8 Money-Saving Expert Tips From A Cheap Flight-Booking Pro

We all deserve a vacation every once and a while, but sometimes simply catching a quick glimpse of plane ticket prices can be enough to make us snap our laptops shut. According to Scott Keyes, founder of Scott's Cheap Flights — a service that sends cheap airline ticket alerts to users — we don't have to waste our vacation days in the name of saving money. There are plenty of ways for travelers to find affordable rates on flights to dream destinations.

Some of Keyes' best tips for booking cheap flights draw on pieces of age-old air travel advice, while others we've never heard before. His tricks involve both embracing common sense when searching for flight deals and going against it. Take a look ahead to read them all, then decide which ones could work for you. Time to finally use those vacation days to their fullest potential.

Book ASAP

"Flight prices tend to spike in the last few weeks before departure, so don't wait until the last minute to book. [For fall early trips,] booking by mid-August will likely be hundreds of dollars cheaper than waiting until late August or early September."

Last-Minute Bargains No Longer Exist

"For years, airlines would slash prices on last-minute flights in order to fill unsold seats. After all, once the plane door closes, any unsold seat is lost revenue. But about 20 years ago, they started to realize that most of the people booking last-minute flights weren't vacation travelers, but business travelers. Business travelers don't care what the fare is since the company pays anyway, so nowadays airlines tend to jack up the price in the weeks leading up to departure rather than slash the price."

Remember 24-Hour Cancellation

"There's a little-known but important trick travelers can use if they find an exceptionally good fare: the 24-hour rule. Federal regulation requires that airlines give consumers a 24-hour grace period after booking to cancel their flights without any penalty. (After that grace period airlines typically charge $150 or more to cancel an itinerary.) So if you find a great fare but aren't 100% sure you'll want it, you can lock in the price by booking and then decide in the next 24 hours if you want to keep it or not."


"There are a couple important caveats for the 24-hour rule: you have to book directly with the airline rather than an online travel agency, and it can't be for travel in the next 7 days."