Summer 2025 is a 'perfect storm for cheap flights,' expert says: 5 destinations that won't break the bank

Does Clearing Your Search History Actually Affect Flight Prices?

Travel + Leisure

20 hours ago

Travel + Leisure

Does Clearing Your Search History Actually Affect Flight Prices?

If you've ever searched for a flight, exited the tab to mull it over, and returned to find the fare mysteriously higher, you're not alone. You've also probably heard the advice: clear your cookies, switch browsers, and search in incognito mode. The idea that airlines or booking sites track your searches to hike prices remains one of the most persistent travel myths of the digital age. To find out whether there's any truth to this widely circulated belief, we asked travel experts to weigh in on what's fact, what's fiction, and what's really driving those seemingly ever-changing fares. Katy Nastro is a travel expert at Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights), a flight price alert platform that helps travelers find the best flight deals. Sophia Lin is the director of product management for travel and local at Google Search. Jesse Neugarten is the founder of Dollar Flight Club, a subscription-based travel site dedicated to helping travelers snag discounted airfare. Despite what many travelers believe, there's no concrete evidence that airlines or booking sites raise prices based on how often you search for a route. Experts say the pricing shifts you see are more about market demand than digital surveillance. "There is a common misconception that repeated search behavior will lead to not just a different, but higher outcome," explains Katy Nastro, travel expert at Going. This is why people are often told to clear their cache or cookies or to use an incognito browser. However, that's more travel myth than truth—something that's stuck around thanks to anecdotal frustration and online hearsay. Per the pro, "There is no credible data source that suggests repeated searching is tracked and therefore manipulated to higher pricing." According to Sophia Lin, director of product management for travel and local at Google Search, "Ticket prices are constantly changing and being updated across different data providers, even from second to second. And every day, our systems are computing an enormous number of possible ticket combinations for trips around the world." Nastro offers a similar perspective, explaining that travelers are "seeing the market move in real time." And if anyone would know, it's Nastro and her team, who "run hundreds of searches a day, if not thousands by the end of the week, and have done so for years, and yet we still have not seen this mythic pattern some swear by." She continues: "Our founder, Scott Keyes, even went so far as duplicating a search 100 times in an hour to see if there would be any upward movement—and guess what, there was not!" Jesse Neugarten, founder of Dollar Flight Club, echoes these sentiments, telling Travel + Leisure , "While it's a widely held belief that flight prices go up the more you search for a route, there's no hard evidence that browsing history or repeated searches alone directly cause price increases." Instead, he explains that travelers are often observing a combination of natural price fluctuations and cached data, which can create the illusion of price changes, bringing us to our next point. While it might seem random, airfare pricing is anything but. Behind the scenes, airlines use dynamic algorithms that constantly recalculate fares based on shifting variables. According to Neugarten, flight prices are determined by complex, real-time algorithms that adjust based on factors like "seat inventory, booking trends, time to departure, competitor pricing, and external factors like weather or fuel costs." Additionally, explains Nastro, "When you see prices fluctuate in real time, you are seeing the airlines trying to adjust based on those factors." Additionally, she says, "They have fare buckets." Think of it like this: Airlines allocate a set number of seats to each bucket for a certain period, though those allocations can shift based on the factors mentioned earlier. Once fare bucket X sells out, a new, often higher-priced bucket takes its place. So when you notice sudden jumps or drops in airfare, you're likely seeing fare buckets updating in real time. To illustrate the scale of this complexity, Lin explains that there can be seemingly endless ticket combinations for trips between Los Angeles and London. This is especially true once you factor in variables like connecting flights and competing booking sites, so you could end up with just as many different fare prices. A person looking up flights on their phone. Margot Cavin/Travel + Leisure In summary, no. "There is no record of flight searches being improved by using incognito mode or clearing cookies," says Nastro. Both she and Neugarten tell T+L that the "benefit" is primarily psychological. Nastro likes to think of it like a lucky t-shirt on game day: Is it really the shirt that led to the win—or was it more likely a good night's sleep, solid training, and preparation? She encourages travelers to focus on tools like flight price alerts for the best chance to snag deals on airfare. Per Neugarten, "Searching in incognito mode or clearing cookies might prevent your browser from showing cached results, which can make it appear like prices have changed." However, he adds, "In most cases, the underlying pricing, especially when powered by predictive algorithms, isn't tied to your cookies. It's fluctuating due to real-time changes in inventory and demand." Lin reinforces this idea: "Incognito mode, browsing history, search history, or switching devices won't impact the prices we show on Google Flights." She adds, "Unfortunately for deal-seekers, it's not true."

