How To Find Cheap Flights To Spain

Be As Flexible As Possible

You probably already know that it’s much more expensive to fly in the school holidays than it is in term time. So, keeping an eye on those school holiday dates could help you to save money, whether you’re traveling with kids or not.

But did you know that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally the cheapest days to fly. And that flying on a weekday is likely to cost less than flying at the weekend? What’s more, dynamic pricing means that the flights that are cheap one week might not be so affordable the next.

As a result, you will get the best flight prices if you can be flexible about the days and times you fly. Some flight booking websites will allow you to factor some flexibility into your search. You can set your search to +/- 1/2/3 days to see what difference this might make to your flight prices.

Skyscanner will even allow you to do a ‘whole month’ search if you want to get to Spain in a certain month but have huge flexibility about when you fly. Kayak offers a similar service and the KAYAK Monthly Flight Calendar is a great tool for travelers with flexibility. This is a great option for retirees who aren’t limited by when they can take leave from the workplace.

Use A Flight Finder Website

If your dates aren’t set in stone and you have some flexibility with when you want to visit, or even with which airport you can arrive into, then flight finder websites are a great resource. Generally, you sign up via email, and then the flight finder will email you when airline prices drop on your chosen route or routes.

Some examples of these kinds of websites that you could use include:

• Holiday Pirates. This is a great website for finding holiday deals as well as flights, and alerts are free if you sign up to their email newsletter. You’ll have to sift through the deals here, as they don’t offer a service where they only send links to your preferred routes. But the prices they find are often so low that it’s worth the extra work!
  
  
• Jacks Flight Club. This is an incredible website for flight-specific deals and there are 2 membership levels to Jacks Flight Club. This company will send regular emails with details of cheap flights which means if your flexible and your destination comes up then you could bag a real bargain. You can sign up for either the free service or the £39/year premium service. The difference between the two services is the number of deals you’re sent, with the best deals saved for premium members. 
  
  
• The Travel Mum. If you’re travelling with kids, or even if you’re not, the travel mum is similar to Holiday Pirates, sourcing deals to your preferred location. As a smaller company they are able to offer a 121 service to their members, helping you get the best prices available.
  
  
• HotDealsUK. Although not specifically a flight finder website, HotDealsUK has a section where members share deals and flag any cheap flights they find. Because it is user generated and because there are so many members on HotDealsUK, this is actually a great resource and well worth checking out before you book your flights.

Sign Up For Airline Emails

Do you know which airlines fly to your preferred airport? Do a little research and find out. Include the obvious UK airlines such as British Airways, EasyJet and Ryanair as well as any Spanish airlines and even European airlines that fly on your chosen route.

Once you have your list of airlines, sign up for email alerts with each of them. Whilst this might be frustrating as their emails fill your inbox, it will save you money in the long run. Why? Because most airlines will email their mailing list whenever they announce or launch a sale. This means that you’ll be first in line to secure those discounted tickets.

Obviously if you will only fly with one airline (some travelers prefer to collect points with their chosen carrier) then you will only need to sign up to one email database.

Once you’ve found the cheapest available sale tickets with your preferred airline we then advise heading over to a price comparison website such as Expedia and Ebookers. Enter in the dates and flights you’ve chosen, and they will let you know if anyone else is offering the same flight for any cheaper. Sometimes booking with an alternative website only takes an additional minute or two, but it can knock a little extra off your fare.

Would A Package Holiday Be Cheaper?

This may sound counterintuitive, but even though you’re only looking for flights, it might be cheaper to book a package holiday – and just not use the hotel. Some travel agents will offer package deals which combine flights, hotels, and transfers or car hire and because of the discounts they have available to them this could be cheaper than the cost of booking the flights independently.

An added bonus of booking a flight this way is that most package travel operators are protected by ATOL. This ATOL protection is important because it means if any of your providers go bust your trip is protected and you’ll automatically get a full refund.

There are too many travel agents offering budget travel packages to list. But some great places to kick off include Expedia, Lastminute.com, and Opodo.

Make Stopovers To Save Money

If you can’t find direct flights for a low enough price, then why not consider booking an indirect flight instead? Making a stopover on your journey is one of the best ways to find flights for less, and if you’re traveling some distance, you may even consider the chance to get off the plane and stretch your legs a benefit rather than an inconvenience (it’s all about perspective!)

If you’re prepared to make a stopover to save as much money as possible then you could even mix and match airlines. You don’t have to fly with the same airline for each leg of your journey. Just make sure you leave at least three hours between flights to allow for delays, so that (if something goes wrong with your first flight) you won’t miss your second!

An example of how this might work is if you need to fly from Glasgow to Alicante. There is not an affordable direct flight but Ryanair have a very cheap flight from London Luton to Alicante. It may be cheaper to book this flight and then an EasyJet flight from Glasgow to Luton than it would be to pay for the original direct flight.

Reduce Your Optional Extras

You’ve found an affordable flight – but by the time you’ve reached the payment page the cost of that budget flight has doubled. Why? Because of the optional extras that most of us add on without really thinking about whether we could do without them.

Luggage, check-in, reserved seats and food are just some of the extras you may have to pay for on top of your basic ticket price.  

If your airline is charging you to pick a seat then do you really need to sit in the aisle? Or by the window? Or next to your spouse? For a relatively short flight (such as the one from the UK to Spain) the extra cost of booking a seat just might not be worth it. Especially on early morning or late night flights where you’re only going to sleep anyway.

