Every single time I talk about going on vacation super cheaply, I get people asking me “But how do you get tickets so cheaply? How do you actually do it?” And each time, I answer Skyscanner.com, Skyscanner.com, Skyscanner.com. But apparently that isn’t enough of an answer because even with me telling people that that’s how I do it, I get the question again and again.

So I decided that I’d walk you through how it is that I get tickets very cheaply through Skyscanner.

Before I continue, I just want to say that Skyscanner and I have no partnership, I’m not seeing any money from this post. I’m writing and recommending this website purely because of my good experience with it, and because it has changed the way I live my life. I love travel, and I always thought it was impossible for me financially, until I discovered Skyscanner. And that’s why this post specifically focuses on that.

Here’s the thing. I also have people who told me they checked out Skyscanner and the tickets weren’t actually that cheap, so they don’t understand why I am telling them it is cheap. Well, that’s because it’s not that Skyscanner automatically will give you rock bottom prices, but that you have to use it a certain way, and this post is to help clarify that.

There may be other websites like Skyscanner that also do similarly, so I’m not saying Skyscanner is best, but it is the one that gives me the most options to save money. (By the way, SecretFlying.com also has similar options, but I do find it less user friendly than Skyscanner, but check it out for an alternative.)

I’ve done this in person a few times and awed people, but it is so much harder to do this in a post, with all these screen shots, but I will try my best. Lets pretend we’re together in person, and each screenshot is a screen I’m showing you on my phone, as to how to do this.

So the first thing you need to know in order to get tickets extremely cheaply the way I do, is you need to be flexible. The more flexible you are, the cheaper you can get your tickets. Flexible in terms of everything.

Get rid of this

Note I didn’t pick an airport, instead of chose my entire region. You can pick a specific airport, but if you’re flexible about where you fly from, then you have more low cost options.

Notice I didn’t pick a destination either. That’s how you get the lower prices. By going wherever the wind blows you. For people like myself who have a wanderlust but don’t have specific places they want to visit specifically, this is really wonderful. I mean, I do have places on my wish list to travel to one day, but at this point in my life I’m content to just explore new places, as long as it’s a place I haven’t been to already. This is what I like about Skyscanner, that it doesn’t make you pick a specific location, but gives you options everywhere.

If you want to pick a specific location, you can. Just realize that’ll increase your price.

Lastly, notice I didn’t pick a date. First it gives you the option to pick a date, or pick whole month. Once you pick whole month, it gives you the option to pick cheapest month. This is the way to get the cheapest tickets. Again if you aren’t flexible with dates, or are less flexible, choose specific dates, or choose a specific month, but note that the more you narrow down your criteria, the more it will likely cost.

Skyscanner then will give you a list of locations (by country) where you can fly, in order of cheapest ticket to more expensive. Since Italy for $20 round trip interested me, I clicked on that, to see more.

Then you get a calendar for departure dates and a calendar for return dates. Each date has the price listed. I find you only get the return date listed once you choose a departure date. I click on the cheapest date that works for me.

Then the website has to actually search if a ticket actually exists at that price on those dates. Well, look at that- no! This date actually has the cheapest ticket be $48, twice as much as it said originally. Sometimes that happens because of a computer glitch, and sometimes that happens because the cheaper tickets got sold out and sometimes because of who knows what else.

If that happens, just go back and pick a different date and see if the price for that date is accurate.

Wizz Air makes the priority boarding and luggage policy clear and easy.

Depending on how I travel and what I need, I usually get priority boarding. It isn’t significantly more expensive, and makes me able to carry more.

But I never book specific seats or pay to check my luggage.

As I said, you can, but don’t expect the tickets to be as cheap.

Basically, no frills. No nothing, no nada.

The one thing I sometimes do pay extra for is flexible dates, because with my life being the way it is, by paying extra I’m able to change the dates of the tickets as needed.

Ok, so this is how I do it.

Lets see, are there flights just as cheap from other places?