Once you’ve picked a destination, the next thing to do is look into flights. It’s best to use incognito tabs on your browser because everything you search and every airline website you go to will be shared to always keep the ticket prices high in order for the airlines or third party companies to get more money. If you open an incognito tab (by clicking the 3 vertical dots under the X to close the web page, and selecting new incognito window) it will prevent your computer from remembering the websites you visited and the things you searched, thus being able to stay up to date on the ever changing airline ticket prices. Continue to check in on them about once a month during the year previous to your trip.
Picking an airline or a third party website to use can be stressful and tricky. At first, I tried a lot of third party websites like Kayak or Expedia and soon noticed the trend of WOW Airlines always having the cheapest flights. Based out of Reykjavik, Iceland, WOW Air is the type of airline where you can find $100 tickets from LA to London easily; but it’s also the type to charge you extra for everything. For example, we decided to fly from Toronto to Reykjavik, and instead of a long layover we are staying two nights there, and then flying into London, our total cost for two people for all those flights came out to $645; but no matter how cheap the flights are they trick you a bit by making you then pay extra for your seat, meal, luggage, etc. Since we are on a tight budget we didn’t pay for anything fancy or even a meal, just buy food & snacks at the airport and take it on the plane, for us a few hours of discomfort in a small seat is worth the price when you can then use that money to do fun activities later in your trip.
If WOW Air doesn’t reach your desired destination, I suggest using it to get to the correct continent and then use a small European airline to get where you want to go if it’s too far by train. There are many small European airlines that fly from country to country for very cheap. I suggest Ryanair, Norwegian, Wizz Air, or easyJet to find very cheap tickets for country hoping in Europe.
For a fairly full list of inexpensive international airlines, visit: https://www.smartertravel.com/2017/06/19/international-discount-airlines/
If you aren’t in a big hurry, I suggest while searching flights, tell the website you are open to any dates and view their calendar of prices. The calendar will show dates and prices for the next few months for your destinations. You can then see when the cheapest one is and schedule your trip around that.
Don’t forget for your flights, download the airline app when you book your flight, check into your flight minimum of 24 hours before it boards, and continuously double check your flight details to make sure you know where you’re going and there are no changes!
Good luck and safe travels!
UPDATE: In 2019 WOW Air shut down and is no longer available. Other options include Kiwi, Momondo, Scott’s Cheap Flights, Agoda, Hopper, & Skyscanner.
Allison's Adventures 