Best Flight Deals in 2024 (And How To Fly Cheap Next Year)

Key takeaways

• 2024 was chock full of amazing discounted flights—from economy to first class, budget carriers to legacy airlines, to domestic cities near and international destinations far. 
• Going found six mistake fares throughout the year to destinations on three different continents. These were the most-steeply-discounted—and therefore most-coveted—fares of the year.
• New routes, new airline partnerships, and increased competition on routes were the primary reasons for many deals. Travelers saved big on airfare by using Going and taking advantage of flight hacks, such as the 24-hour rule, points and miles, piecing together one-way itineraries, using the Greek Islands Trick, taking repositioning flights, and taking advantage of widespread flash sales. 
• Don’t miss out on the best flight deals of 2025! Amazing fares are all but guaranteed. Download the Going app to receive flight alerts and insider tips to snag the best of the best. 

Hidden gems: The best flight deals of 2024 

• Mistake fare: Chicago and Minneapolis to Ireland from $114 roundtrip
• Economy: LA to Tokyo for $436 roundtrip
• Premium class: Denver to Buenos Aires for $894 roundtrip in business class 
• Points: 80+ US airports to Japan for 40,000–60,000 points roundtrip in economy

In 2024, there was a lot to celebrate as far as cheap flights were concerned. 

Throughout the year, we sent more than 3,000 alerts letting members know about amazing deals and mistake fares in the Going app, from airports big and small to destinations big and small. Among our best deals you’ll find Philadelphia to underexplored Guyana; Dallas to Fiji (one of our picks for Where To Go in 2025); and super-popular routes like New York City to Paris, Rome, and Berlin, as well as Chicago to Dublin.

Our members leveled up their points-and-miles knowledge, and we sent them a slew of deals—like all over the US to Japan, in either economy or business class—bookable with points so they could put that knowledge to good use. And when it came to mistake fares, travelers were gifted with opportunities to travel to six different destinations on three different continents with rock-bottom fares seemingly too good to be true. 

It turns out: Amazing deals were all around us. Here are some of the best flight deals 2024 had to offer. And cheers to all of the deals you’ll find in the Going app in 2025!

Mistake fares

Ireland – From $114 roundtrip

Regular price: $800 roundtrip
Departure cities: Chicago, Minneapolis
Travel period: June, September–October 2024

Not only was this one of the top flight offers this year, it was also a fun one to send out. In May 2024, we sent out a mistake fare from Chicago to Dublin or Cork for $221 roundtrip for travel in October. Because the cheap flight overlords apparently decided that wasn’t good enough for our Premium and Elite members, we sent another mistake fare less than two hours later. This one had flights departing from both Minneapolis and Chicago for as low as $114 roundtrip. And, because October was just too far out to reap the benefits of this delicious fare, the updated deal included availability in June as well. 

Helsinki – 19,000 points roundtrip in business class

Regular price: 150,000–200,000 points roundtrip (can vary by program)
Departure city: Los Angeles
Travel period: July 2024–January 2025

Available for travel on Finnair if you booked through partner Iberia, this mistake fare, sent to members in January 2024, had tickets pricing out at about 9,300 points each way (19,000 roundtrip). It’s a pretty solid rate for traveling with points from the US to Europe, even if you were flying economy. But points this low for business class? You lost money not jumping on it. 

Iceland – $299 roundtrip

Regular price: $800 roundtrip
Departure city: Detroit
Travel period: May–August 2024

It was a perfect instance for using the 24-hour rule: Book the deal, and cancel within 24 hours if it turns out the trip doesn’t work for your schedule. We sent this mistake fare out in late-March with a slew of peak summer dates—a relatively quick turnaround by most standards. 

As we mention in our Where To Go in 2025 guide, Iceland is one of those European destinations that reliably sees more peak-summer availability than other hot spots. The fact that this one was such a stellar mistake fare—and that you could snag it for last-minute travel—made it that much sweeter. One thing you can’t say: When it came to cheap international flights, 2024 had nothing to offer. 

Taiwan – 15,000 points one-way

Regular price: 45,000–75,000 points one-way (can vary by program)
Departure cities: Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland (OR), Raleigh, Seattle, Washington DC
Travel period: April 2025

This mistake fare was specially designed for our quickest and savviest members. Although availability was much more limited than we’d typically send out, the deal was too good not to share. Sure, by booking the one-way fare at 15,000 points you’d still need to get yourself back home, but even if you paired the mistake fare departure route with a typical 48,000-point United saver award space from Taiwan back to the states, you could fly roundtrip to Taipei for fewer than 65,000 points. 