The ‘golden summer of cheap flights': Now's the time for last-minute deals

CNN

21 hours ago

CNN

The ‘golden summer of cheap flights': Now's the time for last-minute deals

Still haven't pressed 'purchase' on your summer vacation? There's some good news for procrastinators this hectic travel season. If you have yet to book peak summer airfare to popular destinations in Europe, among other places, you can expect to find lower prices and more award availability than the norm for this typically busy time of year, travel experts say. The indications of a slowdown in global travel, paired with ongoing economic uncertainty, are resulting in some bargain international and domestic airfares. And now might be the sweet spot for finding a last-minute summer travel deal. Travel expert Katy Nastro, with airfare tracking site Going, says that while it's hardly an exact science, there's typically a 'Goldilocks' window for booking flights during peak travel times, such as summer. It's usually recommended to lock in peak-season domestic airfare at least three to seven months out from the date you plan to travel. For international flights, the experts at Going suggest booking four to ten months out for peak dates. But this summer has 'sort of flipped itself on its head,' Nastro says, adding that even for close-in travel dates to destinations near and far, there are still summer airfare deals to be had for people booking just one to three months out. For non-peak travel periods, the Goldilocks window is one to three months in advance for domestic fares and two to eight months out for international flights. It's not only domestic destinations with deals, says Nastro, calling this summer 'the golden summer of cheap flights.' 'Typically, at this point, you'd be hard-pressed to find something over to Europe in the $400s, round-trip, from major cities in the US … We're still seeing that, which is really incredible,' says Nastro. She cited a deal spotted on May 28 showing mid-July round-trip airfare from New York to Dublin for $392 on Aer Lingus, and select July and August dates for round-trip airfare from Los Angeles to Paris for $579 on French Bee. On May 29, round-trip domestic airfare deals spotted by Going included Miami to Las Vegas in August for $175; Cincinnati to Charleston for $78 (June-August availability); and New York City to Nashville for $127 (July and August availability). This summer is unique, Nastro says, because there's still 'abundance and availability' for flights to destinations in Europe, as well as Canada and Mexico, and Latin American destinations such as Brazil and Peru. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, data collected from third-party sources (primarily online travel agencies) indicates bookings from major US cities to major European cities made between the end of January and mid-May are down by about 10% for travel this June, July and August. Bookings made in the opposite direction, from the Europe to the US, are down 12%. The drop in international arrivals into the US appears to be having a bigger impact more broadly for airfares on European carriers than US carriers, Nastro says. She suggests looking for deals on airlines such as Aer Lingus, SAS, Lufthansa, Norse Atlantic Airways and Icelandair. 'That doesn't mean that you can't find something on Delta, United, etcetera. (But) what we've noticed is more so the deals are coming from these European carriers,' she says. For the best deals to Europe this summer, staying flexible is the key to success, says Hayley Berg, lead economist at the travel platform Hopper. Berg says airfare to Europe from major US hubs this summer is comparable to what it was during the summer of 2019, which was one of the cheapest summers in recent memory for travel to Europe thanks to low fuel prices, competition and the entry of new lower-cost airlines. Hopper's 2025 International Travel Guide reports airfare from the US to Europe is averaging $817 per ticket this summer — down 10% from last summer's prices, despite the fact that, overall, more international flights are scheduled to depart from US airports to global international destinations this summer than in 2024. Consumers who can stay flexible about where they fly and when they go to Europe can expect to get the best deals, Berg says. That means traveling on weekdays and taking the deal-seeking approach. 'Where I most frequently see low prices are Dublin, Stockholm, Copenhagen. And then … depending on when in the summer you go, the trifecta of London, Paris and Rome,' Berg says. 