In today’s post I share with you tips and hacks for nabbing cheap flights online irrespective of which part of the world you’re flying from – Nairobi, Kenya, or any other part of the world.
What's Covered in This Article
Search for flights in incognito or in private browsing mode
Any time you visit almost all websites today, you’re asked to accept the cookies policy.
In plain English, by accepting the policy you’re simply means allowing the website to tracking your activity.
Based on the cookies in your browser, the airline ticket site’s algorithms set the ticket prices based on your behavior on the site.
So if you repeatedly search a particular route, the algorithms interpret it as an increase in demand and increase the prices accordingly.
Furthermore, the more you keep searching that particular route but not purchase, the algorithms progressively increase the prices in the hope of scaring you into booking the flight quickly before prices get even higher.
So how do you get the cheapest tickets online and beat the airlines at their own game?
Always search for flights in incognito or private browsing mode.
If using Google or Safari to search, you enable incognito by hitting Command (or “Ctrl” if using PC) + Shift + N at the same time. For Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, hit Command (or “Ctrl” if using a PC) + Shift + “P”.
This action opens a new browser window where your information is not tracked since your cookies are reset (“ not remembered”) each time you re-open an incognito window, hence the flight prices are not inflated as you search.
Remember to close all your incognito windows and re-open a new one each time you’re performing a new flight search.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to go the incognito route, consider clearing your cookies or searching for your flights from a different laptop or computer to get cheaper air ticket prices.
Why I Roll My Eyes When People Ask How I Afford to Travel
Visit local airlines websites for your destination
Most OTA search engines do not list local airlines flights especially for remote destinations or less popular routes.
A simple search on Google will reveal some of these local airlines that may not be listed on the OTA sites.
Thereafter, visit the local airlines website and check for any possibilities of booking your flights at a lower fare or rate.
Book your flights as far out in advance as possible
If you have fixed travel dates and destination and there is a near-zero chance of you changing either, your best bet is to book your flight tickets right away.
The nearer the departure date approaches, the more than likely the ticket prices will increase
By booking your flight tickets well in advance, you can lock in the lower prices and use the savings for excursions and other similar fun experiences when you get to your destination.
Set fare alerts
This you can do on nearly all airline websites as well as OTA websites e.g. Skyscanner, Kayak, etc.
Setting fare alerts puts you on radar about any special offers, before they sell out and enable you to book cheap flight tickets.
How I Manage to Travel Soooo Much
Most airlines usually announce any special sales, deals, offers or promotions on their social media.
Make sure to follow and keep checking their pages especially around days like Cyber Monday, Black Friday, etc. because these deals usually sell out pretty fast.
Jambojet Promo Flight 2019 (And How to Book Successfully)
Subscribe to airlines newsletters so that you don’t miss out on any sales, offers and promotions.
Some airlines only share the deal alerts with their fans and followers. So if you’re not following or subscribed to their newsletters you could very easily miss out on a good deal.
For black Friday for instance, KLM had deals 30% off flights departing Nairobi provided you bought your ticket within the given period and paid for it by 5th December at the local KLM offices on James Gichuru road.
Kenya Airways also had several Black Friday deals on selected destinations.
I doubt if I would’ve learned of either airlines’ offers if I wasn’t subscribed to their respective newsletters.
Use your frequent flyer miles
If you’re not yet subscribed to the frequent flyer program or loyalty program of the airline you most fly, please do so asap.
This hack applies especially to those who fly or intent to fly frequently.
With your miles you can pay for either pay for a ticket fully or partly.
In my experience, you benefit more if you buy air tickets using miles directly at the airline offices instead of online.
With Turkish Airlines for instance, I once used 30,000 points for a return ticket from Nairobi to Istanbul by visiting the airline’s office and having their agents book the flight for me. The same ticket would have necessitated me to utilize 60,000 points if I had booked it myself online.
So check with your frequent flyer program and maximize your benefits accordingly.
Search for one-person flights first when booking group flights
Starting your ticket search with a one-person flight is another hack you can use to enable you get cheap flights if booking group tickets.
Most airlines usually inflate prices the moment they realize that you’re buying multiple tickets.
It is therefore advisable to first search an individual ticket to get a sense of the non-inflated price of the tickets.
Travel off season
Try as much as possible to avoid travel around the holiday season since every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to travel at around this time too and airlines know so. Hence they shamelessly inflate their prices to make a kill before the low season kicks in.
Save yourself the money, time, and headache by skipping dates around major events or festivals.
Instead, use OTA sites such as Tripadvisor, Expedia, Kayak, Skyscanner, etc, to figure out which days are cheaper to fly and get there earlier if you must attend the events, or skip them all together.
Off-season or shoulder season is the best time to travel as there are lots of flight tickets on offer and at discounted fares. You also get to enjoy your destination minus the crowds and at a cheaper price in terms of both accommodation and excursions.
Opt for a red eye flight
A red-eye flight is basically a flight on which a passenger doesn’t get much sleep because of awkward (usually super early or super late) time of the flight’s departure or arrival.
