How To Find Cheap Direct and Multi-City Flights

The search for cheap multi-city flights, and direct flights whenever possible, is a neverending process for backpackers and all avid travelers.

Money saved on flights can be used on the ground at your destination, whether touring historic sites in Latin America, relaxing on a beach in Southeast Asia, or exploring food markets in Eastern Europe.

Many websites, apps, and tools are available today to help you find the best deal. In this article, I’ll introduce you to Direct Flights and FlightRoutes.com and walk you through using them.

Booking Cheap Direct Flights

Regarding travel in the United States, I always look for cheap direct flights first. The time and energy saved by flying non-stop are worth the sometimes added cost.

Plus, you’re less likely to miss a connecting flight due to the weather, system failures, or overbooking if you don’t need one. If you’re traveling with only a carry-on, you’re also not at risk of lost luggage.

When you’ve got a connecting flight, there’s less room for error, and given the soaring demand for air travel these days, it’s best to minimize the odds of something going wrong.

Direct Flights offers the easiest way to search for more than 70,000 direct flights worldwide. And amazingly, they don’t require you to set up an account or log into the website.

Austin to JFK

I’m currently researching direct flights from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) in Texas to John F Kennedy International (JFK), a major airport in New York City.

Entering those two airport codes provides me with a wealth of data on the next screen (shown below).

I can quickly see that JetBlue (my preferred airline), American Airlines, and Delta all offer daily non-stop flights from Austin to JFK and that the flight time is typically 3 hours and 40 minutes.

A map shows the flight route from Austin to JFK.

Scrolling down on the search results page shows specific flight times for all the airlines and more information about the airline alliances, plane models, and arrival terminals.

When I click the blue box labeled “show return schedule,” it reveals the return flight times for me to depart JFK (New York City) for Austin, TX.

Clicking on any of the individual yellow boxes for a flight brings up an info box with additional details.

If I click the…