Flight price tracker for the routes you actually fly

Pick a route, decide what it is worth to you, and let the tracker do the checking. This page covers how to set up tracking well — what to watch, which dates to include, and how to read the results you get back.

Choose what to track

A tracker is only as good as the thing you point it at. Three decisions do most of the work:

• Airport, not city. If your city has more than one airport, track them separately. Different carriers dominate different airports, and their fares are set independently.
• A date window, not a single date. If your plans allow a day or two of movement, track the variants. On short-haul routes a one-day shift often changes the fare more than anything else you can control.
• A realistic target. Set the amount you would genuinely book at. A target near today’s fare means frequent alerts; an ambitious one means fewer, more meaningful alerts.

Reading a tracked fare

When an alert arrives, the headline price is only part of the story. Check the number of stops and the layover length, whether the connection is protected by a single ticket, and what the fare includes. A cheaper base fare that adds a checked bag, seat selection, and a five-hour self-transfer is often the more expensive trip once everything is counted.

It also helps to know your route’s shape. Short-haul leisure routes tend to be volatile and reward flexibility. Long-haul routes move in larger steps and reward booking further ahead. Business-heavy routes stay expensive close to departure because they are priced for travellers who cannot move their dates.

Where tracking pays off most

Tracking is most valuable when you have time and some flexibility: a holiday four months out, a visit home with a loose weekend, a long-haul trip you have not committed to yet. It is least valuable when you must be somewhere on a fixed date within the next two weeks — at that point fares usually only go one way, and booking sooner is the cheaper decision.

If you would rather have deals brought to you than watch a specific route, see cheap flight alerts. For the mechanics of the notification itself, see flight price alerts.