Other optional extras to think about include whether you really need to purchase luggage. With the cost of taking a suitcase to Spain being between £30-80 each way, depending on your airline and when you book, you would make significant savings if you travelled without one.

If you’re going to be in Spain for a long time then would it be cheaper to ship your luggage ahead of time? Send my Bag and My Baggage both offer this service for affordable prices.

Or do you already have everything in your holiday home that you need? If you’re just taking practical items like toiletries or sun lotion, then it may well be cheaper than the luggage fee to just buy these when you arrive.

What Is Skip lagging And How Can It Save Me Money?

There has been a lot of noise about the relatively new trend of skip lagging in the media, and how passengers are using this to get the cheapest possible flights to their desired destinations. But what is skip lagging? And does it have any relevance here?

Skip lagging is the practice of booking a split ticket and then skipping a leg of your journey. So you buy a ticket from London to Lisbon but there’s a stop in Barcelona. And this ticket is much cheaper than buying a direct flight to Barcelona. So you buy the ticket anyway, and just don’t get on the second flight.

Skip lagging is controversial because some airlines don’t like it, and are even making noise about banning passengers who do it (especially in the U.S. where it is a much more wide spread trend).

You can use the website Skiplagged to find examples of the routes where this practice is most effective.

Skip lagging tends to be most effective on journeys over long distances as well as on journeys where passengers tend to pay a premium because of how popular the route is.

It’s worth noting that although skip lagging can be a great way to save money the practice can be risky to passengers. Repeat offenders may be stopped at the airport, banned by their chosen airline, or even be the subject of a lawsuit.

So it’s worth mentioning here but our advice is to approach this new trend with caution.

Search Regularly

There isn’t just one hint or tip that will guarantee you find the cheapest flights. Sometimes it’s nothing more than the luck of the draw. You could look for flights one day and everything is incredibly overpriced but one week later, there are budget flights available. So the very best way to find cheap flights to Spain is not to settle if the price isn’t right, and instead to keep searching for flights regularly.

Flight prices are determined by complicated algorithms and the more people that are looking for a flight, the higher the price for those flights will be. If hundreds of people book a flight route the day it is released, for example, then the prices for that flight will spike up considerably. In those circumstances it would be wise to wait a little longer, keep searching, and wait until prices start to come down again. The only exception to this rule is if you’re looking for flights during peak periods. These are for pre-Christmas travel or in the heart of the summer holidays. In those circumstances the longer you wait, the more expensive the flights are likely to become as there may not be a dip in demand. Shopping around on different airlines, as well as being as flexible as possible with your travel times and dates is the best way to get affordable flights in these circumstances.

The season you fly in is the biggest factor in determining how affordable your flights will be. So if you really want the best possible flights to Spain then why not consider avoiding the peak summer months and visiting in the shoulder seasons of Spring and Autumn instead?

Catch A Lift

Our final trip is a cheeky one, but do you have a friend or family member that could drive you to the airport? Airport parking can cost a fortune and the longer you are away, the more expensive it will be. This means that if you want to spend a month or more in your Spanish holiday home, the costs involved could be eyewatering.

If you have to drive to the airport, then booking as far in advance as possible will help to minimise the costs. You could also book a package that combines an overnight hotel stay with parking if you’re travelling long distances to reach the airport.

But if you have a friend with a car, and you live relatively close to the airport, catching a lift is free! And the cost savings involved make this final tip well worth mentioning.

Why Are Flights To Malaga So Expensive?

One of the most popular airports for travelers looking to enjoy a coastal holiday in Spain is Malaga. Malaga airport is conveniently located for travelers hoping to explore Malaga, Marbella, and the rest of the Costa del Sol. This explains why the airport is always so busy! But we also know that Malaga is one of the most expensive airports in Spain to fly into.

So why are flights to Malaga so expensive? The main reason for this is demand. Because demand for flights to Malaga is so high, no matter what the time of year, the airlines that use the airport are able to charge a premium for their flights. The only way prices are likely to fall is if people stop flying into Malaga and demand drops, but that is unlikely to happen!

If you can’t find the Malaga flights you want for a price you’re willing to pay then you could always look at alternative routes instead. Although they are further away (so you might find you’d rather pay a little more for convenience) three alternative airports used by travelers to Malaga are Jeres (XRY), Granada-Jaen (GRX) and Sevilla (SVQ).

When Is The Cheapest Time To Fly To Spain?

If you don’t have to travel on any fixed dates then you may be wondering when is the cheapest time to fly to Spain. According to cheapflights.com, December is currently the cheapest month to fly to Spain.

As a general rule of thumb you’re likely to find that the flight prices are much cheaper if you’re happy to fly in the winter months than they would be in the summer months. The most expensive time to fly to Spain is during the school summer holidays between July and August. So if you want to enjoy the heat of the summer in Spain then consider flying in June or September instead, and you’ll save a fortune!

What Are The Cheapest Airports To Fly Into Spain?

Don’t care where you land, as long as you’re landing in Spain? We’ve crunched the numbers so that you don’t have to and found that these are the cheapest airports to fly into Spain:

• Sevilla.
• Santiago de Compostela.
• Valencia.
• Palma de Mallorca.
• Bilbao.

As we mentioned above, Sevilla is the closest of these airports to the Costa del Sol, so if you’re looking for some sunshine on a tight budget then this is a great option, and a great place to start your ticket search.