Looking for a cheap flights? Use the information and links below to find cheap scheduled, charter, budget and last minute flights to make sure you get the best from your skiing holiday budget.
The internet is a great place to book cheap flights. You can quickly compare prices of no-frills, charter and scheduled flights, then make the decision that's right for you.
To get the best deal on your flights, the best advice is to shop around and be flexible. Here we give you some tips on how to get the best prices, together with details on the best web sites to use when looking for flights.
Where to find cheap flights
The consolidators and cheap flights specialists generally offer the cheapest flights, but a group of airlines, including BA, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa and Iberia, have joined together to offer cheaper flights via the Opodo web site (see below) to compete with them.
The airlines themselves sometimes offer cheap flights direct to the public - British Airways, Air France and KLM are all worth a look, especially if you're travelling within Europe.
If you want a cheap scheduled flight, check the top 5. If you have more time and / or want a cheap charter flight, check the others too.
Two quick notes before we get started. Firstly, there are a number of websites available now that compare the cost of flights across a number of websites and some of the budget airlines, Traveljungle probably being the best. However, the jury is still out on these websites. A number of independent tests have found that they do not always offer the cheapest flights, principally because they do not compare all of the websites. For now, we go the longer, but more reliable route.
Secondly, make sure you compare the price of flights including taxes. Opodo quote prices including taxes, all of the others quote pre-tax fares, adding the taxes later in the process. Why? We don't know. But to make sure you are getting the cheapest flights make sure you are comparing the bottom line post tax-prices.
Now the fun part. The following websites consistently offer the cheapest flights:
ebookers - is the online store for a 'pre-dot com' telephone based cheap flights specialist - Flightbookers. So it's not surprising that the website's best feature is the cheap flights search. It also offers hotels, car hire and even has a small selection of skiing holidays. It's a great place to start.
Opodo - is the web site set up by a number of leading European airlines to sell their late availability cheap flights seats direct, rather than through the other sites listed here. On the home page, 'Opodo Offers' gives you a target for your cheap flights to certain destinations and the quick search lives up to its name! Again they also offer a limited range of holidays.
Note: remember that Opodo quote cheap flights fares including taxes very early on in the process (the 'offers' prices quoted include taxes). None of the other search engines do this, so be sure you are comparing like with like, post-tax with post-tax.
expedia (uk) - this website gets around one million visitors a month and is one of the UK's biggest online travel companies. As you would expect a very good site that's always worth a look when searching for cheap flights, especially if you want accommodation too (or cheap flights, a hotel and a car). They have a good ski section during the season too.
As mentioned on our tips page, if you book an accommodation and flight 'package' with expedia it can work out 20 - 30% cheaper than booking them separately. (But don't buy their insurance - which is automatically added into the quote - it's up to 4 times more expensive than those on our travel insurance page. Click 'already have insurance' and buy elsewhere).
OTC - a quick cheap flights search engine and some excellent prices this website is great for long haul flights, especially to America. As with expedia, you might look at their short breaks section, where you can add a flight and hotel and get a discount on both. OTC also own the specialist ifyouski.com.
lastminute.com - always worth a look if you're looking cheap flights to a popular destination, they also offer skiing holidays and accommodation plus flight packages. A bit hit and miss though, sometimes you find great deals, sometimes you waste 5 minutes of your time.
Travelocity - uses the SABRE reservation system used by traditional offline travel agents to search for your cheap flights.It's 'Best Fare Finder' tool is great. 'Fare Watcher' is also a useful, if addictive, tool.
How to get cheap scheduled flights
(For cheap 'no frills' flights, see the separate section below).
Always search on more than one website for your cheap flights. It's not unusual for different on-line companies to have very different prices for tickets on the same flight - or for Opodo to be cheaper than Air France (who part own Opodo!).
It's usually cheaper to book flights as far ahead as possible. There are sometimes last minute bargains, but the cheapest fares usually sell out weeks before departure.
If the search engine allows it, use a 'city' in your departure and destination airport locations - such as 'London' and 'Zurich'. This provides the widest selection of airports and the cheapest flights.
Flights on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday usually attract a weekend supplement, so avoid these days if at all possible.
