Summer is coming up faster than ever and with the new year, it's time to start tracking flight deals to go on your next adventure. Hit the UPVOTE on this post so we can all get on a plane to somewhere awesome even faster! In the meantime, I'll share with you how I got flights to Europe for cheap and how you can do so too.

Introduction

Every day new airlines emerge from the dust and seek to bring the American masses across the Atlantic to Europe. This is great to increase competition and help Americans find better vacation deals, but there is always an unforeseen catch to these offers. Most of these choices tend to make you pay a lot more or work a lot harder than they initially have you believe. Here are some examples of budget airlines that do this, but they all tend to follow the same concept:

• WOW Air is opening up new Iceland-bound routes every month for what they claim to be as low as $99 one-way. They have routes that travel to Europe one-way for as low as $150 from many US cities, with Dallas flights coming this summer. Here are just some of the catches involved that they don't tell you
  1. Return flights back to the states tend to be twice as much as these flight deals. They bring you over for cheap and don't let you go home for the same price.
  2. There is a personal item weight limit of 12 pounds, with a charge of up to $60 for a 45-pound checked suitcase
  3. Picking your seat comes at an extra cost that could match the flight price
  4. There are no complimentary drinks or meals, so a coca-cola costs $3 and airplane food comes at a high cost
  5. They have classes like Plus or Biz that "bundle" these perks with larger seats, but then you no longer get the deal
• Norwegian Air pulls a similar set-up, except their deals fly from irrelevant airports like Steward outside of New York and Hartford. Getting to these airports by train or plane from your hometown tends to be much more expensive than getting to a standard airport. Does anyone want to pay $70 for a train to catch a $70 flight to off-the-beaten-path European destinations like Manchester? Not really. That's not considering the overpriced add-ons necessary.
• LEVEL is one of the latest attempts at budget travel, a Spanish airline that shares web resources with Iberian Air. They claim they can offer you flights from the West Coast to Barcelona for $150. This is never actually the case though, except for the maybe dozen people who book the flight first or at the right time. In addition to that, you can find flights for this price on a traditional airline that doesn't charge all the outrageous extra fees LEVEL charges--and with much more legroom.

Some of these budget options may look good on the outside, but if you're going to take the chance on a cheap fare, it's worth it to calculate out every additional fee with which you might be charged. By time you finish doing that, you might realize it's a similar cost to any of the traditional airlines out there--traditional airlines that provide a free carry-on, free checked bag, pillows, blankets, and sometimes even a complimentary meal.

There are only two ways that these unconventional airlines work out in favor of the consumer:

1. They encourage traditional airlines to get more competitive with their pricing. Airlines like United, American, and Delta have cut some of their prices by as much as half what they normally charge to traverse the Atlantic
2. Budget Airlines only work for people who are comfortable sitting in the middle seat, carrying only 12 pounds in carry-on luggage without a checked bag, and who can bring their own dinner onboard

Booking at the right time

With all the negative stuff out of the way about budget airlines, what do you do now? The future of flying seems pretty discouraging if you read the introduction. But there is plenty of hope in traditional airlines still, and there are ways to get a good deal in addition to all the freebies like checked baggage.

It’s all about the right timing.

There does not really seem to be such a thing as "last-minute flight deals" anymore as most of these seem to be taken by impulse travelers and businessmen willing to pay a pretty penny. Therefore, the best time to book falls between 3 and 6 months from the flight date. Book too early and airlines tend to have higher prices for those travelers who favor planning over price. Book too late and airlines hike up the prices for the people more desperate for a plane ticket.

It's all about the right timing. This goes for days of the week too. I have found that Monday and Tuesday have the lowest-priced flights, and prices go up as the week progresses. This has been statistically proven in some capacity by a few sources online that gather information from thousands of flights and prices. Airline pricing is usually automatically controlled, so any rules like this that seem obvious tend to apply to a majority of situations.

