Cheap Last-Minute Flights: How to Find Them (And There Aren't Many)

Gather round, children, and I will tell you the tale of what last-minute travel was once like, when finding cheap airfare meant simply showing up at the airport with a suitcase and a dream. When there were whole websites devoted to inexpensive vacation packages leaving within 24 hours. When airlines went to new lows in pricing instead of new lows in service.

On second thought, let's skip that tale. It's ancient history and it hurts to remember what we've lost. Today, airlines have learned to predict capacity with mathematical accuracy, so empty seats are scarce and there's rarely a need to sell off unsold tickets on the cheap. Websites supposedly devoted to "last-minute travel" still exist, but they're really just using the same system that every other booking engine uses. The best way to save money on airfare nowadays is to book early (here are our tips about how to book extremely cheap flights by buying in advance). If you have no choice and must fly within a few days, you'll be looking for crumbs. Fortunately, children, I also have a story about how flyers can find a few of those.

The first thing to do is find out how much the flight usually costs. That way, you'll know instantly if you run across a good deal later. Choose a search engine that pulls results from a lot of sites—we name our favorite aggregators in The 10 Best (and Worst) Airfare Sites—or use FlightsFinder, which aggregates the aggregators.

Don't forget to do two things. First, check prices for all airports in the area you want to visit—for example, prices to Fort Lauderdale are often much cheaper than ones to Miami, just 30 miles away. Second, turn on flexible date search if you can. You may find your deal simply requires leaving 12 hours later than you'd figured.

Also check the app/website Hopper (pictured) or the websites Fareness and Skyscanner to get a sense of what the airfare normally costs across the calendar. Again, we're just getting a baseline for price expectations here, so don't book anything. 

This method is much better for finding airfare sales ahead of time, but once in a blue moon an airline will email or tweet a deal that's leaving relatively soon. Even if the likelihood of finding a true last-minute fare this way is slim, it's smart to be on the carriers' lists anyway, so you don't miss discounts later. Each airline has its own method of telling customers about sales: JetBlue sends emails; United has a "Deals" page on the company's website. In either case, find the section on specials or the box for email signups and get on board.

I can't prove it with data, but anecdotally, flights that go between major business centers seem to have fewer last-minute deals than flights between lower-tier cities (say, Jacksonville and Louisville). That makes sense—there are fewer people flying between smaller places, so there are fewer opportunities for savings.

You've tried to find the low-hanging fruit. Now it's time to get creative. Some companies are so huge that they have an inside line on emergency price slashing by their partner sellers. Expedia, for example, maintains a "Deals" page for last-minute package deals (flights, cruises, hotels) for this week or next week. Think two nights in Cabo San Lucas at a hotel for $300 including flights from LAX, or LAX to Miami for $350 including two nights at a hotel (both actual recent offers; the options change depending on your home area).

If you're really desperate, you could find a tour company that's selling a marked-down last-minute package tour somewhere, book it, and then just skip out on the tour part—that's not 100% ethical, but at least you'll have paid for it. But all of these methods are better if you're flexible on destination and if you happen to have the good luck of running across the flight you need.

When you're squashed in a brutally designed airline seat, you might forget that airline workers actually understand what it means to be human. But they do—and they make mistakes like humans. Now and then, they put the wrong fares into the booking system, and there are legions of nerds out there who trawl those systems in search of abnormally low prices, alerting their followers the minute they find one. There are lots of downsides to this method—you have to act with lightning speed before the price is corrected, occasionally the airlines refuse to honor what they've mistakenly sold, your discoveries will pretty much never be to the destination you need to reach, and you'll probably have to pay membership fees up front.

Of the error fare leaders, The Flight Deal is free, but you have to pay if you want the alerts pared down to your home airport. At Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights), the best deals are only given to subscribers—membership starts around $49 a year if you only want to hear about Economy-class tickets. Secret Flying is another option.

If you're open to going somewhere new and unexpected, error fares can be a boon. But if you specifically need to see your Aunt Myrtle in Shaker Heights, then waiting for a goof that specifically suits your needs would be a mistake.

If your reason for requiring a last-minute booking is the loss of someone you love, a few airlines allow you to apply for a "bereavement fare" within about 7 days of the death. Documented proof may be requested, which isn't pleasant to have to provide. Keep in mind that bereavement fares are not necessarily the cheapest airfares. They just make sure you get a seat on the plane and give you some scheduling flexibility. Most carriers don't furnish bereavement fares anymore, but some of the airlines that do are Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa (from North America only), and WestJet. Some of these airlines will grant you the a bereavement fare even if the death is imminent and hasn't happened yet, but in each case, you'll need to book by phone, not online. 

Courier flights are pretty much a quirk of the past. Businesses once asked for volunteers to hand-carry urgent deliveries on flights, but even in their heyday, courier flights were rare curiosities. Security concerns and new digital capabilities have pretty much pushed this concept into extinction unless you're dumb enough to volunteer as someone's drug mule. 

You might also have to resort to using frequent flyer points to avoid having to pay sky-high last-minute rates. But the airlines have thought of that, too, and most of the fares that were set aside for awards quotas will be long gone by the time "last-minute" rolls around. Not every casual vacationer has an account full of points, either, so obviously this isn't a surefire method.

Don't feel bad if you can't find something cheap. As I mentioned, the airlines have cut off most of their discounting. If flying remains out of your financial reach, there are often alternatives, depending on the distance you need to travel. Americans think of renting a car first. Europeans usually turn to trains. Both options can potentially work on your own turf. But next time, if at all possible, buy airline tickets way ahead of time. Here's our guide to the best time to book airfare.