Flights are often the biggest single expense in our travel budget — and one of the easiest places to either save money or make travel miserable.
For us, finding flights isn’t about chasing the absolute cheapest option. It’s about finding flights that strike the right balance between cost, time, energy, and flexibility, especially when traveling as a family.
Flexibility Is the Biggest Money Saver We Have
One of the biggest advantages we have is time flexibility.
Because we aren’t bound to a traditional school calendar, we don’t need to travel during the same narrow windows as most families. That opens up enormous savings.
We’ve repeatedly seen the exact same flights drop dramatically in price simply by shifting our departure or return dates by three or four days. Sometimes the difference is hundreds — or even thousands — of dollars.
When you’re not limited to a one-week or two-week break, flight prices start to look very different.
Why We Use Google Flights
We use Google Flights almost exclusively because it’s incredibly powerful for flexible travelers.
Instead of starting with:
“We’re going to X on these exact dates”
We often start with:
“Where could we go around this time that’s reasonably priced?”
We’ll search broad destinations, flexible date ranges, and multiple departure airports. Sometimes the flight prices themselves shape the trip — not the other way around.
More than once, we’ve chosen a destination because the flights were unusually affordable for a specific window.
Cheap Isn’t Always Worth It
We rarely book the very cheapest flight.
In our experience, those flights often come with tradeoffs that aren’t worth it for us:
- Extra connections
- Very long layovers
- Red-eye flights that leave everyone exhausted
Saving a bit of money doesn’t feel frugal if it makes the first few days of a trip miserable.
Instead, we look for good value — flights that are reasonably priced and reasonable to take.
How We Think About Budget Airlines
We don’t automatically avoid budget airlines, but we also don’t pretend they’re cheap in the way the headline price suggests.
When flying budget carriers, we assume:
- Everything costs extra
- We’ll pay for carry-on bags
- Seat selection may cost more
We factor those costs in from the beginning so there are no surprises.
Some add-ons are worth paying for right away. Others we skip.
For example, we almost always add carry-on bags upfront. But we rarely pay for seat assignments — many airlines have policies that allow kids under a certain age to sit with a parent, and that’s usually sufficient for us.
The key is knowing what you’re getting into before clicking “buy.”
Why We Don’t Over-Optimize Flights
It’s easy to turn flight booking into an optimization problem: cheapest fare, perfect timing, best airline, ideal seat.
We’ve found that over-optimizing usually leads to stress.
Instead, we aim for:
- Fewer connections
- Reasonable departure and arrival times
- Flights that don’t wipe everyone out
Flights are just the beginning of a trip. We’d rather arrive feeling functional than save a small amount of money at the cost of exhaustion.
Letting Flights Shape the Trip (Not the Other Way Around)
Some of our favorite trips started with a flight search.
By staying open to different destinations and timelines, we’ve been able to plan trips that might not have made sense otherwise — financially or logistically.
This approach only works because we prioritize flexibility, but it’s been one of the most effective ways we’ve found to make long-term family travel sustainable.
A Frugal Choice That Protects Our Energy
Finding the “right” flight isn’t just about saving money. It’s about protecting our energy, our time, and our ability to enjoy the trip once we get there.
For us, frugal travel means choosing flights that support the experience — not undermine it.