It may be hard to pinpoint a single right solution to this question, but that doesn’t indicate you can’t be the first to know when a big flight is available for less. Plans and studies aside, one of the most useful tactics for identifying the precise moment airfare shifts more affordable are to set up price alerts.

Signing up for these alerts is easy, though some engines offer more ease than others. Make sure that your airfare estimate tool includes the airlines you’re most interested in. If you have to save by travel date, consider adding few different options such as change of dates, as changing around by a day or two can make an enormous difference in price. Ordinarily, saving by route (and even airports, especially) is the best way to go.

Ask your three friends, “When do airfares drop?” and you’ll get three savagely different answers. The response may be overwhelming. That’s because there are lots of contrasting ideas as to when is the best time to buy your airfare. Some suggest buying tickets on a Tuesday afternoon, while others insist that this method might not provide the results you’re searching for, purchasing airfare at the stroke of midnight can generate savings, say others, but it may not always be worth it to stay up late just to book a flight.

The most obvious way to score a last-minute flight used to be to turn up at the airport and ask for a standby ticket. Wistfully, those days are gone now. So many people are traveling these days, most flights sell out. You can still sneak onto a standby list, except only if:

• You’ve missed the flight you scheduled
• You’ve got a ticket for a next flight, but landed early
• You’ve got friends working at the airline — but you’ll still have to wait

So, yeah, just setting up at the airport isn’t such a great idea anymore.

The big news is, we’ve discovered a few amazing tools in our free app that can help.

Various airlines are connecting to popular domestic and international routes regularly. Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest, and AirAsia are among the most affordable ones that you will find on our site or app.

Top tips for finding a cheap flight

• Looking for a low-cost flight ticket? 25% of our users got flights on almost every route for $176 or less.
• The most affordable flight from Las Vegas, New York to anywhere was found 59 days before the flight, on average.
• Book at least 2 weeks before leaving to get a below-average price.
• The high season is estimated to be June, July, and August. The most affordable month to fly is February.
• Morning flights are around 25% more costly than an evening flight, on average*.

*Average of the most economical prices shown in LatinOFare’s search results for flights within the next 30 days estimated