Travel

How to find the best price on summer flights

If you're looking to book your flight for summer vacation, 5 On Your Side has a few ways to help you save.

Posted Updated

By
Keely Arthur
, WRAL consumer reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — Last week’s Consumer Price Index report revealed plane tickets have shot up by 25% over the last year.

If you’re looking to book your flight for summer vacation, 5 On Your Side has a few ways to help you save.

Frequent fliers all have their tried and true methods for finding flights.

"I try and look for one flight no connecting flights, minimize problems," Michael de Pasquale told us after landing at Raleigh-Durham International for a business trip.

"I look for deals. When a deal comes through, I go ahead and book," said Ulrike Adam as she waited for a flight to Germany.

But this summer, expect finding deals to be tougher. Fuel costs are up, airlines are dealing with staff shortages and more people are ready to start traveling again.

"We’re very close to being fully recovered," said Stephanie Hawco, a spokeswoman with RDU.

She said passenger traffic is back to about 90% of what it was before the pandemic.And back then, reasons for flying were evenly split between business and leisure. Now?

"We saw a big surge in leisure travel, so it’s well over 50% now," Hawco said.

If you’re looking for the best price on a flight to that vacation hot spot, try this from Scott’s Cheap Flights:

Do your standard search for a round-trip fare, but before you book search for two one-way fares.

Using different airlines for each flight might get you a lower price.

We tried it and got a few bucks knocked off a flight to Chicago.

Scott’s Cheap Flights says you’ll have the best luck doing this with bigger cities.

"So if you’re flying to New York, or Chicago or Miami, your chances are probably about 30% that you’ll save some money by doing this," says Willis Orlando, Scott’s Cheap Flights Senior Flight Expert.

And if you haven’t set dates for your summer vacation, Orlando says consider this: "If you can be flexible and travel the first two weeks of June or the last two weeks of August, you are almost guaranteed to save a ton of money."

Those dates might not work for families with kids that are ending or starting school, but we’ve got one more way to save for you.

Booking flights on a Tuesday or Wednesday will be cheaper than flying on a Monday or Friday.

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