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1. Know the best time to book your ticket

There are two things to keep in mind: when you want to travel and when you should buy your ticket.

When to go?

In order to find the cheapest flights, you should generally avoid travelling during school holidays (in the UK and in your destination of choice) and popular tourist seasons (for example: from December to February for flights to New Zealand or flights to Australia, from June to September for flights to Cyprus).

When to buy your ticket?

When it comes to choosing the best time to buy your ticket, it all depends on your destination. Typical tourist destinations and long-haul countries, which are served by charter airlines are definitely the best for leaving until the last minute. This is especially true in terms of package holidays. In general though, it's best to reserve between 3 and 6 months in advance if you want the best price. As for cheap last minute flights (the infamous “seat sale”), they're rare and you have to be extremely flexible with your travel dates. Don't count on these to medium and short-haul destinations that are served by low cost airlines.

Note that some destinations rarely change in price during the year, as is the case for destinations with little competition, cheap flights to Pakistan, for example.

Finally, departures and return flights in the middle of the week (Tuesday/Wednesday) are generally cheaper: for example you can save up to 50% on flights to Malta with a low cost airline.

2. Get to know the prices: newsletters, social networks, fare alerts

This is how the real pros find their airline tickets!

Newsletters

Practically all airlines send out weekly or monthly newsletters announcing their latest flight promotions and package offers by email nowadays. Subscribe to your favourites and check them out to stay up-to-date with the latest deals.

Social networks

In the same way, by “liking” airline and travel agency pages on Facebook you will receive first-hand info about their promos in your newsfeed. Travel sites like liligo.com also use Facebook to spread the word about special promos and deals which shouldn't be passed up (cheap flights to Spain, flights to Thailand...).

Fare alerts

This tool is exclusive to liligo.com: email fare alerts. You tell us where you'd like to go and we'll send you daily emails with the best offers from your departure city. For example, are you searching for cheap flights to India for January? With an email alert, you'll be able to grab the cheapest offer the moment it's available.

3. Be flexible when choosing your travel dates

Flexible travellers are more inclined to travel cheap. It's all about comparing dates.

Search +/- 3 days

Even just a few days difference can change the price of a flight by tens or even hundreds of pounds. If you have two weeks off, don't necessarily search from Saturday to Saturday, look for flights departing on nearby dates (departing Monday for example) even if it means taking an extra day off or shortening your trip a bit. With low cost airlines, the price difference between weekend and weekday flights is enormous, so try taking-off on Thursday and returning Monday.

Last minute

Travellers who are really flexible can equally take advantage of blow-out last minute sales available on travel agent sites to tourist destinations (for example flights to Canada or flights to Turkey). This is the best way to find the cheapest tickets, unfortunately not everyone has the liberty to travel as they like!