The ultimate hack for finding cheap flights
What is a positioning flight?
One of the best ways to secure a cheap flight is by booking a positioning flight. A positioning flight is one that you take from your home airport to a larger airport that has cheaper flights abroad.
Benefits of a positioning flight
For example, I flew Memphis to Chicago for $180 on one ticket and then Chicago to Krakow for $600 on another ticket. If I booked Memphis to Krakow, this flight would easily be $1200 for the same flight pattern.
From Memphis, you have a ton of options. Memphis now has direct flights to Boston, which is a huge win for us! Boston is one of the best airports to fly from to go to Europe. Boston Logan airport consistently has flights to Iceland, London, and Dublin for around $300-450, and once you’re in Dublin, you can fly anywhere in Europe, northern Africa, and some Middle Eastern countries for SUPER CHEAP on Ryanair. Here are my recommendations:
Los Angeles - direct flights from Memphis for usually pretty inexpensive ($250-350). Great for Asian and South American countries.
Boston - now have direct flights from Memphis, but also has direct and SUPER CHEAP flights from Nashville. Great for Europe, including Iceland.
New York - direct flights for similar prices to LA from MEM. Great for anywhere really. But especially for Europe.
Dallas - cheap direct flights. Great for South American countries.
Chicago - good for Europe, not as great as New York or Boston though. But closer in case something goes awry. I have seen $500 flights to French Polynesia from here though.
One of the best reasons for traveling this way, outside of saving hundreds of dollars, is that you can decide how long your “layover” will be. If you want to fly in a day early and see the city, you can do that! This may also help you lessen how many layovers you’ll have on your long-haul flight.
I use Scott’s Cheap Flights to find my cheap flights usually. When you pay for the premium ($49/year), you can select which airports you want to fly out of. I have the following: Memphis, Nashville, Huntsville, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Fayetteville (AR), Little Rock, Jackson (MS), Atlanta, NYC, Chicago, and Boston. Ideally, you can find a cheap flight from your home airport, but being in the South, and competing with FedEx for air time, Memphis is usually low on the totem pole for finding cheap flights. Though we do sometimes luck out ($371 RT Mem to Berlin, $410 RT Mem to Rome)!
Some risks with using a positioning flight
There are some risks with this though. Your positioning flight could be canceled or delayed, in which case you may miss your long-haul flight. Since the tickets are not booked together, airlines are less inclined to help you. If you book both tickets through the same airline though, they may be able to help. One way to get around this is to fly into your long-haul city with plenty of time to spare (either morning of a late-night flight or the day before). Also, make sure that you’re flying into an airport that has multiple flights from your home airport.
For example, Memphis flies to Chicago multiple times a day, so that would be a safer option. I try to book these flights when the weather is more reliable. For example, I wouldn’t fly into Boston, Chicago, or NYC in the winter, the day of my long-haul flight, and I wouldn’t fly to Miami, Dallas, or Atlanta during the summer because of thunderstorms or hurricanes.
Another thing to be mindful of is your luggage. This is when packing in a carry-on only is the best option. If you check your luggage, you’ll have to pay your checked baggage fee at your home airport, collect them from baggage claim, check them back in at the positioning airport and pay the fee again, and go back through security. Whereas if you pack in a carry-on only, you can just pop over to your gate or to your new terminal :) Here is my post on how to avoid overpacking.
***COVID-19 risks - usually weather is the only thing that might mess up your flights. But with COVID-19, your flights might be canceled due to the pandemic or increase the time it takes to go through security. Separate tickets may mean juggling different flight change fees, waivers, or anything else that comes with traveling during a pandemic. The best thing I have to say is to just do your research before booking.
Outside of COVID-19, booking positioning flights is one of the best hacks in the travel game for saving hundreds of dollars and having a better route, and my preferred way of booking flights if I can’t find a cheap flight from Memphis or Nashville.