Travel is a wonderful opportunity to relax, have new and eye-opening experiences, and take a break from the day-to-day of our lives. It should be available to everyone, but many people find themselves unable to travel due to budgetary limitations. Plane tickets can be hundreds or thousands of dollars, and many of us just don’t have the savings to spare on a costly plane ticket.
For those of us without boundless budgets, good news: it’s possible to find flights under $49. This may sound impossibly cheap, but I kid you not! Airlines are aware that consumers are in need of good deals, and many are competing to offer the most appealingly affordable airfares.
How can airlines offer such low fares?
Offering fares at such incredibly low prices may seem like bad business sense on their part. However, it allows them to gain publicity and generate buzz, and also to sell seats during periods when few people tend to travel–so it ends up benefiting them.
Southwest’s twice-a-year fare sales: get in on the action
Southwest offers twice-a-year fare sales each June and October, wherein round-trip fares fall below $100 on many of its shorter flights. The most recent sale had one-way flights starting at $49, with the price rising to $79 / $99 / $129 for longer flights (the price was primarily based on flight distance). During these sales, flights can also go lower than $49 one-way; in the most recent sale, for instance, flights from Los Angeles to Albuquerque were available for $45 each way. Amazingly, here are also some international flights–starting at the only marginally higher price of $59.
These Southwest sales require that bargain hunters not dilly-dally, because they run for a short time, buyers compete for deals, and the sales are incredibly popular–June 2015’s sale was so popular that the Southwest website actually crashed and they were forced to extend the sale by another 24 hours.
While some fares have not been as low during recent sales as in preceding years, Southwest is still at the top of the list when it comes to the availability of fares as low as $49.
Also worth looking into–other airlines matching (or beating) these sales
While Southwest is the airline best known for its sales’ incredibly low prices, many other airlines recognize the high demand for these ultra low-cost flights and, accordingly, have decided to match or beat Southwest’s sales.
For instance, as recently as October 2017, popular airline JetBlue was offering $49 fares in a sale comparable to the ones Southwest is well-known for. For a period of two-days, you could find one-way JetBlue tickets starting at $49 to locations throughout the U.S., Caribbean, and South America. Impressive examples included $49 flights from Oakland to Long Beach, CA; $69 flights from Ft. Lauderdale to Turks and Caicos; and $74 flights from Florida to Barbados. All these examples are representative of the kind of deals you can find if you keep an eye out for these kinds of huge fare sales.
During the periods when Southwest offers its sales (twice a year–June and October), it’s worth checking out those sales as well as other airlines’ offerings to ensure you’re getting the best possible deal on the market. Rather than manually checking each airline’s website, however, you’re better off using a flight search tool. These tools are designed to search a broader array of options in greater depth than any person could reasonably do–in seconds, every flight option out there for weeks or months at a time is available at the click of a mouse. (Pretty amazing!)
The best flight tool to use?
Here’s one great flight search tool. Whatever your flight and travel needs may be, this form allows you to search for the cheapest, best value deals for flights. With unparalleled and comprehensive coverage, you’ll find the internet’s most affordable flights to and from virtually anywhere on the globe. It’s worth a try if you’re committed to flying affordably and not wasting a penny on your next trip.
⇓ Search and find the best offers to your next trip!
