I want that flight: A new tool that helps you find the cheapest airfare

Last Updated on October 9, 2024

It’s been a couple of months since I wrote my article on How To Find Cheap Flights, and I wanted to follow up with another flight hack tip plus the introduction of a flight comparison website I recently added to the list of usual websites I use when looking for a flight. This one is especially useful if you are looking to travel to or within Australia.

I want that flight!

I’ve usually taken advantage of the exchange rate between the Euro and US Dollar, but due to the weak Euro, this doesn’t work very well at the moment.

However, the Australian Dollar is still considerably stronger than the US Dollar, which is why it can pay off to use an Australian booking website. And this is where I want that flight comes in, an Australian-based flight search engine that finds the cheapest airfare for you, both within Australia and internationally.While the site functions pretty much the same way as any other flight search website – allowing you to search for flexible dates and receive flight alerts by email (informing you about price drops for a flight route on your chosen date), plus additional search functions for hotels and rental cars. If you’re simply looking to go on a trip but have yet to decide where to go, you can sign up for the I want that flight newsletter with the cheapest air fare to all destinations from your home airport.

I used the website to look up some flights for my next trips, using actual dates and routes I am thinking of flying, and compared the fare that I found on I want that flight with some of the major flight search engines: Kajak, Skyscanner and Priceline.

While I want that flight didn’t necessarily have cheaper rates, it was the exchange rate between Australian Dollar and US Dollar that made I want that flight the clear winner.

Flight search 1: Bangkok – Melbourne, round-trip, 07/12/15 – 11/01/16

To make things easier, I converted all prices into US Dollars. (Note: Later on I noticed that I can actually have all prices shown in various currencies, including U.S. Dollars). I compared the cheapest and second cheapest flight found on each website. As you can see, I Want That Flight found the cheapest flights, followed by Skyscanner. Thanks to the currency exchange rate, you can save quite a few dollars when booking through IWTF.But the true star of the show was a flight that didn’t come up in IWTF’s listing, but in a separate pop-up window that lead me to Expedia through an IWTF affiliation, where this flight was offered:A round-trip Bangkok to Melbourne for AUD535.84, which equals USD423.12.

This is a huge difference to all of the rates offered by the US based websites, and just over US$200 for a flight from Thailand to Australia (and back)!

Flight search 2: New York City – London, one-way, 27/07/15

Here are the results of my second search, NYC to London. I included the four cheapest fares of each website:
As you can see, IWTF found a flight on Ukraine International that didn’t come up in any of the other search engines and was just under $100 cheaper than the flights found on Skyscanner, Kayak and Priceline! The second cheapest flight on IWTF on Norwegian Air is still cheaper on IWTF than it is on Skyscanner, beating all other second cheapest flights by far.

Since I want that flight is an Australia-based booking website, I decided to do another search within Australia.

Flight search 3: Melbourne – Sydney, one way, 17/06/15

Once again, IWTF comes out as the winner, and while Skyscanner is not far behind, Priceline completely lost here, not even including the budget airlines in its search algorithm.

Conclusion

It can pay off to use a booking site with a currency that is stronger than your own. No matter if you’re planning to visit Australia or not, I recommend bookmarking I want that flight as a solid addition to the flight search engines you usually use, and comparing prices on IWTF before purchasing a plane ticket.

More flight hacking tips

Another flight hack trick is to choose a different currency than your home currency to book a flight – JohnnyAfrica wrote a detailed post on how he saved $150 on flights simply by booking them in a different currency on Norwegian Air, an airline I’ve taken a couple of times on transatlantic flights now and have yet to find something to complain about, even though it is a budget airline – but nothing beats a $261 flight from Europe to California, right? While it takes a little effort to play around with a booking website and test out different currencies, it certainly saves you a lot of money.

Last but not least, I wanted to share a recent article in Time Magazine, outlining how you can save money on booking flights when using a ‘fake’ location. Read the full article here: Use a ‘Fake’ Location to Get Cheaper Plane Tickets.

Do you have any other tips to find cheap flights? Feel free to share them in the comments below.