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Inflation is slowing, but travelers can still feel the sting of higher flight prices. Finding cheap airfare to your desired destination at your preferred time can be challenging. For people with flexible schedules looking for great deals and inspiration, the array of planning tools available can be confusing and intimidating.

Fortunately, TPG is here to help by sharing some of our best tools, tips and tricks for finding the cheapest and best airfare. We’ve covered the topic of cheap airfare extensively and included several tried and true methods our staff use to book travel that may work for you too.

TPG also regularly posts deal alerts on some of the best airfares to help you find cheap flights.

Here are our favorite tools, tips and tricks for securing cheap airfare deals. Be sure to click on the relevant links for more details.

Google Flights

Google Flights Probably the most intuitive, simple and useful flight search tool on the internet. Its many features and functionalities help you identify the best flight prices and options for specific flight times and flexible itineraries.

You can also search based on what TPG recommends as the best time of day to book flights.

While you’re exploring Google Flights, test out the map search feature. It can show you the least expensive fares for various destinations, which can be a great source of inspiration. You can click on the date grid to view flight prices for entire months at a time, and also view the price graph to see overall pricing trends on your target itinerary.

Another useful feature is Google’s Price Tracker. A tracker appears on the search results page, allowing you to track overall prices on the route you’re searching for. When you’re signed in to your Google Account, you can receive notifications for price changes, new offers, and the end dates of trips you’re tracking. You will receive price change notifications directly to your inbox, preventing the need to manually search multiple times a day in the hope of a price drop.

Note that while this tool covers almost all airlines, it will not show ticket prices on some carriers.

Google Flights also recently added a price guarantee program; This means you may be eligible for a refund if the price difference falls. If the “Guarantee Badge” is next to the itinerary and the fare drops by more than $5, your flight is eligible for the program. You can earn up to a total of $500 per Google Account across all eligible travel plans in a calendar year, and you can have up to three Open Price Guaranteed bookings at any one time.

For more detailed information on how to use Google Flights, check out TPG’s how-to guides for some features and tips:

Google Explore

If you’re flexible with your destination but still looking for the best flight deal, Google’s “Explore” functionality is a great tool. inside Google Explore, you can be specific or flexible with your travel dates. All you need to do is enter your departure city – you can leave the return open-ended – and the map will show you various flight options and their respective prices.

Or, if you have a specific region in mind, you can also include a general location, such as “Europe” or “Caribbean.”

Points path

What if you prefer to use your airline points instead of actually paying for your flight?

While there are many sites available to help you find award availability, there is one tool that helps you with your Google Flights search. This Points path The tool is a great web browser extension within Google Flights. It lists award prices next to cash fares.

This tool will tell you which transferable points can be used with the airline you’re considering and will also recommend whether you should use miles to book a flight (ensuring you’re getting the best value). or should pay cash instead.

Related: How to use the Points Path extension to compare cash and award rates in Google Flights

The tool is free, and once you’ve found the best working guide, you can book your flight as you normally would — either with Google Flights or through an airline’s loyalty program for award reservations.

Points path Makes it extremely easy to find reward availability within the tool you’re using. All you have to do is download the Points Path extension (currently available with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge). Installation takes less than a minute, and you can find great deals — for both paid and award fares — within Google Flights.

Additional flight-comparison sites

Google Flights is a great site to use. However, there are some other sites that work similarly with slightly different features. Just note that though Southwest fares are now included with Google Flights, Southwest fares are not pulled on many of the following sites.

Kayak

One of the original rental-comparison sites, Kayak A one-stop shop to find the best price. The site pulls fares directly from airlines and lets you compare them with third-party booking websites like Expedia and Orbitz.

Kayak also offers several advanced filter options. You can search by specific airline, airline affiliation, aircraft, layover airport and more.

If your dates are flexible, there’s also a calendar grid that allows you to view prices up to three days before and after your desired dates. You just need to make sure to include it in your search.

Kayak also goes a step further than some other sites and displays the price of a round-trip flight with two different airlines — one for departure and one for return — if the price is, in fact, cheaper.

Momondo

Momondo Great for those who love visuals. If your travel dates are flexible, it’s very easy to find the least expensive dates at a quick glance. The site offers several filters and allows you to set price alerts if the rent drops. Momondo will also advise whether now is a good time to buy or if you should hold off based on recent rental trends.

