How to Get Free Airline Tickets
Real tips for getting free plane tickets online.
By BrianX | February 15th, 2004If buying discount airline tickets isn’t enough for you, perhaps you should consider free plane tickets! This sounds like a dream come true but it’s not. Getting free plane tickets is actually not that difficult. Just read this article and get started on your next vacation flight or business trip!
Free Plane Tickets
Every single day hundreds of people get free plane tickets from major airlines (American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Air Canada, jetBlue, SouthWest Airlines, and so on). Even if the airline companies lose money, they figure they can make it back using the method described here.
Why would airlines give away free tickets?
More importantly how does it work?! First, you must understand that all major airlines overbook their flights. For example, if an American Airlines plane carries 100 people, they will sell 110 tickets, assuming that about 10% of them won’t show up. A lot of people actually miss their flights because they arrived at the airport late and missed the plane, were too ill to travel, or simply changed their mind at the last minute.
Since airlines want to maximize their profit while simultaneously not piss people off, they have devised a brilliant plan. If a flight is overbooked and everyone shows up (or at least one person beyond the plane’s seating capacity), they have to kick people off the plane. In order to keep passengers satisfied, they offer financial incentives.
Just before boarding, the airline representatives will announce that the plane is oversold and ask if anyone wants to step off. People with the most flexible schedules will agree and as a “thank you” the airline will typically reward the person with hundreds of dollars in airline ticket coupons. These vouchers are usually good for one year and up to about $500 off your next flight. That’s quite the discount, especially if you paid less for the ticket in the first place. Yes, they actually give you more than you paid to compensate you for the inconvenience.
How to optimize your chances of getting free plane tickets
One way to increase the odds of you being the one chosen to step off the plane is to volunteer at the desk, before they even make an announcement. This can be very effective, especially during peak travel periods such as December 23 & 24th. You will arrive at your destination a little later and have a free second flight on your back pocket!
Oh, and when do you get to where you want to go? The airline will place you on the next flight out or a flight that requires a transfer. Sometimes you can get a voucher for $300 for a 1 hour wait. Not bad at all! For the record, I have been in exactly this situation and received the voucher. Trust me, it’s great!
Note that these free plane ticket deals rarely include a free companion airline ticket meaning that if you are traveling with someone, they won’t be included unless enough people showed up for the flight and they needed multiple people to step off the plane. Even then, other people may have stepped forward and asked to be on the list of passengers wanting to be booted in exchange for a free plane ticket voucher. So two free airline tickets is not out of the question, you just have to play your cards right and hope a couple of people don’t show up to your overbooked plane!
One Last Way to Get Free Airline Tickets
There are a few completely different ways to get free plane tickets. They all revolve around free airline ticket promotions. Credit card airline tickets are essentially free if you spend a certain amount on the card. There are various promotions such a Wendy’s and Polident which gave away free tickets. Free airline tickets for military personnel are sometimes available as well.
More Free Discount Travel Tips
The BrianX Travel Guide provides a number of articles to help you get the most out of traveling. Check out how to book a discount hotel room and how to get really cheap flights as well. Looking for something more exquisite? Try the private jets guide.
If I could get a free ticket,I will be the most wonderful girl!
Thank you! A poor girl wants to travel the world!
June 4, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Hey i found this site just looking up tips on how to get cheap tickets for my daughter who is one and for myself. My husband is getting deployed early Nov early Dec to Afghanistan. We would love to come home for Christmas considering we are living in Baumholder, Germany and have’nt seen the family in a while and how cool would it bet to try to get a free ticket i guess it couldnt hurt……………thanks good luck to me
June 9, 2010 at 3:42 am
hi i am nabin chautariya well i am not actudly in anada but i would love to meet a down to earth good looking canadian giral . i currently live and work in nepal as a photoeditero i am to fit and active through my work i love to laugh and i love to make people laugh , i have lived in canada in the past and i visit quite often , not lookin to such into anythng but i am oing woud a girl for a marriage relationship for candain giral so give me free airticket and viss
my email ..chautariya@yahoo.com
June 10, 2010 at 8:47 pm
I desperately need to go to to see my gurlfriend. she stay in quiapo manila ,philippines. we been seen each other online for 7 months. I need a round trip plane ticket, im tring to save all my money to see her…but i hav so many bill,cant sav that much,i in love with this woman.i know god have out us togther. any help would be beyond grateful for us.
June 12, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Am a student from ivory coast studying in turkey am on holiday for 3 month i wish i could go home and spend some time with my mum/
Staying in turkey during my holidays represent a lot of expenses for me and the truth is am having a hard time so it would be much more easier to return home until the begining of the semester. I hope to hear soon from you.
Yours
June 12, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Myself and my husband and our 13 yr old granddaughter that we have custody of is trying to get back to our daughter and her little family when she has her third baby. We live in WA state and she and her family live in Indiana. My hubby suffered a stroke back in November of 2008 and I suffered with and am a survivor of Breast Cancer DX in Feb of 2009. We miss our daughter and her little family very much and would be ever so thankful if we could get free tickets or very cheap tickets to get back there to help out when she gives birth to her third child. She gave birth to her first son 2 months early in Seattle WA, her little boy that will be 1 on the 25th of this month was born two weeks early…….please help us. thanks
June 19, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Could anyone help an ex military guy get a free ticket back to the states from the philippines, lost everything over here due to someone breaking into my apt and stealing my money and other things, still have ids and passports just no ticket back home.
