Top Sites for Finding Travel Deals
For me, I have 2 different moods when the travel bug hits. Either I'm open to traveling anywhere and just want to see good deals, or I'm set in stone on a location and just need to find the cheapest dates. Below, I'm starting with the top ways I find cheap flights when I don't have a specific destination in mind.
Of course, these are just the ones I have personal experience with. If you have others you love, please leave a comment and share!
Want to travel but don't know where to go? Need some travel inspiration?
1. Travel Pirates
I love this website because it's an actual team of humans putting together informative posts and best the travel deals. You can filter by where you're departing from and whether you want to see all deals or just flights. I set my filters and bookmarked the page. No need to scroll through endless deals that aren't relevant to you - just browse those leaving from your city!Another great feature - posts are archived once the deals are no longer valid. They also revise the posts as necessary like if certain dates are running out or they found new dates at the same price.
There's also a Travel Pirates app but it's harder to filter by just flights so I don't use this much. Looking at their website is currently the way to go.
2. Kayak APP
Using Kayak's website is meh, fine. You can use their Explore feature but I find a lot of expired pricing which is frustrating when you think you've stumbled across a good deal. Their app though - that's where it's at!
I love that I can set up multiple Watchlists with different filters. Most of mine are set up under "Top Cities" as you can select a region/continent, a time frame like which month you want to travel, and any limits you have on layover stops. If you're open to anything, leave the filters off! It sorts by cheapest price first so this is a great app for all types of scenarios, like if you want to see all flights from your city or for something more specific like you want to go to Europe or Asia in December of this year.
My only qualm is again, sometimes you'll come across expired flight deals. I just like to check frequently so when prices refresh, I can make sure I'm looking at updated pricing.
3. Google Flights
Google Flights is another favorite. I admittedly use this site more for when I know exact dates (will discuss more later) but their Explore feature is easy to use and to me, has more updated pricing than Kayak's Explore.
You can also click around the map to see how prices compare from country to country or city to city. I love how interactive Google Flights is and if you select a flight, it will show you all the places to look through to get that exact pricing. For instance, Kayak will just show you Kayak's prices unless you're on web and select to compare to other sites, but you can't actually buy tickets through Google Flights. They exist to share information and will have links for you to book directly on the airline's website or any other sites that have the same pricing (Kayak, Orbitz, Expedia, etc.)
Also, when you click through to the other site, it will have all the info saved so you don't have to re-enter dates and things you just found.
4. Other notable mentions
There are a few other sites that I peek at occasionally, but the two I'm mentioning are very active on social media. I follow both @airfarewatchdog and @SecretFlying on Twitter. Reason being, AFWD's site is clunky to use. I don't like browsing it but I do like how frequently they find deals. Secret Flying's site is like a less-pretty version of Travel Pirates and the deals are usually similar so I just opt to receive SF's alerts on Twitter.Of course on Twitter, you can't customize to just receive Seattle alerts so it's not a foolproof plan. It does provide for coverage for my bases though. I can see deals in my phone apps, Twitter feed, and on the web by going to my bookmarks.
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