends on the list of airlines they work with and the terms of cooperation.

We asked users of our VK group on which sites they usually look for air tickets. Here are the results:

Aggregators are in first place, which is not surprising. Prices may vary among agencies and airlines, but aggregators are needed precisely for this purpose, to choose the most profitable one from all the options.

Most popular aggregators

If you have read this far, then you are probably already convinced that it is most profitable to search for air tickets using an aggregator site. But which one exactly? Let's list the most popular ones.

Aviasales

And if the very principle of purchasing online is new to you, then read. It describes in detail where to click, what data to enter, how to pay and what to do with all this later.

And a couple more articles

Sign up for airline alerts

Don't forget to monitor carriers' websites. Sales are usually held in February - March and October - November. During such periods the servers may be down. But a little patience, and a cheap ticket is in your pocket. And some airlines offer to send messages if the price drops. Agree so you can buy the right ticket.

Subscribe to Telegram channels

To search for profitable offers, use Telegram channels. Information about discounts comes in the form of a personal notification. It’s better to subscribe to several at once and monitor them, comparing prices. Here are three useful channels with cheap air tickets: Samokatus, Travelradar and PassOnBoard.

And of course, use cheap air ticket 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. These search engines also have convenient price charts and calendars. With their help, you can move the date of your trip and save a significant amount.

Most of these search engines have mobile applications.

2. Clear cookies and cache

If you have already looked for cheap air tickets, the aggregator or airline website has remembered both the country of departure and the approximate cost of travel. As a result, you may see the old price even if the tickets have become cheaper. In addition, the site will rush you and assure you that there are almost no seats left on the plane. Even if this is not true at all.

5. Buy tickets in advance

It is more profitable to buy tickets in advance. Airlines typically open sales 330 days in advance. But, as practice shows, the most optimal booking time is 50–60 days before departure.

The fact is that when sales start, the program is guided by last year’s prices, and then demand determines the price and, as a rule, it decreases. A couple of months before departure there are not 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 people buy tickets in the middle of the day. So book your flight late at night or early in the morning. There are not many visitors to aggregators, demand is falling, prices are starting to creep down.

6. Keep documents handy

Carry your passport details with you at all times. It is not necessary to carry a passport with you. It is enough to take a photo of the necessary pages or write down the data in notes. Special offers usually come at the most inopportune times. And cheap tickets will most likely not survive until the evening. So when planning your trip, be prepared to book your tickets at a moment's notice. And, of course, don’t forget about the money on your bank card.

The ticket price directly depends on the flow of tourists. During holidays, school holidays and high season, the cost of flights usually increases. So be sure to check prices for other dates. Sometimes departures within a couple of weeks are several times cheaper.

Thus, a ticket to Asian countries departing at the end of December is almost twice as expensive as at the beginning of the month.

And don’t shy away from traveling in the off-season. Firstly, it's much cheaper. Secondly, there are no crowds of tourists or queues at museums. For example, everyone goes to Europe for the New Year holidays. It is much more profitable to fly there in early autumn.

8. Buy round-trip tickets

Buy tickets in both directions at once, don’t delay until later. Firstly, when you buy round-trip tickets you save about 20%. Secondly, remember: the closer the departure, the more expensive the 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. Don't limit yourself to the capital

If you want to get to France, for example, you don’t have to fly directly to Paris. Look at tickets to neighboring cities: sometimes you can get there much cheaper than to the capital.

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

So, are you wondering when airline tickets are on sale?
Perhaps someone will exclaim, sales are rare, just like holidays. To some extent, those who say so are right, except that sales of air tickets, unlike holidays, are not at all predictable.

An air ticket sale is simply a promotion by an airline that has discounted its air tickets for one of two reasons:
Reason for sale 1. The airline has a shortage of passengers on a specific route and one of the fastest solutions is to make a significant discount on air tickets to this route
Reason for sale 2. The airline decided to establish itself more strongly in a specific direction, i.e. attract more passengers than before. Discounts on air tickets are the best way to increase passenger flow.

And yet, when do airline tickets go on sale? If you are flying out, say, in a week or two, then the likelihood of air tickets on sale for your desired destination is virtually zero. If you decide to buy an air ticket solely on sale, then it is best to start monitoring sales 2-3 months before the planned departure.

When purchasing air tickets on sale, you need to take into account that you will be very limited in time. Those. the air ticket must be purchased before a specific date; as a rule, each sale indicates the beginning and end of the sale. Plus, air tickets on sale have restrictions on travel dates. Those. we can say with almost 100% certainty that an air ticket purchased on sale must be used within specific dates. Each sale mentions an initial departure date before which you cannot depart and a return date after which you cannot return. Of course, you can choose both departure and return dates outside of the sale dates, but in this case the airfare will be more expensive since you only get a discount on one-way airfare.

When selling air tickets, you need to take into account the following nuance: the cheaper the air ticket, the less chance you have of having time to buy it. During a sale, a simple rule applies: if you are satisfied with the price, then immediately book your flight ticket. A delay of even 5-10 minutes can cost you the fact that you simply won’t have time to buy the airline ticket you like. The number of air tickets for each sale is limited, and thousands of people monitor these sales every day.

