As much as you may want to hop on a plane and not move from the beach for a week, a depleted bank balance after forking out for Christmas presents means the endless searches for holidays are mostly wishful thinking. But never fear. We asked a range of travel experts - from tour operators to professional cheap flight trackers - for their top tips on finding the most affordable flights possible.

Set trackers

Jack Sheldon, the brains behind Jack's Flight Club, says it's all about tracking the fares. "Booking flights is all about timing," he tells us. "Don't make the mistake of blindly going online and booking a ticket 6 months in advance. Airline fares can fluctuate as much as 50% daily and will seldom stay at their lowest for very long.

"If you're keen to visit NYC in September [for example], go on Google Flights now and set a pair of trackers for your chosen dates. Google Flights will then send you a notification each time the fare changes. After a few weeks you'll know what a good fare is and can grab it next time it's at its lowest."

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There are good days to both book and go on holiday

According to research by Expedia and the Airlines Reporting Corporation, the best day to book international economy flights is a Sunday with the actual first day of travel being a Friday. For most domestic economy flights, book on a Sunday too but start the journey on a Saturday.

The research also found that the month of May had the lowest average ticket price.

Mix and match flights

Sometimes it's cheaper to book your outgoing flight with one airline and your inbound flight with another, rather than always booking return flights, according to Skyscanner.

Consider going through a tour operator

Because we can find flights ourselves at just the click of a mouse, going old school and visiting a tour operator (in an actual shop) is often overlooked. However, they can have ways of making flights and holidays cheaper.

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Derek Moore, the chairman of AITO, says: "Tour operators often have special ticket prices with airlines to whom they give a lot of business, plus hotels often give them better rates for rooms. Therefore, it can often be cheaper to use the tour operator’s buying power."

Don't fly directly - and get another holiday

It's often cheaper to fly indirect to your destination rather than one using flight, and this doesn't have to mean a horribly long and uncomfortable wait on the floor of an airport.

Donna Jeavons, the sales and marketing director at Contiki advises: "Why not avoid the long airport wait and make the most of your stopover with a mini city break? I stopped in China on my way to the Philippines last year, and if you’re in China for less than 72 hours you don’t even need a visa. If you’re planning a trip to the States, quite a few airlines stopover in Iceland, or you can check out the Middle East en route to Australia or New Zealand."

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Plan as much as you can

While you might not be able to wait to get out of here and get some sun, Expedia's research suggested that the popular belief in last-minute flights offering better rates isn't always right. According to the company, economy fares tend to increase as the departure date looms.

"Booking a flight more than 30 days ahead of departure is when travellers are most likely to find the lowest average ticket prices for air travel," they said.

Sign up to email alerts

Make use of the tool that allows Google Flights to email you whenever the fare changes. Similarly, signing up to a cheap flight alert service like Jack's Flight Club could help. They make it their actual job to professionally monitor and track flights from the UK to destinations all over the world looking for cheap flights. When fares to various destinations go phenomenally low, you get an email with all the details. Sorted.