Unfortunately, however, if a round trip is booked, the site will not display the cheapest airline for the departure and return; It will list the fares of only one airline. This means you want to search as two one-ways, which can be time-consuming.

Skyscanner

If you are looking for cheap flights to any destination, Skyscanner The site is for you. Just enter your departure city and select “Browse everywhere” in the “To” field. It will deliver a list of destinations in order of price.

The site is incredibly easy to use and can open your eyes to new parts of the world if you’re destination agnostic.

Skyscanner also allows searches based on specific routes and multicity flight options. But just like Momondo, the site will display fares for only one outbound and return airline.

Flight Deal Alerts

If you want to receive real-time deal alerts without having to search for them yourself, follow along Flight deals on X A great option. The team constantly searches for deals from multiple destinations, and you may be lucky enough to find deals from your home airport.

To get the most out of it, you should set up your X account to receive push notifications from The Flight Deals. This means that whenever a team posts, you will receive a notification on your phone. That way, you don’t have to keep checking X.

Subscription Sites

Many independent travel websites promise to find you the cheapest deals available. However, not all of these websites are suitable. Some are flat-out scams that will lead you to travel agencies selling expensive tickets with hidden fees or extensive surcharges.

When searching for deals, TPG scans several websites that typically provide reliable airfare alerts and highlighted offers.

Many of these websites offer premium paid subscription services that may be worth it, depending on your appetite for travel and penchant for bargains.

Signing up for regular email deal alerts from these websites and subscribing to their X Feeds can provide regular travel inspiration and alerts to snag deals at your favorite destinations.

Some of TPG’s favorite airline deal websites:

Note that many of these deal websites include links to “hacker fare”-type itineraries that include multiple airlines, circuitous routings, and extended layovers and travel times.

Discounted fares on these flights may not include mileage rewards features or be eligible for status points. So read the fine print and travel guide closely on these deals.

Assuming the details work for you, scanning or subscribing to airfare deal websites can be a great way to find super-discounted flight prices that don’t appear on Google Flights or other standard booking platforms.

Related: TPG’s deals page

Book directly with airline websites

When trying to hack the system and find the best “secret” airfare deals, people often neglect to look for the place where many of these deals originate: the airline itself.

Virtually every airline features a deals section on its website. Many of these so-called deals can be unpredictable. However, sometimes airlines offer incredible, short-term deals that will likely be fully booked before they even reach some deal-aggregation websites.

For example, Southwest has recently been offering several sales where tickets must be booked directly on the Southwest website with a specific coupon code.

You can find the latest by regularly checking the deal pages on the websites of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines And United Airlines. Many airlines also offer package deals combining hotels and rental cars; However, you should value this individually, as the actual value of these offers may vary.

Subscribing to airlines’ newsletters about deal alerts can be another way to find the latest offers, but you risk inundating your email inbox with destinations you may not be interested in. However, these push alerts may prompt you to take a last-minute vacation that you couldn’t afford.

It’s also worth a look for airline miles and status promotions; You can use this to maximize your rewards. Usually, you’ll need to book these deals directly on the airline’s website.

Southwest Airlines is a special case for finding airfare deals because its fares are generally not available on many third-party websites. For example, you can book Southwest flights on the Kayak for Business website but not on Consumer Search. It might be worth double-checking any fare deals you find with the same itinerary mapped out on the Southwest website.

Especially when booking directly on an airline website, branded airline cards can be a good call for airline-specific earning status and rewards. Options include the United℠ Explorer Card and Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (See Rates and Fees).

Related: Book Travel Through Portal or Directly? How to decide

Optimize credit card usage

Booking tools can help you find the most economical flight option for your next trip, but it’s also important to use the right credit card to pay for the flight. There are a variety of top travel rewards cards that can fit the bill, but a few stand out:

Related: The Best Credit Cards for Airfare Purchases

Bottom line

Finding the lowest airfare can be more art than science, but a number of strategies and tools can help you in this quest.

Everyone’s travel goals and circumstances are different. However, using one or more of the above strategies will put you on the right track to snagging a much-wanted trip without such a high price tag.