Finding affordable flights will be considerably easier if you have flexible travel dates. Searching for flights exclusively on specified travel dates provides little possibility of finding that wonderful discount on your next vacation. Flying when it’s cheap may often save you hundreds of dollars, and sometimes it’s as simple as shifting your travel dates by a few days.
How to Find Low-Cost Flights with Variable Travel Dates
While there is no magic day to book a ticket, there are particular periods of the year and days of the week when flying is usually less expensive. This varies by market, but flying on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and during the shoulder seasons—late January to early March; May to early June; September to mid-November; and early December—is usually the cheapest.
Flight Search Engines with the Best Flexible Date Tools
This, however, is not an exact science, and cheap flights can appear at any time. Fortunately, there are several good apps available that will scan many trip dates at once, allowing you to always know when (and where) it is cheapest to fly. Here are a few of our favorite tools for finding cheap flights.
How to Find Cheap Flexible Flights Dates Using Google
- Pros: Quick, thorough filters built into the flex search and explore map.
- Cons: Price lag on occasion, restricted OTA pricing, and missing prices on some flights.
Google has introduced more search options after acquiring ITA Software, making it the greatest overall flexible date search engine. Simply select a departure location, an arrival city, and any desired travel dates to begin a flexible date search with a calendar view. It will then display a list of flights for those trip dates, as well as a variety of other search options that allow you to narrow down your search by the number of stops, airlines, price range, flight timings, connecting airports, flight duration, and even any potential bag costs.
Pro Tip: To search for flights from or to multiple locations at once, enter up to 7 airports in both the departure and arrival sections. Simply click the + sign to the right of the “Where from?” field.
Adjust the filters as desired, and then click the calendar icon in the “departure date” section to get two months’ worth of price at once. By clicking on the arrows on either side of the calendar, you can simply move through the months to locate the cheapest flights. Change the journey length that the calendar box looks for at the bottom left. Unfortunately, you cannot provide a trip length range, and Google will only search for a single travel length at a time. Because not all airlines sell one-way tickets for half the roundtrip price, it may be helpful to search for one-way flights in each direction first and then combine affordable dates in a roundtrip search.
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If your vacation dates are established, but you’re flexible on where you want to go, Google’s explore function is a great way to just browse where there are cheap flights on the map. Simply enter your departure city and travel dates—leave the arrival city blank or write in a broad region such as “Europe” or “South America” to get started. It will then display a map with prices from all over the world. You can zoom in/out and scroll across the world to discover low-cost flights on certain dates.
And, for the ultimate flexibility, input a departure city and select the “flexible dates” radio button when selecting dates. It will allow you to select any month in the next six months or all months. You can also search for a weekend, one-week, or two-week trip. With those settings, the map will then display the best pricing from your city to locations all around the world.
Although I believe Google is the best overall flexible date search tool, it is not without flaws. It does not provide rates for all airlines, most notably Southwest, and frequently overlooks other carriers such as Aeromexico and Turkish Airlines. On rare occasions, the pricing is incorrect and will jump during the final step. Other search engines that link to smaller online travel agents (OTAs) or airline sites that save the best discounts for direct reservations may occasionally have lower pricing.
You can try ITA’s matrix for a more extensive search, but for a simpler and faster search engine with many of the same filters, I would start any flexible date search with Google Flights. However, don’t forget about the others, or you can miss out on a cheaper flight.
How to Find Cheap Flexible Dates Flights Using Kayak
- Pros: Combines airlines, conducts extensive OTA searches, and searches for holiday travel.
- Cons: Slow, filters don’t always change results, and prices lag.
Kayak is a wonderful search tool for people looking for a low-cost flight with a variety of trip lengths. Enter your departure and arrival cities (up to three in each) to begin a flexible date search. When you select your dates, you’ll see color-coded approximate pricing on the calendar, but for a more flexible search, select “Weekend” or “Month” from the left-hand column.
Over a 4-week period, the weekend search allows you to look for cheap flights departing Thursday, Friday, or Saturday and returning Sunday or Monday. The month search lets you specify a start date for the search as well as the length of your trip. This might be a fixed number or a range of up to 7 nights. You can, for example, select a trip length of 7 nights, 6-8 nights, 4-11 nights, or 26-33 nights, but not 10-20 nights. It will then search for flights for the next four weeks from the start date and display the results in a calendar view.