Cabo Verde – $680 roundtrip in business class

Regular price: $4,500 roundtrip
Departure city: Boston
Travel period: November 2024–March 2025 (excluding holidays)

If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that mistake fares are volatile. There’s no telling how long they’ll last or whether or not the airline will even honor it. At the end of the day, our duty is to alert our members to the fare and hope for the best. That’s what happened here. 

Our Travel Experts found an amazing business-class fare, but it was only available through Skyscanner, sold by a single, smaller OTA. In this case, it was unclear whether the small OTA—or even the airline, TAP Air Portugal—would honor it. Per our usual guidance, we let members know it’d be in their best interest to hold off on booking nonrefundable accommodations or activities until their flight was confirmed. If you snagged it, it was one of the most affordable flight deals 2024 offered in business class. 

Brussels – $1,259 roundtrip in business class

Regular price: $3,000 roundtrip
Departure cities: Chicago, Seattle
Travel period: January–February 2025

Due to a quirk in how Aer Lingus classifies its intra-European business class, Alaska Airlines mistakenly sold mixed-cabin fares to Ireland (think lie-flat business class to Dublin, then extra legroom to Brussels) at a significant discount. If you didn’t live in Chicago or Seattle, it was also possible to connect through either of those cities to take advantage of the discount. 

Economy class

Tokyo – $436 roundtrip 

Regular price: $1,200 roundtrip
Departure city: Los Angeles
Travel period: December 2024–February 2025

There’s nothing like an end-of-year deal to make you wish you were spending Christmas in Kyoto or New Year’s Eve in Tokyo rather than heading home for the holidays (just don’t tell your mom we said so). Thanks to this deal—the lowest nonstop price to Japan from the mainland US with a full-service carrier that we’ve seen since 2020—it was possible. Even if you departed from San Francisco, you could’ve gotten there for just $587 roundtrip. 

And this deal was no anomaly. It was a big year for cheap flights to Japan. In May, we sent another deal from LAX to Tokyo for $595 nonstop roundtrip, and in August we sent a deal from half a dozen other airports across the US to Tokyo for $660 roundtrip. This one just happened to be one of the best airfare discounts 2024 had in store. 

Paris, Rome, and Berlin – Less than $289 roundtrip

Regular price: $800 roundtrip
Departure city: New York City (JFK)
Travel period: September–November 2024

Europe in the shoulder season is always a good idea. And in July, Norse Atlantic Airways made sure travelers knew about it, with ultra-low fares to the capital city hotspots of France, Rome, and Germany. While we don’t typically encourage travelers to go for one-way tickets (they tend to be more expensive than a roundtrip ticket), the one-way fares during this sale were particularly enticing. 

If you were happy to have open-ended plans, the one-way prices to London, Athens, and Oslo caught our eye as well, whereas roundtrip fares simply didn’t meet our standards. 

(Fun fact: We found another Rome deal in March 2024 for $195 roundtrip nonstop from JFK. Just saying.)

New Zealand – $558 roundtrip

Regular price: $1,500 roundtrip
Departure cities: San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland
Travel period: Mid-November 2024–March 2025 (including Thanksgiving from San Jose but excluding Christmas and New Year’s Eve on all routes)

The Bay Area was blessed with lowest-ever fares to Auckland in July, for travel starting late fall through spring—which just so happens to be summertime in the southern hemisphere. With long days and temperatures hovering from 60–70º Fahrenheit this time of year, it was difficult not pressing ‘Buy now’ on the Delta Air Lines deal this time around. 

Hawai'i – $284 roundtrip

Regular price: $800 roundtrip
Departure city: Minneapolis
Travel period: October–November 2024

Normally only Going Premium and Elite members get access to Hawai'i (and Alaska) deals, but we felt bad gatekeeping this sub-$300 steal to the islands of Maui and Kauai, so we decided to give our Limited members a taste as well. It was a Merry Christmas in July to all who celebrated!

Due to overtourism, we always encourage travelers heading to Hawai'i to check out the Sustainable Tourism Association of Hawaii for information and tools to help you plan your trip sustainably and mindfully. 

