We hate searching for flights. Freaking haaaaate it. It seems like there are so many possibilities between searching for round trip flights and one-way flights and so many different airlines and there’s always that one that doesn’t deal with booking sites so you have to do a special search just on their website (we’re talking to you, Southwest–stop being so ridiculous)…So we went out and did the hard work for you. We found the best booking sites for cheap flights and compared them so you can wade confidently into the sea of possibilities and walk right back out again without a faceful of seaweed and salt water. Read on to see what we found.
Best Booking Sites for Cheap Flights: The Search
Here’s how we did it: We searched for round-trip flights to and from the same destinations (Austin to Seattle) on the same dates (August 22-26). That’s the control for all you science teachers out there. Let’s see how the prices stacked up, shall we?
Kayak search results look something like this.
Kayak
Kayak resulted in a flight totaling $211. What we liked about this specific booking sight was that the results offered the best prices not just with a single airline, but as separate one-way flights. That means the cheapest flight was on Frontier on the way to Seattle and Delta on the way back, which opens up a wealth of possibilities and means you don’t need to search for individual one-way flights. However, you still have to book those flights separately in separate booking windows.
Priceline resulted in slightly more expensive flights with the same exact airlines.
Priceline
Like Kayak, Priceline will couple one-way flights on separate airlines to find the best price. However, for some reason, the exact same flight pairing (Frontier and Delta) was $217 on Priceline. This site does, however, prompt you to try new dates if there are cheaper flights available within a few days of your search.
CheapOair suggests days, times, and prices for cheaper flights, which is nice.
CheapOair
In addition to suggesting alternate dates for cheaper flights, CheapOair actually shows you the price and dates of those available flights at the top of the page. Curiously, however, the site doesn’t seem to show all the same airlines. Delta, for instance, seems to be missing from the lineup. That doesn’t mean flights are more expensive–Results still show $211 for a flight to Seattle on Frontier and back on United–but it’s curious and may result in price gaps for other routes, so it might be worth it to compare to at least one other booking site if you use CheapOair.
Expedia only shows you round-trip flights on a single airline, which might bump the price a bit in some cases.
Expedia
Expedia, unlike the above flight booking sites, does not show individual flights with different airlines; you are limited to one airline for both the trip there and back. This is fine if you’d prefer to stick with the same airline for miles or baggage purposes (maybe you’d prefer an airline both ways that you know doesn’t charge for a carry on), but will probably cost you a few extra bucks in airfare. A round-trip flight for this example on Frontier is $216.
Google Flights has handy charts and graphs so we visula folks can easily locate the cheapest day to fly.
Google Flights
Not technically a flight booking site, Google Flights is still a great way to search for flights. And the cheapest. The platform searches for separate tickets so you have a better chance at the lowest price, and searches nearly all the airlines. The result is a ticket on Frontier and then Spirit for a total of $202. Price graphs and calendars also make it super easy to find a cheaper flight on another day, plus you can set alerts so you get notified if the price drops for a flight you’re watching. You’ll be sent to the airline website to book.
Skyscanner offers great tools to broaden your search and possibly cheapen your airfare.
Skyscanner
Also not technically a booking site, you can search for flights to and from airports near your destination instead of just where you live or where you’re headed on Skyscanner, meaning you can sometimes find a better deal on airfare. It showed multiple $211 flights, including with Frontier, Delta, Spirit, and United. And, like Google Flights, you can also sign up for price alerts to get notified when prices go up or down.
Skiplagged shows you flights to layover cities so you can sometimes pay less to get where a cheaper flight is already going.
Skiplagged
My new favorite site to search for flights, Skiplagged, searches not only flights to your desired destination but flights that pass through your desired destination, which means you might occasionally find a good price on a flight that doesn’t technically exist. In this case, there weren’t any flights like that, but if, say, you wanted to go to Charlotte from Austin, the booking site shows that one of the cheapest options (and not on a budget airline) is to actually book a flight to Orlando that has a layover in Charlotte, North Carolina. You still get to Charlotte, but for less. You just don’t board the last leg of the journey!
Tips and Tricks for Booking
We discuss lots more tips for saving on flights in this post about how to find cheap airfare, but another is to always check at least two booking sites or search platforms before hitting purchase. As you can see, different sites post different prices, so do your due diligence. When you do find the best deal, go to the airline website to book if possible. And don’t forget to check Southwest!
Have any of your own booking site tips or hacks? We’d love to hear ’em! Wander on!
Alisha is a freelance outdoor journalist and photographer based in Ogden, UT. She loves backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking and snowboarding (even though she’s terrible at it). She’s also pretty sure she’s addicted to coffee. alishamcdarris.com