June 21, 2010 at 11:33 am
Hi! I am Susan Palaganas from Philippines. How I wish I can travel along with my family in Rome or in the Holy Land. These places are dream destinations for me.
Thank you.
June 22, 2010 at 3:00 am
i want free visa and tiket.i shall given the fee of visa and tiket to workhard.i am a student of second year. i passed the exams of Fsc non/medical in good numbers.plz help me i am very poor.
June 23, 2010 at 12:54 am
am from nigeria i do not have the money to buy ticket please help me
June 27, 2010 at 9:59 am
pls help I have not been there before, and I don’t have any gren card lotery . but with your help I think I will make.
Pls I want you to help me to be there.
June 29, 2010 at 4:19 am
hello i would like to travell to uk through your help
thanx am from uganda
July 2, 2010 at 10:15 am
im backpacking in Australia for 21 month now and here comes the time for me to go back home to see my family ,my sister’s got a new boyfriend, my parents a new house and my friends got married and have children now, everything went so fast. I’d like to be home for my parents 35 wedding anniversary in november.
July 11, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Everyone obviously wants to travel for free, please add me to the list!!! Free airline tix! You bet! I am ready to travel, and would love to get that first class. Nothing like sitting in first class in a comfy, squishy leather seat with non stop cocktails and champagne! Bring it on! Love that. I will be at the ticket counter early and planning for all my next flights! Yup. I actually gave away some tix that I got in a gift bag from Jet Blu one year. It was just after Katrina and a lady wanted them to go back there and visit.
July 13, 2010 at 10:05 pm
may God be give americal power to do it
July 16, 2010 at 2:47 pm
hi
if i get the free ticket i will be lucky man in the world i want to get marry with a beautiful canadian girl
July 17, 2010 at 11:59 pm
I need to get to denver on Aug. 7th for a couple Phish shows in Telluride, Co and return back to Boston on Aug.12th! Free firt class would be GRAND! (No pun)
Thanks,
KALM
July 19, 2010 at 10:53 am
hi,am a nigerian,i wuld lke 2 travel 2 america but am not dat ok 2 finance myself.i wuld b grat8ful if u assist……….
July 23, 2010 at 11:18 am
I love to travel for free pls keep me inform whenever there is an opportunity from your side. I will be obliged to you.
July 25, 2010 at 11:06 pm
i don’t have enoufh money to travel that why i am asking a free ticket to trip I am from Tajikistan it’s asmall Country that have a 6 million population it’s in Middle of Asia thats my introduce
July 27, 2010 at 3:57 am
Does someone really get the free Airline ticket. I want to try the same and let me see if I get..
July 27, 2010 at 1:42 pm
If can i get free airline tiket i’m very happy. Because i want to go USA, but it’s only my dream because i was very poor men. Thank you.
July 29, 2010 at 12:00 am
I am poor man please join with to you
July 30, 2010 at 1:14 am
I know that a few people have mentioned this before (in between all the beggars) but this article is a guide for how to qualify for free plane tickets. Nowhere in the article does it say anything about giving away tickets.
Now, to all of the beggars. Get a life! The reason your life sucks so much is because you go around begging for freebies. Stop thinking that the world owes you something. You want free tickets for flights around the world? GO TO WORK, make some money, buy tickets, and THEN do what the article suggests. So to the “poor girl who wants to travel the world” and all the other lazy people, get a job and work like the rest of us.
Now I know a few people live in places where that’s easier said than done but you know what? McDonald’s is hiring. And if it’s not, then you DON’T GET TO TRAVEL. That’s how the world works.
Oh, but you didn’t even read the article? You’re so pathetic that you think someone is going to give you free airplane tickets even though you didn’t even take one minute to read the article. The same reason that you won’t be getting free tickets is the same reason that you need them in the first place: You can’t even be bothered to think, work, do something about your situation. Instead you Google “Free Airline Tickets” then find an article that shows you a great way to get them but you skip the article, finding it easier to beg. Truly pathetic.
I find it even more laughable when people add the “god bless” as if that’s going to help. LMAO at you, especially you.
To the editors of this magazine, do you really want to continue posting these lame stories from people who read part of the article, or worse, skipped and just started begging??
August 5, 2010 at 11:05 am
Hahahahahaha !! I loved the way you you layed it all on the line like that !!
Its is so true also. Nothing in life is free !! I mean NOTHING !! Yes they all need to get a life, only thing I did not read was all of the dumb ones begging. lol I am disabled and have a grand daughter on the way and have to catch a flight to Los Angeles from the East coast. No way would they ever give me a free ticket. I am more than sure of it. It sure don’t hurt to dream tho !! lol
August 9, 2010 at 7:52 pm