Welcome, savvy travelers!
You’ve just landed on the one-stop guide for finding cheap flights from Philadelphia to any destination worldwide.
The internet is full of old flight booking advice like waking up early, clearing cookies, or using VPNs to save just a tiny bit of money.
Forget all that. We’re here to show you the real ways to save on flights!
In this guide, you’ll discover 12+ easy-to-understand flight booking tips and tricks that’ll give you the best shot at saving money on your next affordable flight from Philly.
1. What’s Considered A Cheap Flight?
To start, let’s set a baseline for what actually constitutes a cheap flight from Philadelphia.
While general “good deal” ranges are shown below, note that these are averages, and don’t take into account dates around popular events and festivals.
For example, fares to Germany for Oktoberfest or Beijing for Chinese New Year will always be more expensive.
So even though the “good deal” range to Europe is $300s-$500s in normal times, there could be instances where a $650 flight to Germany is considered a steal.
In general though, here are the flight price ranges to keep in mind when determining whether a fare is a good deal:
**Note: as of April 2023, we’re see a pretty sharp rise in airfare across the board over the past few months. The numbers listed below are probably a few hundred less than they should be right now. Europe deals are currently looking good at $500s-700s, Asia anything under $1,000 is good at the moment.
Europe: $300s-$500s
Caribbean: $100s-$300s
Asia: $300s-$700s
South America: $300s-$600s
Australia: $600s-$800s
Africa: $500s-$700s
Hawaii: $300s-$500s
2. The Cheap Flight Layover Hack
One easy way to save on international flights (especially Europe) is to take advantage of what we call the Cheap Flight Layover Hack
Basically, instead of booking a flight directly to your final destination, do this instead:
- Find the cheapest ticket you can to anywhere near your final destination
- Book a separate ticket on a budget regional carrier (like EasyJet or RyanAir)
- Save difference
Example: Instead of booking Philly-to-Paris for $700,
- Book Philly-to-London for $400
- Book London-to-Paris for $100
- Pocket the $200 saved.
This strategy can be used anywhere, but works particularly well in Europe due to many budget regional carriers and an extensive rail network.
A few things to keep in mind:
1. Since you’ll be changing airlines, there’s no way to check your luggage to the final destination. This means that you’ll likely need to pass through immigration control to retrieve your checked bag, and then pass through security again for your second leg. Be familiar with entry/visa requirements for any country you’ll be passing through.
2. You’ll also want to make sure you have plenty of time between flights. Since your second flight is on a different airline, they’ll be under no obligation to help you if your first flight is delayed, causing you to miss your final leg.
3. If you’re a heavy packer, be sure to check baggage weight limits for each leg of your journey. Your luggage weight allowance will likely be smaller on shorter regional flights vs a trans-Atlantic international flights. The last thing you want is to pay excess baggage fees that could potentially negate any savings.
3. Be Flexible With Dates
This idea is simple, but often overlooked.
There are cases when changing your departure or arrival date by a single daycan lead to savings of $100 or more per ticket.
Flight search engines like Google Flights make it easy to play around with the calendar and see how slight changes will impact price.
Of course, it’s up to you to balance potential savings, costs of additional lodging, pleasure gained/lost from the trip length changed, and total vacation days used.
But this approach can lead to big savings, especially when booking flights for the whole family.
4. Be Flexible With Airports
Another simple but often overlooked idea: change your departure or arrival airport.
For example, instead of flying out of Philadelphia, take the Amtrak train to Newark Airport (EWR) and get a much cheaper flight to Asia.
Or instead of flying directly into Miami, fly into Ft. Lauderdale (just 30 miles away) and take the $4 shuttle bus to Miami.
5. The Hidden Benefits Of Layovers
Most people write off long layovers as a deal breaker when planning their trip.
They imagine sitting in an uncomfortable airport chair for 10 hours, bored out of their mind, and instantly reject the idea. But it doesn’t have to be that way…
For airports close to city centers or tourist attractions, an extended layover offers you the opportunity to explore another city for free while saving money on your trip.
A perfect example of this is Miami, where you can easily grab an Uber or taxi from the airport and be at the beach in less than 25 minutes.
And if you’re worried about carrying your bags with you all day, many airports offer luggage lockers and other by-the-hour storage options.