'Just because there's so much volume that flies into those (three) destinations, you are likely to find a deal if you kind of do your homework.' When it comes to the best travel dates for cheaper fares to Europe, the last two weeks of August is the sweet spot for savings, she says. 'The average airfare is $300 cheaper if you travel in the last two weeks of August versus the peak in June and July,' she says. As an added bonus, once you're there, you can also expect fewer crowds, cheaper accommodations and shorter lines at major European attractions like the Vatican at that time of year, Berg says. Domestic airfare within the US is down about 3% for bookings this summer over last summer, she adds, in particular to big US city hubs like New York City, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles. But travelers who shop around and aren't locked into specific dates can find significantly more savings. 'If you use some of our advice around being flexible, you can shave a couple hundred dollars off of a domestic trip for a family of four, or even a couple,' Berg says. Jack Ezon, founder of EMBARK Beyond travel agency, says Europe's summer of savings goes beyond airfare. He points to Greece, in particular, as being full of relative summer bargains right now. 'Mykonos, Santorini, there's opportunity on the mainland, pretty much everywhere. We're seeing guaranteed room upgrades and lots of great programs at hotels trying to promote it,' he says. While this summer's surprise season of cheaper airfares might make it tempting to roll the dice and wait before booking anything, dragging your feet too much longer into June isn't likely to pay off if you're looking to score a deal, says Nastro. People who were hesitant to book anything because of uncertainties surrounding travel and the markets are likely to start making plans sooner rather than later, she says. As a result, airfares are expected to go up. 'I don't want people to get in the thinking that, 'Oh, I could just book something for July 4th at the end of June, and I should be safe,'' she says. 'Our age-old wisdom, and just knowing what we know about airfare, that's not going to be the case — even in this unique summer that we are in.' Frequent travelers and credit card holders sitting on a pile of loyalty points and miles should tap them for unexpected summer deals, says Tiffany Funk, co-founder of award flight search tool, 'How award seats work is they are distressed inventory,' she says. 'For the most part, these are seats that airlines have acknowledged they're probably not going to sell. Those are the ones that they really let their loyalty programs leverage.' And while there's not exactly a 'glut of award seats' available this summer, Funk says there are more options for redeeming awards now compared to last summer. Being open — to award options that pop up last-minute and to flying in the back of the plane — is one way to score a deal. 'For people who, like myself, have not put together their summer travel plans yet and are able to be opportunistic, that's always a good way to use your points,' says Funk, adding that the best awards pricing has seen for travel this summer has been in economy class. 'Prior to 2021, pretty reliably, airlines did not really sell a lot of their premium cabin seats. Now they sell the majority of them,' she says, leading to more award inventory available in economy class. Recent one-way economy class award airfares booked on include New York to Paris in August on Virgin Atlantic for 9,600 miles plus $75 per person and Phoenix to London in August on American Airlines for 15,000 miles plus $6 per person. Points also have the advantage of being much more flexible than cash when it comes to changes and cancellations, says Funk — something travelers might particularly appreciate in more uncertain times. 'So if you see something, book it. You can always change it later. For most of these programs, there's not a fee to do that,' Funk says. The time to strike is now. 'I think we've all been holding our breath, but really, what the population is showing us is they want to go on vacation and they're willing to pay for it. And if there are great deals, they're going to find them so that they can get more for that budget.' Terry Ward is a Florida-based travel writer and freelance journalist in Tampa who is guilty of hoarding her Star Alliance miles.

