Booking Cheap Flights to Europe During Shoulder Season
Book your tickets exactly 3 to 5 months before departure to snag the lowest fares during shoulder season. Use airline-agnostic search tools to monitor price drops and fly on Tuesdays or Wednesdays to shave significant costs off your fare.
- Define your shoulder season window. Target the exact weeks of mid-April to late May, or mid-September to mid-October. Avoid major holidays like Easter or local school breaks, which spike prices despite being in the fringe months.
- Set up price tracking. Use Google Flights to track your specific route. Toggle the 'Track Prices' switch on. You will receive an email notification the moment the price drops significantly.
- Target secondary airports. Search for flights into larger hubs like London, Paris, or Frankfurt, but compare them against secondary airports nearby like Gatwick instead of Heathrow, or Beauvais instead of CDG. The cost of a train ticket is almost always less than the flight savings.
- Book as a round-trip or use the 'Multi-city' tool. Unless you are using two separate low-cost carrier tickets, booking a single PNR (Passenger Name Record) is safer. Use the multi-city tool to fly into one city and out of another to save time and money on backtracking.
- Is it better to book on a specific day of the week?
- The myth that Tuesday is the cheapest day to buy is outdated. It is, however, cheaper to fly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because business travelers rarely choose those days.
- Should I use a VPN to find cheaper flights?
- There is no consistent evidence that using a VPN changes the price. Focus your energy on tracking price alerts instead.