You’ll think of layovers differently when you feel the sand in your toes.
6. Flight Search Engines and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)
If you want to leave no stone unturned when searching for cheap flights, you should compare prices for your trip on multiple flight booking engines and OTAs.
While Google Flights is great, some regional carriers aren’t included in results, and sometimes online travel agencies will sell you a ticket for cheaper than it costs in order to win you as a longer term customer.
NOTE: If the price is the same booking directly with the airline or through a travel agency, it’s usually recommended to book directly with the airline. But in cases where there’s significant savings, it’s worth considering your options.
Just be sure you understand any applicable change/cancelation policies that the online travel agency has, as these could differ from the direct airline policy.
Below are a few of the most common flight booking tools we recommend:
Google Flights
The most user-friendly flight search engine out there, which is great for exploring many possible destinations over a range of dates. For example, you can use their “explore destinations” feature to see a world map that highlights current “deals” around the world. It does this by constantly comparing current flight prices with historical data, so you can see how much of a discount vs standard fares you can expect.
Simply choose your travel month (or specific dates), the length of your trip (weekend, 1 week , or 2 weeks) and Google Flights will show you the best deals on a world map. You can also use Google Flights to search for deals to a specific destination and compare fares across major airlines.
Skyscanner
This flight search engine has been around for 20 years and is one of the most well known fare aggregators. Similar to Google Flights, Skyscanner compares flight prices from many different airlines and spits out the best flights which you can then book directly with the airline or another online travel agency.
One benefit is that instead of selecting specific airports to fly in and out of, you can select countries.
For example, if you’re headed to Paris, and have flexibility in where you depart, instead of searching “Philly to Paris” you can search “United States to Paris” to return fares for many different U.S. departure airports (think: New York, Baltimore/DC, etc.) which will help you discover how much you could save.
Skyscanner also offers price alerts for specific destinations and dates, so if you have a particular trip in mind, you can set up alerts and be notified by email for sudden price changes on that route.
Momondo
Momondo is another aggregator that looks at over 900 travel sites, including many smaller online travel agencies (OTA) that aren’t picked up by Google Flights. One thing to note is that it may take a few moments for your search results to appear, as it takes their system some time to scrape hundreds of different sites.
Similar to the other booking engines, you won’t book your ticket directly with Momondo, but will be redirected to book directly with the airline or another OTA. Momondo also offers an explore map, similar to Google Flights, that lets you browse a world map to visually spot deals.
ITA Matrix
This flight search engine is essentially the “back end technology” that runs Google Flights. It’s not overly intuitive or user friendly, but offers special search functionality for those who have very specific criteria for flights.
For example, you can filter for:
- layovers in specific cities (or avoid specific layover cities)
- cost per mile
- time of day
- limit the overall duration of itinerary (e.g. whole trip should take less than 6 hours)
- Specific length of stay (show me the cheapest flights between 7-10 days in length)
Note: You can’t book directly through ITA, so you would use this tool to find your specific flight, and then book directly with the airline on their website.
Southwest
For domestic flights within the US, Southwest Airlines is not currently included in Google Flights results, so it’s always worth double checking directly on their site once you determine your itinerary. They also run sales frequently, with flights sometimes as low as $49 per leg. If you’re a domestic traveler, they’re worth checking out.
Priceline, Orbitz, Expedia, & Travelocity
These are some of the most well known Online Travel Agencies.
The main benefit of these sites comes from their ability to search for bundles (combined packages) of flights, hotels, and car rentals.
You may not always find the cheapest flights on these sites, but there are cases where prices could be cheaper than booking directly with the airline. For example, sometimes an OTAs will intentionally sell plane tickets at a loss in order to attract customers, knowing that they can then cross-sell lodging or car rentals.
Bottom line: If the convenience of booking your entire trip in one place is important to you, these sites are worth checking out.
7. Always Consider The “All-In Cost”
The lowest published fares from airlines are often basic economy class tickets.
The trick here is to pay attention to what exactly you’re getting.
In basic economy class, you’re often unable to choose your seat at the time of booking (meaning you and your companion traveler may not be seated next to each other). And there are often baggage fees that you’ll need to pay separately. Also, there is usually less flexibility to change your flight.