CNN

21 hours ago

CNN

The ‘golden summer of cheap flights': Now's the time for last-minute deals

Still haven't pressed 'purchase' on your summer vacation? There's some good news for procrastinators this hectic travel season. If you have yet to book peak summer airfare to popular destinations in Europe, among other places, you can expect to find lower prices and more award availability than the norm for this typically busy time of year, travel experts say. The indications of a slowdown in global travel, paired with ongoing economic uncertainty, are resulting in some bargain international and domestic airfares. And now might be the sweet spot for finding a last-minute summer travel deal. Travel expert Katy Nastro, with airfare tracking site Going, says that while it's hardly an exact science, there's typically a 'Goldilocks' window for booking flights during peak travel times, such as summer. It's usually recommended to lock in peak-season domestic airfare at least three to seven months out from the date you plan to travel. For international flights, the experts at Going suggest booking four to ten months out for peak dates. But this summer has 'sort of flipped itself on its head,' Nastro says, adding that even for close-in travel dates to destinations near and far, there are still summer airfare deals to be had for people booking just one to three months out. For non-peak travel periods, the Goldilocks window is one to three months in advance for domestic fares and two to eight months out for international flights. It's not only domestic destinations with deals, says Nastro, calling this summer 'the golden summer of cheap flights.' 'Typically, at this point, you'd be hard-pressed to find something over to Europe in the $400s, round-trip, from major cities in the US … We're still seeing that, which is really incredible,' says Nastro. She cited a deal spotted on May 28 showing mid-July round-trip airfare from New York to Dublin for $392 on Aer Lingus, and select July and August dates for round-trip airfare from Los Angeles to Paris for $579 on French Bee. On May 29, round-trip domestic airfare deals spotted by Going included Miami to Las Vegas in August for $175; Cincinnati to Charleston for $78 (June-August availability); and New York City to Nashville for $127 (July and August availability). This summer is unique, Nastro says, because there's still 'abundance and availability' for flights to destinations in Europe, as well as Canada and Mexico, and Latin American destinations such as Brazil and Peru. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, data collected from third-party sources (primarily online travel agencies) indicates bookings from major US cities to major European cities made between the end of January and mid-May are down by about 10% for travel this June, July and August. Bookings made in the opposite direction, from the Europe to the US, are down 12%. The drop in international arrivals into the US appears to be having a bigger impact more broadly for airfares on European carriers than US carriers, Nastro says. She suggests looking for deals on airlines such as Aer Lingus, SAS, Lufthansa, Norse Atlantic Airways and Icelandair. 'That doesn't mean that you can't find something on Delta, United, etcetera. (But) what we've noticed is more so the deals are coming from these European carriers,' she says. For the best deals to Europe this summer, staying flexible is the key to success, says Hayley Berg, lead economist at the travel platform Hopper. Berg says airfare to Europe from major US hubs this summer is comparable to what it was during the summer of 2019, which was one of the cheapest summers in recent memory for travel to Europe thanks to low fuel prices, competition and the entry of new lower-cost airlines. Hopper's 2025 International Travel Guide reports airfare from the US to Europe is averaging $817 per ticket this summer — down 10% from last summer's prices, despite the fact that, overall, more international flights are scheduled to depart from US airports to global international destinations this summer than in 2024. Consumers who can stay flexible about where they fly and when they go to Europe can expect to get the best deals, Berg says. That means traveling on weekdays and taking the deal-seeking approach. 'Where I most frequently see low prices are Dublin, Stockholm, Copenhagen. And then … depending on when in the summer you go, the trifecta of London, Paris and Rome,' Berg says. 'Just because there's so much volume that flies into those (three) destinations, you are likely to find a deal if you kind of do your homework.' When it comes to the best travel dates for cheaper fares to Europe, the last two weeks of August is the sweet spot for savings, she says. 