Costa Rica – From $202 roundtrip

Regular price: $750 roundtrip
Departure cities: Charlotte, Dallas, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Washington DC (IAD)
Travel period: June 2024 and/or January–February 2025

Deals to San Jose aren’t rare these days per se, but at $202–$216—that’s worthy of a “pura vida!” We didn’t expect these rock-bottom fares to last long, and for our members based out of Charlotte, this was the first Costa Rica deal they’d seen in more than a year, so time was of the essence when booking this one. 

Barcelona – $297 roundtrip

Regular price: $800 roundtrip
Departure city: Boston
Travel period: January–March 2025

Cheap and nonstop to Barcelona? Sign up everyone from Boston, please! Deals to Barcelona seemed to come in once, maybe a couple of times, per month in 2024. And even when they did, they weren’t usually quite this low. 

In June, we also saw a nonstop deal from Boston, Miami, and New York City to Barcelona for $207 nonstop, and even if you were coming from all the way on the other side of the country in LA or San Francisco, you could still get to Barcelona nonstop for $309 roundtrip. 

So why didn’t this deal make the list, you might be asking? It was serviced by budget carrier Level, a good and reputable carrier, making it one of the top low-cost airline deals 2024 put out. However, you can’t beat $297 roundtrip to Spain on its own flag carrier. 

Guyana – $199 roundtrip

Regular price: $900 roundtrip
Departure city: Philadelphia
Travel period: April and August–November 2024 (excluding Thanksgiving), January 2025 

We consider most cheap flight deals fun, but this one? Really fun. Why? Because it was part of a price-drop train where over the course of a couple of weeks we kept seeing best-ever prices to this underexplored South American country. For this route in particular—Philadelphia to Guyana—this was not only the lowest price we'd ever seen from Philly to Guyana, it was the lowest price we'd ever seen from Philly to anywhere in South America. 

When we sent out the deal the day prior, the then-best-ever price on the route had been $299 roundtrip. If you’d booked within 24 hours when you received the new best-ever deal, good news! You could put the 24-hour rule to good use and reclaim $100 on your flight. 

Fiji – $639 roundtrip

Regular price: $1,400 roundtrip
Departure city: Dallas
Travel period: December 2024–July 2025 (including the holidays)

Fiji Airways launched nonstop flights from Dallas to Fiji in August 2024, and the deals wasted no time rolling in. Suddenly a bunch of other cities, including Chicago, New York City, and DC, also gained access to cheap Fiji fares, all with a connection in Dallas and all under $900 roundtrip. Because of this new route, Fiji landed a spot on our Where To Go in 2025 list. Needless to say, we’re expecting many more cheap flights to the 333-island nation in the future.  

Brisbane – $685 roundtrip

Regular price: $1,400 roundtrip
Departure cities: Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City
Travel period: January–March 2025

In late November 2024, we sent out a juicy Christmas deal to Brisbane. The next day, fares on the same routes proceeded to drop a solid $100 roundtrip, making this the lowest price we've ever seen from these Delta hubs to anywhere in Australia. It just goes to show that you can’t ever predict when—or where—cheap flights are going to pop up. And when they do, here’s hoping you can enact the 24-hour rule to put a little cash back in your pocket!

Premium classes

Buenos Aires – $894 roundtrip in business class

Regular price: $2,500 roundtrip
Departure city: Denver
Travel period: August 2024–January 2025 (excluding holidays), March–May 2025

We didn’t technically call this a mistake fare, but it was uncannily good and very well could have been one. With lie-flat seats on the long-haul leg, this was as good of a chance as any to fly in style down to South America. 

All over Europe – $638–$997 roundtrip in premium economy 

Regular price: $1,400 roundtrip
Departure cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York City (JFK), San Francisco, Washington DC (IAD)
Travel period: Late August 2024–early April 2025 (including holidays on select routes)

Widespread departure opportunities paired with widespread arrival cities makes for a very good SAS sale. While many of the cities featured in this sale were Scandinavian classics, you could also find an amazing deal to the odd warm-weather destination (special shoutouts to Nice and Málaga). 

This was but one example of why Scandinavia landed itself on our Where To Go in 2025 list. As SAS has been gradually expanding its US network, we’ve seen periodic (about once every 6–10 weeks) sales on SAS premium economy. Case in point: We sent a very similar deal in November 2024.