Tickets to America are usually cheaper Monday to Thursday. Flights to Europe they are usually cheaper Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Try to avoid the busiest times of the day.
Try to be flexible and check prices a day or two either side of your preferred dates.
Check the cost of flights with accommodation from an online travel agent. They often use their buying power to get cheaper flights than those available to the general public so, even with a hotel included, they may be cheaper than a flight-only price.
If your trip includes a Saturday night, you will be classified as a 'leisure' traveller, which will significantly reduce the cost of your tickets. If you can't include a Saturday night, it may be cheaper to buy 'back-to-back' tickets. This is where you buy two return tickets and only use one 'leg' of each. For example, if you need to fly from London to Zurich on Monday returning Thursday, you might buy a return ticket for Monday to Monday from London to Zurich and a return ticket from Zurich to London from Thursday to Thursday. Both include a Saturday night and so both will be at 'leisure' prices and the combined price may be cheaper than one Monday to Thursday return ticket. Airlines are unhappy with this practice - if they find out you are doing this they might try to exclude you from the flight. But it's not illegal.
If you are only travelling one-way, check the return fares too. Similar to back-to-back tickets, include a Saturday night to get the cheapest flights.
Compare fares on all airlines. For example, if BA have a special promotion to Paris, other airlines on the route will usually reduce their prices to a similar level. If you can't get the promotional fare, look at prices with other airlines flying the route.
Read the terms and conditions of the ticket before you buy. Most cheap flights are non-refundable and non-transferable.
The cheapest flights tend to be the earliest and latest on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you can, avoid bank holidays, weekends, Christmas and Easter.
Whether you're flying 'peak' or 'off peak', the cheapest flights are usually booked up well in advance. Try to book cheap flights at least a month before departure
No frills airlines price their seats according to demand, so the more popular flights become progressively more expensive as demand increases. Occasionally you will get last minute cheap flights, but usually the flight fills up as it gets nearer to departure date, and the prices rise accordingly.
Try to be flexible - check fares a day or so either side of your preferred travelling dates.
Book online for the cheapest prices (you will pay a premium to book over the telephone). The websites of easyJet and Ryanair also show the lowest possible fares or have a bargains section, giving you a target to aim at. But be aware that these websites do not add airport taxes onto your cheap flights until quite late in the process, so add £10 - 20 to initial quotes and look at the bottom line before you buy.
Be aware that the 99p flights advertised in the press are usually for a limited number of seats - often no more than 10% - on a limited number of flights. Also, they usually do not include airport taxes. Book these cheap flights early to avoid disappointment - seats on these deals sell out in hours. It's worth registering for the airlines e-mail alerts of special offers.
Check with consolidators, charter airlines and with the more traditional 'with frills' airlines, as they have bargains too (we have links above and below this section). One of the 1st Holiday Store.co.uk team recently saved over a hundred pounds per person on cheap flights to Portugal by booking with Air Portugal rather than easyJet.
Know exactly where you're flying to and factor any hidden costs of your cheap flights in to your buying decision. The budget airlines often reduce their costs (and therefore your fare) by flying to smaller airports. For example, both Ryanair and easyJet fly to Bologna in Italy. But ryanair fly to Forli, which is 37 miles from the city centre, whereas easyJet fly to the main Bologna airport, just 4 miles from the city centre.
Be aware that no frills airlines don't offer discounts for children, so they pay the same fares as adults.
Tickets can be less flexible than on traditional airlines. If you need to change your booking, easyJet levy a £10 fee plus the difference in the ticket price between when you booked and when you make the change! Ryanair have different pricing bands for their tickets - ranging from fully refundable to completely inflexible.
Check baggage allowances carefully, especially if you plan to take skis. The budget airlines have a low baggage allowance (on Ryanair it is 15kg and excess baggage is charged by the kilo).
If you are taking a short break - even just a couple of days - don't forget to take out travel insurance. It won't cost very much, but travelling without it could cost a lot more (see our ski insurance page).
Where you can, look at budget airlines operating from smaller airports - bmibaby, flybmi, flybe, jet2, and Air Berlin are amongst a growing army of smaller budget airlines offering cheap flights to a limited number of destinations.
- Again, where you can, look at flights from more than one airport. Make sure that you consider all of the airports within easy reach of your home.
