For most of the jet age, finding cheap flights came down to timing. Travellers booked early, steered clear of peak dates and hoped a seat was still left in a low fare class. That logic still applies, but it now sits alongside three bigger shifts: how airlines distribute their fares, how search platforms combine them, and how travellers are starting to search through AI assistants. Together they are changing what a “cheap flight” actually is.
Fares were never fixed
Traditional airline pricing has always been more fluid than most passengers realise. Each cabin is split into booking classes, and revenue management systems open and close those classes as a departure date approaches, based on how quickly seats are selling. Two passengers in neighbouring seats can easily have paid very different amounts for the same flight.
Low-cost carriers simplified this by pricing every flight as a one-way fare, with a single price that rises as the plane fills. That simplicity had a side effect that few saw coming. Because one-way fares can be mixed freely, a journey no longer has to be priced, ticketed and operated by one airline or one alliance.
Distribution is moving closer to the airline
The second shift is in distribution. In October 2012, IATA adopted Resolution 787, the foundation of its New Distribution Capability (NDC) programme. IATA describes NDC as a data exchange standard that lets airlines create and distribute offers to customers through any channel, whether that is their own website, a travel agency or a third-party platform.
In practice, NDC gives airlines more control over what they show and at what price. Bundles with bags or seats included, dynamic offers and loyalty-linked pricing are easier to deliver through NDC connections than through the legacy systems the industry has relied on for decades. Several major carrier groups have also pushed bookings towards these channels, so where a fare is booked can now affect the offer as much as when it is booked.
For travellers, the upshot is that the same route can carry different fares and conditions depending on the channel, so comparing widely matters more than it used to. A fare that looks expensive on one site may come with a bag included on another, which changes the maths entirely.
Combining airlines has become a product
The third shift is perhaps the most visible to price-conscious passengers. Platforms such as Kiwi.com have built technology that combines flights from airlines with no commercial agreement between them, including low-cost carriers that don’t interline in the traditional sense. Kiwi.com calls this Virtual Interlining. A trip from a regional European airport to South-East Asia, for example, might pair a budget short-haul hop with a long-haul flight on a different airline, often for less than a conventional connecting itinerary.
These itineraries usually involve a self-transfer, where passengers collect bags and check in again between flights. It comes with travelling on separate tickets, which explains why protection products have become part of the offer. Kiwi.com, for instance, offers its Kiwi.com Guarantee to cover passengers if a delay or cancellation disrupts a self-transfer connection. Sensible buffers between flights remain good practice: a few hours on short-haul connections, and more when changing airports or crossing borders.
Search is starting to happen inside AI assistants
The newest change is in how people search. In August 2025, Kiwi.com introduced a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, built with the start-up Alpic, that lets AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude query its flight inventory in natural language. A traveller can describe a trip, including flexible dates of up to three days either side, and the assistant returns options along with a direct link to book flights on the platform’s own site.
Hotels are moving the same way. Recent industry launches include plugins that allow guests to book a hotel’s direct rate from within ChatGPT. The common thread is that the search box is no longer the only front door to travel inventory, and suppliers who aren’t readable by AI agents risk being left out of the conversation.
What it means for travellers
For passengers, these changes are mostly good news, but they reward a bit more attention. A few principles hold up regardless of channel:
– Compare beyond a single airline or alliance. The cheapest route may combine carriers that never appear together on an airline’s own website.
– Read the ticket type. Check whether the trip is on one ticket or several, and what cover applies if a flight is delayed.
– Price the full trip. Bags, seats and transfers between airports can change which option is cheapest.
– Stay flexible. Shifting dates by a day or two, or flying from a different airport, often moves the price more than any booking trick.
What it means for the industry
For airlines and intermediaries, the competition is shifting from who has the lowest headline fare to who presents the most useful, trustworthy offer. Clear information about connections, baggage and disruption cover is moving out of the small print and into the product itself.
Finding cheap flights now depends on when you book and also on where you look, how the itinerary is assembled and how clearly the platform explains what you’re buying. As AI assistants take on more of the search, those that combine price with clarity are likely to earn travellers’ trust.