Kenya – $996 roundtrip in premium economy

Regular price: $1,500 roundtrip
Departure city: Detroit
Travel period: January–April 2025

Eagle-eyed travelers will notice that this is one of the very few Africa deals to be featured on this list. It’s no secret: Deals to Africa can be hard to come by. But when they crop up, they’re oh so sweet. This nice fare to Kenya was going for only a little more than its economy-class counterpart. The ticket was sold as a mixed-cabin fare, so the last leg of your journey would have been serviced by Qatar in economy. 

Points deals

Japan – 40,000–60,000 points roundtrip 

Regular price: 90,000–120,000 points roundtrip (can vary by program)
Departure cities: Atlanta, Detroit, Seattle, and more than 80 other US airports
Travel period: October 2024–March 2025

Economy-class travelers, this one’s for you. Business-class travelers—and those willing to spend just a few more points for a whole lot more legroom on the plane—look to the next deal. 

In August, we sent out a dreamy points deal to our Premium and Elite members with wide-open availability on Delta’s award space to Tokyo. Unlike most other deals, this one needed to be booked through Delta as a roundtrip itinerary and couldn’t be purchased as a one-way at the same price. 

One of Delta's quirks is that their cheapest award tickets book into basic economy, which means they have more restrictions for seat selection, don't include checked bags, and aren't free to cancel, unlike their competitors. However, you could upgrade to main cabin for as little as 10,000 points to get those things included.

Japan – 70,000–95,000 points roundtrip in business class

Regular price: 150,000–200,000 points roundtrip (can vary by program)
Departure cities: Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle
Travel period: May 2024

That fancy points deal to Japan we mentioned above? You’ve come to the right place. Getting this deal required a little booking gymnastics, but we laid out all of the steps so you could snag it with ease when booking directly through Virgin Atlantic. 

We normally wouldn't send a deal out with so few dates, but this one was too good to pass up considering you'd be flying on ANA's newest business class, "The Room," on many of the routes. (It'd even have been worth it to fly one way and book a different departure or return flight.)

The caveat: You wouldn’t have been able to find the deal on Virgin Atlantic's website. To book, you first needed to search for availability on United, then call Virgin Atlantic to book the flight for the best value. 

Ireland – 77,000–120,000 points roundtrip in business class 

Regular price: 150,000–200,000 points roundtrip (can vary by program)
Departure cities: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Newark, New York City (JFK), Philadelphia, Washington DC (IAD), Windsor Locks (BDL)
Travel period: May 2024–January 2025

Peak summer (or holiday markets) in Europe, flying in business class, using points (so it’s basically free)...need we go on? This stunner of a deal was the whole package—and just what points-earners needed heading into one of the busiest travel seasons of the year. 

Aer Lingus is part of the Avios reward currency along with Oneworld partners British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar. So in principle, it was possible to book the same award tickets through any of these programs, though you’d have been wise to check taxes and fees, as they vary considerably from one airline to another.

How you can snag the best flight deals for 2025

Cheap flights are all around you—Going delivers them directly to your phone! Don’t miss out on the best cheap flight deals of 2025. Download the Going app today. 

With a Limited membership, you can receive cheap continental US flights. With the Premium program, you’ll also receive international flights, plus Hawaiʻi and Alaska. Want to fly in premium economy or business class? Elite is for you! (Premium and Elite also receive Points deals.) What are you waiting for? Score the cheapest flights with Going.

Why 2025 could be even better for flight deals

2025 is bound to be a big year for cheap flights. We are collectively still in the Golden Age of Cheap Flights, and airlines are making big swings that we’re anticipating will lead to a slew of discounted flights in the year to come. Heating up competition among low-cost carriers, new routes announced by legacy airlines, partnership switch ups, and expanding networks from international carriers will all undoubtedly lead to lower airfare for travelers in 2025. 

Destinations like Greenland, Sicily, Scandinavia, Fiji, and Iceland are all expected to see cheaper flights—and there are plenty more on our radar. Check out our guide for Where To Go in 2025 to see why these are the destinations to keep an eye on next year if you love cheap flights. 

Conclusion

In 2024, we sent more deals to our members throughout the year than any year since 2019. Needless to say, travel is back, and the deals are plenty. Some of our best deals of the year include mistake fares to Ireland, Iceland, and Taipei; economy-class fares to Tokyo, Hawaiʻi, and Costa Rica; premium-class fares to Buenos Aires and Kenya; and points deals to Japan and Ireland. 

Luckily, deals in 2025 are also bound to be plentiful. Due to competition among low-cost carriers, new routes, new partnerships, and expanding networks, the deals are already beginning to roll in. Download the Going app now so you don’t miss out!