'The average airfare is $300 cheaper if you travel in the last two weeks of August versus the peak in June and July,' she says. As an added bonus, once you're there, you can also expect fewer crowds, cheaper accommodations and shorter lines at major European attractions like the Vatican at that time of year, Berg says. Domestic airfare within the US is down about 3% for bookings this summer over last summer, she adds, in particular to big US city hubs like New York City, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles. But travelers who shop around and aren't locked into specific dates can find significantly more savings. 'If you use some of our advice around being flexible, you can shave a couple hundred dollars off of a domestic trip for a family of four, or even a couple,' Berg says. Jack Ezon, founder of EMBARK Beyond travel agency, says Europe's summer of savings goes beyond airfare. He points to Greece, in particular, as being full of relative summer bargains right now. 'Mykonos, Santorini, there's opportunity on the mainland, pretty much everywhere. We're seeing guaranteed room upgrades and lots of great programs at hotels trying to promote it,' he says. While this summer's surprise season of cheaper airfares might make it tempting to roll the dice and wait before booking anything, dragging your feet too much longer into June isn't likely to pay off if you're looking to score a deal, says Nastro. People who were hesitant to book anything because of uncertainties surrounding travel and the markets are likely to start making plans sooner rather than later, she says. As a result, airfares are expected to go up. 'I don't want people to get in the thinking that, 'Oh, I could just book something for July 4th at the end of June, and I should be safe,'' she says. 'Our age-old wisdom, and just knowing what we know about airfare, that's not going to be the case — even in this unique summer that we are in.' Frequent travelers and credit card holders sitting on a pile of loyalty points and miles should tap them for unexpected summer deals, says Tiffany Funk, co-founder of award flight search tool, 'How award seats work is they are distressed inventory,' she says. 'For the most part, these are seats that airlines have acknowledged they're probably not going to sell. Those are the ones that they really let their loyalty programs leverage.' And while there's not exactly a 'glut of award seats' available this summer, Funk says there are more options for redeeming awards now compared to last summer. Being open — to award options that pop up last-minute and to flying in the back of the plane — is one way to score a deal. 'For people who, like myself, have not put together their summer travel plans yet and are able to be opportunistic, that's always a good way to use your points,' says Funk, adding that the best awards pricing has seen for travel this summer has been in economy class. 'Prior to 2021, pretty reliably, airlines did not really sell a lot of their premium cabin seats. Now they sell the majority of them,' she says, leading to more award inventory available in economy class. Recent one-way economy class award airfares booked on include New York to Paris in August on Virgin Atlantic for 9,600 miles plus $75 per person and Phoenix to London in August on American Airlines for 15,000 miles plus $6 per person. Points also have the advantage of being much more flexible than cash when it comes to changes and cancellations, says Funk — something travelers might particularly appreciate in more uncertain times. 'So if you see something, book it. You can always change it later. For most of these programs, there's not a fee to do that,' Funk says. The time to strike is now. 'I think we've all been holding our breath, but really, what the population is showing us is they want to go on vacation and they're willing to pay for it. And if there are great deals, they're going to find them so that they can get more for that budget.' Terry Ward is a Florida-based travel writer and freelance journalist in Tampa who is guilty of hoarding her Star Alliance miles.

Summer 2025 is a 'perfect storm for cheap flights,' expert says: 5 destinations that won't break the bank

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Does Clearing Your Search History Actually Affect Flight Prices?

The ‘golden summer of cheap flights': Now's the time for last-minute deals

The ‘golden summer of cheap flights': Now's the time for last-minute deals

Summer 2025 is a 'perfect storm for cheap flights,' expert says: 5 destinations that won't break the bank

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Does Clearing Your Search History Actually Affect Flight Prices?

The ‘golden summer of cheap flights': Now's the time for last-minute deals

The ‘golden summer of cheap flights': Now's the time for last-minute deals

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