You can then refine your search by adjusting a number of criteria on the side, but be aware that these filters may not always appropriately update the rates in the calendar. If you’ve done a roundtrip search, you’ll select a departure date first, and then a variety of dates for your return flight will be presented to you. It will provide you with a specific flight once you’ve selected dates and a price. Always click the “find more options for the same dates” link in the bottom left of this pop-up. This will show you more flight options, some of which may be cheaper.
How to Find Cheap Flexible Dates Flights Using Skyscanner
- Pros: Simple flex search in list form, includes most airlines and a large number of OTAs.
- Cons: No filters before searching, and the price on the calendar is not always accurate.
Skyscanner is one of the world’s most popular search engines. It was among the first to include low-cost carriers in its search results, and it continues to offer a very clean and simple search for passengers with flexible travel plans.
When selecting dates, select the “whole month” tab for more flexible search results. This will allow you to select any month or simply the cheapest month. A calendar will then show, allowing you to compare fares for both the departure and inbound flights. These results may not be completely accurate because the price for the return date may depend on the departure date, but they are a wonderful method to see when inexpensive flights are available. If you want, you may view the findings in a bar graph format.
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Once you’ve selected your dates, you’ll be sent to a list of flights where you may refine your search by eliminating any airlines, trip durations, or a number of stops. The ability to pick “only show airlines with flexible tickets” is a useful filter on Skyscanner. With the recent uncertainty surrounding travel plans and restrictions, having flexible tickets when booking a future flight might provide you with much-needed peace of mind.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to exclude airlines or specific itineraries before performing a flex search. Before beginning your search, the sole filter available is to select just nonstop flights. This means you won’t be able to exclude any low-cost carriers until you get to the particular dates landing page.
Skyscanner is fantastic for its simplicity, and it covers several OTAs that sometimes have lower tickets than Kayak. However, because there are no filters accessible before you perform a search, it’s frequently easier to locate exactly what you’re looking for by conducting a broad search on Google or Kayak first and then checking Skyscanner to see if there is lower pricing.
How to Find Cheap Flexible Dates Flights Using Momondo
- Pros: Searches the most OTAs and frequently offers the best prices.
- Cons: It takes a long time to display all results, lacks a real flex search, and necessitates investigating restrictions on smaller OTAs.
To be honest, Momondo isn’t the best at flexible date searches, but I included it on our list since it is the finest meta-search for discovering the very lowest costs available. This is due to Momondo sourcing the most OTAs—some of which you may need to do more research on your own to be aware of any limitations when booking. It is safe to book with any of these OTAs, however, different change/cancellation rules and additional fees may apply. Also, some of the smaller OTAs may experience ticketing delays, and prices are not guaranteed until your flight is ticketed.
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Momondo, which is handled by Kayak, features a similar flex search function where you can search for and compare affordable flights by selecting “weekend” or “month.” You can also enter particular dates and pick the option to show flights on any date within a three-day range of those dates. When you conduct a date search, whether flexible or exact, you will be presented with a bar graph displaying the cost over a three-week period surrounding your chosen travel dates. This graph is not always totally correct, but it might be a useful indicator to check alternate dates if you notice a large fluctuation surrounding your dates.
My best advice is to start by searching for dates with the greatest prices on another search engine, like Google or Kayak. Then, use Momondo to double-check those precise dates to see if you can locate a lower price. Momondo frequently offers hundreds of dollars off the same flights as other sites, particularly on Star Alliance carriers. Sometimes the price difference is negligible, and you’ll have to consider whether it’s worth it for the potential disadvantages. Just make sure to check the fine print on the actual booking site regarding any additional alteration, cancellation, or international transaction costs before you purchase.
Flexible Dates Flights Search Tools on Airline Websites
Aside from meta-search engines and OTAs, many airlines feature excellent flexible search options on their own websites. Although these searches do not allow you to compare other airlines, you may find lower tickets on an airline’s website than anywhere else. In certain situations, such as Southwest, it’s the only location to find such airlines’ fares. Because these flexible date searches are frequently buried or difficult to find, I’ll provide links to and/or explain how to locate the most common airline-specific flexible date search tools below.