Another point that you need to know during a sale is that the lower the price, the greater the likelihood that there are only a few such air tickets. This is a standard advertising gimmick. An airline discounts its airfare and let's say you're looking at an almost gigantic 70%-80% discount. Tempting right? Many sites are picking up the news, the airline is receiving a new influx of customers, but only two or three lucky ones manage to buy tickets at such a low price. Why only two or three? An airline ticket sale never specifies the exact number of discounted airline tickets; the sale only lists the plural or singular number. Those. One discounted air ticket is on sale, or cheap air tickets are on sale with a 70% discount. How much is two air tickets? That's right, these are already air tickets. This is what the other side of some overly cheap and very tempting airline ticket sales looks like. By offering two or three airline tickets at a huge discount, the airline gets a ton of free advertising on thousands of travel sites.

How to become that lucky person who managed to buy a discounted air ticket during the next air ticket sale? There are two options:
Method 1. You can check airline websites every day to see if there is a new airfare sale. Please note that the sale can start on any day and at any time of the day. Those. You may have checked a specific airline, closed the airline’s website in your browser, and literally 5 minutes later this airline had a sale. Just five minutes, is that fair? You checked the sites every day, but you only needed 5 minutes, and the discounted air tickets went into someone else’s pocket.

Method 2. Forget about all the airline websites and start going about your daily business, while not forgetting to write down the link to the sales monitoring site AviaSovet.ru. What is the AviaSovet.ru website? In addition to the ability to check air ticket prices for all airlines with one click of the mouse, it is also an aggregator site that uses a unique mechanism to collect air ticket sales from hundreds of airlines. All you need to do is check this site periodically; if some airline has a sale, news about it will appear on the AviaSovet.ru website in literally a matter of minutes. Sales on this site are updated every hour.
These are just airline promotions associated with a certain event or the well-known “last minute tickets”. You definitely need luck to get a good gift. You understand perfectly well that you can hope, because hope dies last. We do not recommend waiting specifically for the required sale - it is a risky business. Perhaps a “delicious promotion or sale” will not be your guest. Therefore, we analyze the cost of tickets from neighboring cities, looking at all airports located in the vicinity of the desired one as the place of arrival. We do not strive to get to our destination on a direct flight if the price with a transfer will be much cheaper.

Hence, the big minus is that the destinations and dates are too limited. Do not rule out the possibility that in the future you will become a participant in any suitable air ticket sale promotion. The search engine will find you the optimal offer in a matter of minutes, conveniently grouping the data and displaying it in a convenient list. And in addition, subscribe to news from all airlines you are interested in, then be sure to re-read them immediately so as not to be late.

There is a so-called “weekend rule” - on the night from Saturday to Sunday you need to be at the point of arrival. The price of such air tickets is much cheaper.

Well, if it so happens that the moment has come and you are about to fly out, but you couldn’t buy anything on sale, then it makes sense to use the tips below, which can often help you buy an air ticket even cheaper than on sale.
Tip 1. Buy tickets online as this is the cheapest and most convenient way. Check the information received from search engines, airlines and booking systems, because prices for the same ticket can change not only from the date, even the source and time of the search.

Tip 2. Fly with budget airlines, air discounters or low-cost airlines. Cheap, but cheerful. When purchasing air tickets, carefully study all possible pitfalls and calculate the final price, because if you unexpectedly pay extra, the cost of the ticket can be compared with the cost of a regular airline. It is better to book additional services along with the ticket.
Tip 3. Budget airlines in Europe have liberal pricing. If you live in St. Petersburg, then the airline Ryan Air, which flies from Finland throughout Europe with transfers, is worthy of your attention. The prices are often pleasantly surprising; sometimes air tickets are sold at a generally ridiculous price of 10-13 euros per ticket. Of course, there are significant restrictions attached to such prices, but otherwise it’s worth it. And then, don’t worry, for such a low price you definitely won’t be standing in the cabin of the plane, you will be given a personal seat. Among the low-cost airlines, it is also worth noting Wizz Air and Easy Jet. Often, cheap air tickets to Europe can be found on Air Baltic, Air Berlin and the Austrian airline NICI if your departure city is Moscow or St. Petersburg. Among the non-budget airlines, it is worth noting the German airline Lufthansa. Of course, the prices for air tickets are not like those of budget airlines, but the quality is correspondingly German! You can compare prices and search for all airlines with one click of the mouse on the AviaSovet.ru website

AviaSovet.ru – Search and compare prices for air tickets on hundreds of travel agency and airline sites in one click.

Tip 4. Purchase and book air tickets in advance. The principle applies to all airlines: “you buy cheap now - you fly in about six months.” The price of tickets purchased closer to the departure date can be several times higher. It should be taken into account that even the most expensive airlines, starting from February until April, form special price initiatives in popular resort places of the world for almost the entire year. This means that you can plan your vacation something like this: visit France for the May holidays, spend your summer vacation in Spain, and fly to Germany for Christmas, while buying air tickets several months in advance. Nobody forbids you to go the opposite way - to visit some country of your dreams out of season, grabbing a cheap ticket there, since there is no demand for it at this time of year.

Tip 5. Receive additional discounts by applying preferential rates: discounts for children, infants, students, groups of 10 people or more, this may include purchasing round-trip tickets or online using a credit card, etc. Find out about such opportunities on airline websites. A great option is to use bonus programs, although each company has different schemes. Some, often low-cost airlines, offer the purchase of a bonus card subject to certain rules for a specified time. Others allow you to accumulate miles and then exchange them for discounts or airline tickets. This scheme applies to promotions of Aeroflot, Lufthansa, and British air ways.
And finally, a simple rule: “Don’t expect that tickets will be given away completely for nothing, if in your opinion the offer is good, take it so as not to be left with nothing,” never forget to use our short tips and the AviaSovet.ru search engine

AviaSovet.ru is a new generation air search engine that allows you to find the cheapest air tickets.