Baby boomer consumers love to travel.
Vayama, an online travel agency that focuses on international travel, offers the following tips the best day of the week to fly, how far in advance to book flights to get the best deal, when to use multiple flights, and how much a stopover can save:
Travel midweek
International travel deals are entirely based on availability. Since most people travel 
on Friday and over the weekend, you’ll find the cheapest international airfare deals if you travel midweek, usually departing and returning on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Spend Saturday night
Business travelers fly home on the weekend, so most discounted international airfare deals require a Saturday night stay. Be prepared to spend Saturday at your destination.
Don’t book too early or too late
When it comes to cheap international airfares, follow the Goldilocks rule: Don’t book too early or too late.
An international ticket booked with less than three days notice will be very expensive, but it will also be pricy if you book too far in advance. Most airlines start competing for passengers around three to four months before departure. This is known as the “Goldilocks Zone.” Search for your international airfare about three to five months out, and you’ll be in the best position to hit the international airfare deal jackpot.
Fly through the side door
If your desired destination is too expensive, try flying out of a secondary international airport, Boston instead of JFK or San Francisco instead of Los Angeles, for example.
The same tips works with your destination airports. If you’re flying to Costa Rica, check out Liberia airport as it’s often cheaper than flying into San Jose plus. In addition, it’s only two hours from Playa Tamerindo and Ollies Point verses the 8-plus hours it takes to get to these designations from San Jose.
Use the multiple flights function
Vayama has a “multiple flights” function on its “find a flight” box. It’s a good idea to use it because it may be cheaper to fly into one city and return from another; New York to London, returning from Amsterdam, for example. Try different combinations to save.
Add a stopover and save
Direct flights – those with one stop – are also cheaper than nonstop flights, especially when you have a long flight.
For example, the fares for a New York to Johannesburg flight will be cheaper on airlines that add a stopover, usually in Europe, Africa or the Middle East, versus the nonstop option from New York.
The same applies to long haul flights to Asia. One stop in Seoul or Taipei could shave hundreds of dollars off an India trip when compared to nonstop flights.
Just a quick note to let you know that I liked what I read. Cheers!
This is a great list of tips. Thank you for the post. I have a friend that I will share this information with in the near future.
It doesn’t matter how cheap they are, they are not worth it. If something goes wrong they will do absolutely nothing to accomodate you.
I booked a flight to Paris through them and decided to pay more for the shortest trip possible. One of my connecting flights was canceled and I was automatically assigned a new flight, suddenly I’m stuck with a 6 hour layover… not what I paid for. There were other flights with similar lay overs and cost about $200 less. On top of that it takes off when I need to be at work.
Worst customer service ever, they didn’t care about the extra money I spend, my time wasted or that the new flight simply did not work. They emailed me saying that we could work out a better flight schedule but once I finally talked to someone they basically told me I had to take it or leave it and that there were no refunds.
They also hung up on me twice forcing me to wait for over 4 hours on the phone just to get through to talk to a person.
They are the worst! Never again
Hi Amber,
I’m sorry you had that problem. Was the trouble with a travel agency or an airline?
Rita
Hi Rita,
It was with the agency. I completely understand flights being canceled but Vayama was just absolutely no help in assisting me to find a new flight that didn’t require me to take another day off from work. And like I said before, they kept hanging up on me while i was in mid sentence.
I love stopovers. Hehe. It’s like having an extra scoop of ice cream on your dessert. It would be a lot better, though, if you can visit another country. Exploring two or more countries for the price of one would be the greatest travel deal anyone can have.
Yeah, travelling in the middle of the week makes everything easier because you don’t need to fall in long lines, and there are less people who are free during these days. And don’t forget that the tickets are cheaper too.