How to Find Cheap Southwest Flights
Southwest fares are not available anyplace else, therefore it’s always a good idea to check its cheap fare schedule in addition to other search engines. On the home page, there is a link just below the arrival box.
How to Find Cheap JetBlue Flights
JetBlue offers a flex search function that is slightly concealed. A link can be found by selecting “Best Fare Finder” from the “Book” header. It will initially display only the current month, but if you scroll down, you will find other month selections. Although you can’t merely go to a certain month, you can eventually see JetBlue’s whole booking calendar on one website.
How to Find Low-Cost Delta Flights
Delta’s flex search is likewise concealed on the company’s homepage. Begin a calendar-view search by checking the “my dates are flexible” box. Delta’s flex search offers an unusual option that allows users to exclude Basic Economy tickets if desired.
How to Find Low-Cost Flights on United
Before searching, go to United’s main page and check the “Calendar Shop” option. Then, simply select a month and the length of your vacation, and you’ll be sent to a flexible date calendar. Start your search from the advanced search page and select the “My dates are flexible” checkbox.
How to Find Cheap Alaska Airlines Flights
Click on the “all search options” box directly below the “adults” dropdown field on Alaska’s webpage. From there, you may begin a search with a calendar view by selecting a “Flexible dates” checkbox. After performing an exact date search, you may convert to a calendar view by selecting the “calendar” radio button in the “view by” area on the left-hand side of the page when selecting flights.
How to Find Cheap Hawaiian Airlines Flights
A link to a “Price Calendar” can be found at the bottom of the search box on Hawaiianairlines.com. To view fares in a calendar view, click this link. If you like, you may switch to a bar graph chart.
How to Find Cheap Flexible Dates Flights On Spirit
To discover a monthly calendar on Spirit.com, start with a precise date search. This will initiate a one-week flex search. To switch to a month view search, click “month” at the top of the weekly view of fares. Using the arrows on either side of the calendar, you may switch between months.
How to Find Cheap Frontier Flexible Dates Flights
Frontier also asks you to first search for certain dates before showing you comparable costs for nearby dates on a slider at the top of the next page. Unfortunately, you cannot eliminate Discount Den fares from the calendar view; however, you will observe that conventional fares are usually only somewhat higher than the Discount Den fares displayed on the calendar view.
How to Find Allegiant Cheap Flexible Dates Flights
Allegiant, like the other ultra-low-cost carriers, demands you to first search for certain dates. On the following page, on the top right of both the departure and returning flight sections, there is a “calendar view” button. To view fares on a flexible date calendar, use these options. When you book a round-trip flight with Allegiant, you often get a little discount.
I’ve just mentioned the major U.S. airline websites that allow you to view fares on a monthly calendar, but many overseas carriers have this function as well. Because many airlines only sell tickets on their website, it’s always a good idea to run a Wikipedia search for the airport you’re traveling from to see if there are any special airlines you should check individually.
How to Locate the Cheapest Flexible Flights Three Days Before or After Your Departure Dates
If your schedule allows, you may be able to locate cheaper flights if you look a few days ahead or after your travel dates. Please enter your departure and arrival airports, then choose your chosen flight dates; finally, select our flexible dates option and tick the box that states +/- 3 days. We will next take you to our flexible dates calendar so you can quickly compare pricing on nearby dates. Please keep in mind that the displayed rates were discovered within the last 15 days and may no longer be available; the only way to check live availability is to select a date and click show flights’, then compare various live fares.
How Can I Locate the Lowest Flexible Flight Throughout the Year?
If your vacation dates are extremely flexible, you may want to know the lowest flights available between two cities throughout the year. For instance, what is the cheapest flight from New York to Las Vegas over the entire year? This is possible with our flight finder in a matter of seconds.
Enter your departure and arriving locations first, then select flexible dates option, then check the box that says ‘whole year.’ It will then pinpoint the cheapest date combinations to fly in seconds on our calendar for the full year. This option is also quite helpful in identifying probable erroneous fares and is the quickest way to get incredible airline deals.
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