While customers in main cabin class and above often have change fees waved, basic economy fliers are usually not offered the same courtesy. The exact breakdown of varies by airline, so be sure to review this when booking.
8. How Far In Advance To Book Domestic And International Flights
The truth is that deals can randomly pop up anytime, driven by flash sales, fare wars, and route changes. But in general, you should avoid booking flights last minute if possible.
Consensus among experts is that the best window to snag a cheap fare is around:
Domestic: 1-3 months ahead
International: 2-8 months ahead
Again, these are general estimate ranges and there are plenty of deals that pop up outside of these windows. But if you have very specific travel dates, or are traveling during peak season, you should start looking earlier than later.
Note: Most Google Flights results will include a fare graph that show historical prices over the past year, so you can easily see how the current price compares to averages.
Don’t be caught booking last minute and paying a premium because you were waiting on a “miracle deal” that never came.
9. Plan Around Peak Travel Season
If your destination is within the US or Europe, the cheapest time to fly is usually January-May and September-early December.
Summer is peak season for many destinations, as students are out of school and more people are available to travel.
This doesn’t mean that you’re out of luck though — great deals pop up for peak season all the time — but all things equal, these months are a more expensive time to fly. So consider jumping on peak season flight deals quickly if you see one appear.
Again, it’s worth noting that dates around popular events are generally higher, no matter when in the year they are (e.g. Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day).
10. The Truth About Last Minute Booking
Unless you have no other choice, booking at the last minute is generally not recommended.
Fares tend to rise quickly in the weeks before departure, since airlines know business travelers will pay whatever it takes to get on a flight.
Years ago, airlines would often sell last minute fares for a discount to quickly get rid of remaining inventory, but this has largely gone away. Airlines are now more inclined to raise prices sharply for a few fliers, rather than pack a flight with last minute discounted fares.
NOTE: With COVID, things are a little different due to reduced business travel, and we have seen more cheap fares on last minute domestic flights, but it’s unclear how long this will last.
In general, the booking sweet spot for cheap flights looks something like:
Domestic: 1-3 months out
International: 3-6 months out
11. Lock In Fares With The Federal 24-Hour Rule
In general, the better the fare, the sooner it sells out.
Great deals usually don’t last more than a few days, and can sometimes disappear in minutes as word gets out.
Last year, we sent a $222 fare to Hawaii that disappeared within 15 minutes after our subscribers got the alert and rushed to book.
But there’s good news: in most cases you can take advantage of the Department of Transportation 24-Hour Rule to jump on great fares immediately, and then decide if it will work for you.
Basically, if your flight meets the following criteria:
- Booked directly with the airline
- Flight is going to or from the USA
- The reservation was made at least 7 days before departure
You can cancel your ticket within 24-hours of booking without charge or penalty.
How this benefits you:
1. If you spot a great fare, you can book immediately and lock in the price, and then have 24 hours to decide if the trip actually works for you. If not, you can simply cancel without charge or penalty.
2. If the price drops within 24 hours of booking, you can always cancel your existing reservation and re-book the same route at the new lower price. You can learn more about the 24-hour rule and the details and considerations here.
12. Save With Cheap Flight Alerts For Philadelphia Departures
Finally, if you’re not already one of our 12,000+ subscribers, you can sign up for free to receive cheap flight email alerts for Philly departure deals.
Philly Flight List monitors hundreds of routes from Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to destinations around the globe. And when a flight goes really cheap, we send it straight to your email with all the details you need to view and book.
The only thing you have to do is sit back, relax, and wait for that next cheap flight deal to hit your inbox!
13. Try Booking 2 One-way Flights
Believe it or not, sometime’s it’s cheaper to book two separate one-way flight tickets than one round-trip itinerary.
It doesn’t always work out this way, but it’s worth taking the 30 seconds to check before you drop hundreds of dollars on a ticket.
Cleared For Takeoff
We hope this guide has been a fun and informative resource for finding those cheap flights from Philadelphia.
By putting these handy tips and tricks into practice, you’re sure to snag great deals and make your travel dreams a reality. So go ahead and start planning your next adventure, and remember to share your success stories with fellow travelers.
Happy flying, and here’s to making memories without breaking the bank!