Just realized I was booking flights all wrong for 3 years

I always searched for the cheapest flight from my home airport to wherever I was going. But last month I found a flight from London to Bangkok for $280 by searching from a different airport 2 hours away. The savings on just that one trip covered the gas and parking plus extra. I had been paying double for years because I never thought to check nearby airports. Now I always compare 3 airports before booking anything. Has anyone else found a weird airport combo that saved them a ton?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_wood601mo ago

Start looking at what you're not looking at, that's the trick. I did the same thing with car insurance a few years back, always just renewed with the same company because it was easy. Then I spent 20 minutes comparing three different providers and saved $400 a year. It's like we get stuck in these routines and forget that the obvious path isn't always the cheapest one.

thomas1051mo ago

That's a solid point @sam_wood60, routines really do blind us. But the real trick nobody talks about is booking two separate one-way tickets instead of a round trip. Did that for a trip to Japan last year, flew out of a smaller airport near me on a budget carrier and came back through a major hub on a different airline. Saved nearly $200 because the cheap airline didn't have a return flight that worked. Takes a few extra minutes to check but the savings add up fast.