How To Know If You're Paying A Good Price For Your Plane Tickets

The myth of travel hacks, debunked

There's no secret formula for cheap flights. Here's the truth about travel "hacks."

• Airfares are constantly changing, making it difficult to determine a reasonable price.
• Expedia's new Flight Deals tool helps travelers find discounted airfares by analyzing millions of flights daily.
• Travelers can find good value by being flexible with their travel dates and considering nearby airports.

If you’re casually browsing for airfare, it can be really tough to know if the price you’re seeing is a reasonable one. Airfares change seemingly at random and without warning, and if you’re looking for a ticket on a route you don’t often fly, it can be hard to comparison shop. 

No matter what tools you’re using, however, it’s important to feel comfortable with the price in your gut. 

“You know what you’re willing to spend. If you see a price point and say, ‘hey, that’s not bad,’ you should buy it,” Loulu Lima, founder of the Texas-based travel agency Book Here Give Here, told USA TODAY. “How much of a betting person are you that it’s going to be lower than what you’re currently seeing and you’re comfortable with that number.” 

But there are some tools available, like deal alerts on Expedia and price tracking on other platforms like Google Flights, Hopper and Skyscanner, that can help a casual shopper understand the trends on the route they’re searching. 

Expedia recently introduced a new tool that helps find flight deals for travelers. To get a “good deal” listing, factors like the length of layovers and the number of stops are considered. Only one-stop or nonstop itineraries get a good deal listing, and prices must also be at least 20% lower than normal for the route. 

“What's unique about Flight Deals is the transparency and insight we’re giving travelers into the flight prices they're seeing,” Josh Templin, vice president of product for Expedia Group said in a statement. “We're using proprietary machine learning technology to analyze millions of flights daily and dozens of price-influencing factors, and we're sharing that information with travelers so they can make better-informed travel decisions. The result is a tool that makes it easier to get inspired, plan a trip and feel good about the deal you booked." 

The Flight Deals tool is available to members of Expedia’s One Key rewards program and includes a custom alert feature for routes you’re monitoring. 

Lima said she usually bristles at the word “deal” when it comes to flights, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t help her clients budget. 

“A deal means a discount, it devalues what you’re getting,” she said. “You want something that is going to give you the best value for your dollar is what you want to talk about.”  

For Lima, a good value means paying a price that feels right for a flight you’re comfortable with. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to pay a little extra to avoid a long layover or skip a redeye, for example.  

Being flexible in your travel planning can also help unlock value, too. 

“Adjusting your travel days, such as flying on a Tuesday or during off-peak seasons, can further help you achieve significant savings on both flights and accommodations,” Laura Lindsay, global travel trends expert at Skyscanner told USA TODAY in a statement. “Flying into or out of nearby airports is a smart strategy for finding better flight deals and potentially saving on airfare. It offers travelers more flexibility and the opportunity to explore different airport options, especially if you live in an area with multiple airports nearby or are flying to a destination with more than one option.” 

Lima said that using price tracking and prediction tools can also give shoppers a good idea of airfare trends and help you get more familiar with what to expect on a given route. 

She added that if you’re really unsure, it never hurts to reach out to a travel advisor. 

“Hire them and let them do the work for you. That’s why we’re here,” she said. “Time is a commodity and you need to know what your time is worth. Hire somebody to do the legwork for you.” 

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.