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Carefully time your trip
The timing of your vacation can make all the difference in finding affordable airfare. Shoulder season is traditionally an off-peak stretch with added savings for travelers, but with off-season deals shrinking, fliers need to get even more specific with timing.
Specifically, consider pushing back your fall getaway as late on the calendar as possible, and just before hitting the start of the winter holidays. “Summer demand has spilled into fall,” according to Expedia’s fall travel outlook report. Pushing trips later into October or the first week of November could be a sweet spot for fare savings.
In most years, the week of Thanksgiving is usually a guaranteed window for international flight deals from the US because domestic travel soars at this time. But 2026 has put a bit of wrench in that convention, too. International flights around Thanksgiving this year are averaging $1,096 roundtrip, according to Going. It’s still the more affordable window compared to December, when the average international fare swells up to $1,695. Travelers on the hunt for an international deal should plan to fly on the Thanksgiving holiday itself to save up to 25% and plan to book their flights by early October, per Going’s guidance.
Using search tools that allow you to look over a stretch of several days to find the cheapest fare, like Google Flights, also helps. “You might find shifting your dates by a date or two in either direction can save you a significant amount of money,” Yellin says. As a general rule of thumb, Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays tend to be the most affordable days of the week to fly, according to data from Expedia and Going.
Leverage your points and miles
Put those hard-earned frequent flier miles and credit card points to work for you to unlock airfares. It’s possible to compare the best airfare deal across credit cards and loyalty programs if you use the right search tool. Points Path, for one, plugs into Google Flights to help travelers compare prices. The tool will “tell you if using cash or points is a better deal, without having to search multiple airline websites individually,” Yellin says.
Target your flight search to departure airports that regularly offer the greatest number of points and miles deals. In the US those include: New York (JFK), Boston (BOS), Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Going says.
Where to find specific deals this shoulder season
Going’s intel shows that a handful of destinations have a better chance of offering flight deals this fall. For international trips “Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, the ABC islands, and Scandinavia are seeing nice shoulder season fare dips,” according to Anna LaBrie, Going’s senior PR manager. “Japan and Southeast Asia are worth watching too, along with Mexico, outside of Día de Muertos.”
On the domestic side, “Hawaii, Florida, Phoenix, the Pacific Northwest, Atlanta, the Carolinas, and San Diego are showing softer prices this fall,” LaBrie says, noting that travelers should avoid ski towns like Jackson Hole and Aspen, where airfares are beginning to spike.
Recent fall fare deals from Going include Boston to Madrid for $517 roundtrip—a 49% discount—and Los Angeles to Tokyo for $613 roundtrip, which is 48% cheaper than average. That’s encouraging evidence that there are good flight deals to uncover this fall, if you know the right tactics for finding them.
