Cheap flights to
Nigeria

Spending what feels like a fortune on airline tickets isn’t exactly the stuff fairy tales are made of, but there is something of a fairy tale travel hack that can help you save money on airfare. There’s a sweet spot before every flight when tickets are usually at their cheapest: 1-3 months before a domestic trip and 2-8 months before an international one. We call this the Goldilocks Window.

There are some caveats, however. If your travel dates are completely inflexible, you should add a few months to the equation. Ditto if you’ll be traveling during a holiday or peak season. If you’re hoping to fly home for Thanksgiving, in other words, you should plan on booking those flights in the summer. And be sure to book your tickets before airlines raise them as the departure date nears. This almost always happens 21, 14, and 7 days before a flight.

Another travel hack we love is the Greek Islands Trick—which works all over the world, not just to Greece or to its islands. The idea is that you look for the best fare that gets you pretty close to where you want to end up. Then, you’d look for another transportation method to make up the difference. It might be a train, a rental car, or a short hop of a flight on a local budget airline. These itineraries do take a little more work on your part, but the savings can be worth it.

For Nigeria, you might see a lot of flights in the $1,700-plus roundtrip price range. But before you resign yourself to paying so much for a ticket, consider whether a combination of a flight to Doha (for example) plus a flight from Doha to Lagos will save you money. We’ve found fares as low as $750 roundtrip to Doha. So, even if you have to book a separate Doha-Lagos ticket for $630 roundtrip, you’re still saving a few hundred dollars.

If we change directions from the Greek Islands Trick, we can find another potential money saver. Here, you’re looking at the price of flights from different departure airports. We see surprisingly low fares from airports all over the country, big hubs, and little regional airports alike, and sometimes the savings are substantial enough that you’d still save money even if you had to book a second flight from the airport nearest you.

Travelers in Seattle can absolutely fly from Sea-Tac and eventually end up in Lagos, but they may be paying $2,000 or more roundtrip for the convenience. Looking at airfare from other US airports before clicking the buy button may reveal a $1,000 roundtrip fare from Washington, DC, to Lagos. Couple that with a $550 roundtrip fare from Seattle to Dulles, and you’re looking at a savings of almost $500. You’ll have to balance the savings against the additional work and time on your end to book two different itineraries, but it never hurts to look at your options.

This may seem like an obvious point, but it’s a little more nuanced than you might think. This tip is all about how flexibility in your travel plans can be among the easiest ways to pay less for a trip. Knowing when it’s peak season in a location means you also know when airfare will typically be highest—high demand means high cost. By avoiding the high season, travelers can save a bundle on airfare.

Even if you can’t be that flexible with your vacation plans, however, you can still save a bit by flying on specific days of the week. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays tend to be the cheapest days to fly, while Fridays and Sundays tend to be the costliest. Sometimes, just looking at fare options a few days before and after your target travel dates can mean saving money.

Tracking the constant changes in airfare isn’t exactly fun, especially since it seems to require more time than any of us have. This is the case, though, when you can put technology to work for you. Once you’ve got a trip in mind, sign up for airfare alerts for that specific itinerary. You’ll then get an email when the cost of that itinerary has dropped. Just note that if you’re considering multiple trip options, you’ll need to set up an alert for each one. Or you could leave the whole project to us by joining Going.

There are only a couple of nonstop flights from the US to Lagos, but a dizzying array of connecting flight options that may be worth considering. There are nearly 30 airlines operating from Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS), many of which are smaller regional airlines serving Lagos from elsewhere in Africa or the Middle East. Most travelers from the US will have at least one connection en route to Nigeria.