Creative use of red-eye flights can reduce the costs significantly — I literally halved the cost of a ticket to London by taking the cheapest most inconvenient flight of the day from Nairobi with a 2-day stopover in Istanbul.
Be patient
Fares tend to drop and rise intermittently at various intervals.
So if you’re determined to visit a particular destination but the ticket prices seem to be on the higher side, it may be worth your while to chance and wait just in case the fares drop in the future.
Towards departure dates, airlines stuck with large numbers of unsold tickets tend to drop their fares in between to rump up sales.
Be flexible with your travel dates and destinations
You’ve probably heard of the age old adage : chase the deal, not the destination!
Always be flexible with your travel dates and destinations.
Being flexible with your travel dates and destinations gives you the opportunity to snitch deals that you’d otherwise lose if you stayed fixated on the destination.
Besides, more popular holiday destinations will always have a higher fare price.
For instance if you compare the ticket prices in mid-February or December for travel from Nairobi to Mauritius and Nairobi to India there is a massive price difference because Mauritius is more popular than India as a romantic travel destination.
Fly on the cheapest day
Although there are several claims around the internet that if you book your flight tickets at midnight – Monday through Wednesday, you get cheaper air fares; or that Tuesday is the cheapest day to book flight tickets booking flight tickets, it’s better confirming those allegations by yourself through OTA websites such as Google Flights, Skyscanner or Hopper.
Skyscanner’s ‘whole month’ search tool for instance enables you to find the cheapest day to travel to your chosen destination.
They also have the option to search for flights to “everywhere” on either a specific date, a whole month or the cheapest month.
Also take advantage of the “other airports nearby” feature because sometimes a flight from a nearby airport can be a whole lot cheaper.
How to view prices across a month
- Select a departure and destination city (or airport)
- Select ‘Whole month’
- Click the green ‘search flights’ button
- The next screen will show you the prices of flights across the whole month. You can also view the month prices as in the form of a chart, by selecting the ‘chart’ tab
How to find the cheapest month
- Select a departure and destination city of airport (or search to ‘everywhere’ to see all your flight options from your departure airport, city or even country)
- Hit ‘Find cheapest month’
Follow the above steps and you’ll know for sure which date offers the lowest fare.
Identify the cheapest place to travel to
If you’re like me who’d rather follow the deal than the destination, then this hack is for you.
Use search engines such as Skyscanner to find out which destinations offer the cheapest flight fares, then plan your destination accordingly.
How to find the cheapest destination
- Under ‘from’ enter your departure airport, city or even country then under ‘to’, select ‘everywhere’ to see all your flight options
- Hit the green ‘search flights’ button to find cheap flights to anywhere in the world.
- Then select a destination of your choice from the list of cheapest places to fly to and book your tickets.
Try alternative airports and destinations
A direct flight out of Nairobi to Mauritius on KQ costs $900 return
One from Dar e salaam (1.5 hour flight away) to Nairobi costs $450 since the flight has a stop-over in Nairobi both on departure and return.
You can choose to take a bus for $3.5 to Dar or take a flight for $200 then fly from Dar to Mauritius return. As the flight returns from Mauritius, just get off at Nairobi and ignore the remaining leg to Dar.
Make connecting Flights your friend
Generally, the longer the lay over the cheaper the flight.
While layovers flights may not be the most ideal way to travel especially if you’re flying ‘cattle class’, in the long run, they are so worth it in the form of an extra virgin cocktail at that Mauritian beach or upgrade to an exterior room with a balcony on that cruise.
Airlines operating in Africa are not about to launch any budget airlines any time soon so if you are looking for the cheapest flights across Africa, its high time you ditched the direct flight for long-haul connecting flights which are significantly cheaper.
Speaking of connecting flights.
Check if it is cheaper for you to get off in your connecting city. For example. Say you are flying from Nairobi to London.
You can choose to take the shortest direct flight on Kenya Airways for KES 140,790.
Or go for the Air France option with a 3 hour layover in Paris for KES 86,564.
Apart from the cost savings associated with connecting flights and/or long layovers, it is also an opportunity to visit one more destination for no extra flight cost.
In fact, some airlines such as Emirates even have Stopovers on Arrival package prices for all Emirates passengers travelling to/via Dubai provided they ravel on at least one sector (either in or out of Dubai) should be on Emirates or, in the case of passengers originating from points where Emirates does not operate, on an airline with which Emirates has a special agreement.
Take advantage of airlines error fares
Airline error fares are usually due to glitches, human error, etc. by airlines.
Thus, this hack, like airline deals and sales, can only be taken advantage of if you hear about it in time and take advantage of it.
To benefit, make sure to subscribe to error fare monitoring websites such as AirFare WatchDog, Secret Flying, so that every time there is an alert, you get to learn about it.
Well, that’s it for today.
Let me know what your experience is like with cheap flights. Have you used any of these cheap flight hacks? Is there any other hack you’ve used that I didn’t mention above? Share with us in the comments below.