There is also the timing of when you’re actually traveling. The best deals come outside of the peak season of summer. But when I got my tickets for under $400, that was in heat of summer (July), so anything is possible. If timing doesn’t matter to you, pick a time outside of summer when hotels and other costs are lower. If summer’s your time to travel, pay close attention to a variety of websites, and you will find your deal.

Using the Internet

There are so many apps now that promise to email you when they find a flight deal. They charge what seems to be a low annual price of as little as $10 or $20. The hope is that you forget to cancel the subscription after you get your flight, and they’ll hopefully end up charging millions of people a couple dollars a year for nothing. Some of these sites are quite reliable, but why would you pay for a website when you can do it the American way—by yourself.

Stick with trustworthy places.

Now that has been established, and it's time to actually start looking at tickets. The first place to look at is Google Flights. It checks the top sites for very good deals on airfare, and you can use the service to track flight prices over a period of time. They’ll email you if prices go down on your preferred dates, and the system is based on scanning reliable and trustworthy travel booking sites like Kayak, Expedia, or Priceline.

Another site that people use a lot is Skyscanner. Skyscanner checks dozens of travel sites on the web for good flight deals, but not many of these sites are very well-known or have a good reputation. One of the sites Skyscanner would “recommend” was a scam website run by two people with deals that would disappear and flight tickets that would never actually surface once paid for. In the end, most of the pricing on here is not accurate, as the site does not show up-to-date costs and you might not even get your confirmation. Stick with trustworthy places.

Plan the trip around the flights if you can, not the other way around… Keep an open mind

Use the tools at your disposal to search a wide variety of dates and times of travel. Changing my plans by just a a few days saved me hundreds of dollars, so it's best to be flexible when booking flights. Plan the trip around the flights if you can, not the other way around. It may turn out the times you thought would be more expensive (mid-July) could actually end up being the most money-conscious, so keep an open mind. If you find flights that are two days earlier for example, weight the cost of a hostel or hotel with getting a flight on your preferred travel date. Keep an open mind.

Finding the connections

Airlines like Icelandair, which offers great deals across the Atlantic with a connection in Reykjavik, fly into a limited number of airports in the states. Though this list is expanding every month, with new US destinations like Texas and Ohio, this can mean that you have to look outside your local airports for a good deal. Their deals are also dependent on routes and their costs. Icelandair, for example, tends to have higher-priced flights out of Philadelphia and New York. If you live anywhere in the Northeast, your best bet would be to watch Icelandair flights out of Boston.

If you find a flight out of a slightly farther-away airport, look at familiar US airlines to make these domestic connections. Airlines like Southwest offer free bags and trips as cheap as $40 one way. This could make it cheaper to fly with a connection than flying direct out of your favorite airport. Just be sure to leave plenty of time between your domestic flight and international flight, as different airlines have no obligation to you if you miss a flight on a different airline.

Checking with the source

Lastly, check individual airline websites to find the most recently updated and cheapest prices. Google Flights does not update instantly, so sometimes the ticket you were looking at might be taken. Go directly to the airlines to see the best deals they have to offer. You don't have to check every website, though. British Airways, American Airlines, Finn Air, and Iberian Air are all part of the same company so their flights are identically priced--just pick your favorite out of the four. There's also the Star Alliance that includes United and Air Canada.

Be sure to check out rogue airlines.

Then, be sure to check out rogue airlines like Icelandair, Aer Lingus, or Virgin Atlantic, as they will sometimes surprise you. Icelandair provided me with this super deal, and they have free checked luggage, a free carry-on, free drinks on board, and free seat selection. I got to pick an exit row seat at no additional cost, letting me fly in comfort being a six-foot-two giant. Their websites are the very best places to find flight prices like this, and all it requires is a bit of clicking.

Conclusion

If you're looking to go to Europe in the future and you want decent flights, be sure to be flexible with timing and destinations, check every source, and be ready to buy the moment you see the right deal as good deals disappear instantly. Though some airlines announce deals like this, there’s no saying when these great prices will disappear—sometimes within the hour. If you follow what I did, though, you’re bound to find the right price. That's how I got a $380 round-trip flight from Boston to Paris this past summer on Icelandair.