How do you usually buy your plane ticket? If you’re anything like me, you book your plane ticket and then fly out on the departure date.

I never thought twice because this is how everyone does it.

However, there was a huge component I was missing that no one pays attention to: “after I buy my ticket, what happens to the price?” This is super important.

Everyone knows flight prices move around a lot. When you are booking a flight, it might cost $350, and then you check again tomorrow and it’s suddenly $500. Not a good feeling. The ticket might stay at $500 for a few days until you reluctantly buy it and feel terrible because you could have paid $350 if you hadn’t waited.

Most people think the game ends here. You paid for your flight, and now you just have to wait until it leaves.

The game doesn’t end here. You can still save significant money. How? By paying attention to the price after you buy your ticket.

I recently flew to Charleston for my friend’s wedding. I bought my ticket on Delta for $887. I put my flight on The Sky Key, and two days later, got an alert my flight was selling for $723. I immediately called Delta and got a $164 credit.

A few days later, I got another alert from The Sky Key that my flight was selling for $688. I called Delta and again got another credit for $35.

My total savings on this one flight: $199. A few months later, I used my savings on a trip to Paris so I could watch my friends compete in the Olympics.

If you like saving money on flights, I highly recommend you follow a similar strategy- buy your ticket, then pay attention to the price. This was not a one-off situation- from our data, it happens to about 50% of your tickets. There is no better strategy for saving money on your flights.

-Billy

Co-Founder @The Sky Key