How I find cheaper flights by using a VPN (with ExpressVPN)

If you have ever searched for the same flight twice and noticed the price has changed, you are not imagining things. Airlines and booking sites can adjust the prices they show you based on several factors, including where in the world you are searching from.

A VPN lets you change your virtual location, so you can search for flights as if you were browsing from a completely different country. But does it actually work? I spent an hour testing different routes and locations using ExpressVPN to find out.

In this guide, I will walk you through exactly how I use a VPN to search for cheaper flights, share the results of my real tests (including one route where I saved over £335), and give you my honest take on when it is worth trying and when it probably is not.

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Can a VPN really get you cheaper flights?

With rising fuel prices and increasing cost of living, it is no surprise that many of us are looking to find ways to save money on flights. Because we all need to get away from time to time! And the great news is that yes, you can get cheaper flights by using a VPN.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll definitely find cheaper flights for your desired route. Instead, it is worth being flexible and doing some searching, with your VPN (I use ExpressVPN, with servers in over 100 countries).

Why does your location change flight prices?

When you search for a flight, the website detects where you are in the world using your IP address. Airlines and booking platforms use this as one of several factors when deciding which prices to show you. This is known as dynamic pricing.

There are a few reasons it happens. Airlines price differently for different markets based on what customers in that region are likely to pay. On top of that, different regional versions of a booking site don’t always pull from the same pool of flights, so you might see alternative routings or codeshare options that aren’t visible from your home country.

It is also worth clearing your cookies before you search (or using an incognito or private browsing window), alongside your VPN. Some sites track how many times you have searched for the same route, and there is a long-standing debate about whether repeated searches push prices up. I’m still on the fence, but clearing cookies rules it out.

How I use a VPN to find cheaper flights

Here is the process I follow when I am searching for a cheaper flight using my VPN. It usually takes me around 20 minutes, and all you need is a VPN (I use ExpressVPN) and a flight comparison site like Skyscanner.

1. I decide where I want to fly to and from, with the flexibility of location and dates in mind
2. I open a fresh incognito window in my browser (or clear my cookies) so that previous searches don’t influence the prices
3. I turn on my VPN in a different location (I test out the destination country, my home country when I am not physically there, and other random countries)
4. I open up Skyscanner (or another flight comparison tool) on my web browser and search for the flights
5. I note down the prices, airlines and flight times
6. I then repeat the process by clearing the cookies and changing my VPN location
7. I continue to search in different locations and note down the details for each
8. I then do some currency conversions to check each price, making sure to compare the same flight time and airline. If the cheapest option is in a foreign currency, make sure you book using a travel-friendly debit or credit card to avoid getting stung by foreign transaction fees!

I tested a VPN on 3 flight routes, here’s what I found

I have used this VPN trick a few times in the past, but to write this article with up-to-date information, I conducted a dedicated test across different routes, in different locations, using ExpressVPN. I have provided details about 3 of the most interesting tests below.

A note of my methods for doing this: Each time I searched, I cleared my cookies, put on VPN in a chosen location, opened Skyscanner, checked flights on the same route and dates, and compared with the others for this test.

Please note: If you go ahead and purchase a flight quoted in another currency, you may well need to pay in that currency. It will save you a lot of money to make such purchases using Wise – check out my Wise review here to find out more.

An overview of my VPN test results:

1. Hanoi to London (one-way)

I decided to test a one-way route, as there are many travellers like myself who often don’t plan the next leg of their journey until much later on. Particularly, backpackers, digital nomads, and slow travellers (or slomads).

A route I often used to take when I lived in Vietnam was a one-way flight back home to the UK. In this test, I used my VPN to place me in Vietnam, and I was quoted 33,075,387 VND (£920.31 at the time of writing). I then placed myself back in the UK and was quoted £1,256. That’s a whopping £335.69 saved if you book whilst visiting the site “from Vietnam”.

Don’t forget, if you have to make any flight purchases in other currencies, make sure you do so from a travel-friendly debit/credit card!

2. Madrid to Mexico City (return)

I tested a few long-haul return flights, placing myself in both the departure and arrival cities, as well as in my home country (the UK) and then a few different random countries (including ‘developing countries’ as advised by other articles). For a few routes, this only gave a difference of a few £s, here and there.

But this return route on Aeromexico between Madrid and Mexico City came out considerably cheaper when I placed myself in my home country, despite the flight route having nothing to do with the UK.

As per the conversion rates on the day of writing, searching from the UK is £67 cheaper than Mexico, and £76 cheaper than Spain. That’s a fair few extra shots of mescal you can enjoy whilst in Mexico!

3. Paris to Milan (return)

In my tests, I also made sure to include some short-haul flights as well. In Europe, many of the airlines for these flights were EasyJet or RyanAir, and I found their pricing to be pretty similar, no matter where I was searching from.

I think these kinds of results are also important to share because a VPN isn’t always going to be a golden ticket to cheaper flights! In the screenshots above, you can see that I found Ryanair flights from Paris to Milan (return) for 596 kr (converting to £47.62 on the day of writing) whilst browsing “from Norway”, whilst they were £52 whilst browsing from home, the UK.

That is a saving of just £4.38, so not quite as good a find as the others.

So, does a VPN actually save you money on flights?

It isn’t a definite, but in the hour I spent testing different VPN locations and routes, I found a handful of cheaper flights. The savings differed, from a few £s to hundreds, depending on the route and VPN locations. But sometimes it can just be pennies.

From what I found, long-haul flights are where the biggest savings tend to show up. Short-haul European routes on budget airlines like Ryanair and easyJet barely changed at all, no matter where I searched from.

So if you are keen for a deal and have around 20 minutes to spare to look at your desired route in different locations, then I’d say it is worth giving it a go!

Why I use ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN has been one of my go-to VPNs since I first started travelling in 2018, and it is the VPN I used for all the flight tests in this article. The main reason it works so well for finding cheaper flights is the number of server locations and how quickly it connects.

They have servers in over 105 countries, so you have plenty of options to test when searching for the best price on a route. It is also really easy to use, which matters when you are switching between multiple locations in one sitting.

The interface is simple; you just pick a country from the list, hit connect, and you are good to go. Then, when I load up a website like Skyscanner (with my cookies cleared), I get presented with the location-specific version of that website, typically in that country’s language and currency.

But finding cheaper flights is just one of the ways I use ExpressVPN whilst travelling. Here are a few others:

• Keeping my connection secure whilst browsing on public WiFi networks, and visiting unknown (potentially malicious) websites.
• Watching my favourite TV shows from home on platforms like BBC iPlayer and Netflix, no matter where I am in the world.
• Accessing my home banking and other location-sensitive websites that sometimes block logins from abroad.

You can read my full ExpressVPN review here for a more in-depth look at the features.

My final thoughts

Is a VPN going to magically slash your flight prices every single time? No. But after spending an hour testing different routes and locations, I would say it is worth a try, especially on long-haul flights where the savings can be significant.

What I found is that there is no single strategy or cheapest country to search from. Vietnam gave me the best price on a flight to London, the UK was cheapest on a route between Madrid and Mexico City, and Norway came out on top for Paris to Milan (which could have just been down to currency conversion).

So, if you have 20 minutes or so spare next time you are booking a flight, clear your cookies or open an incognito window, connect your VPN to a few different countries, and compare what comes up.

You might save hundreds, you might save a few quid, or you might find no difference at all. But when it takes so little effort, I recommend giving it a go.

I use ExpressVPN when looking for cheaper flights. If you want to give it a go, you can try it risk-free with their 30-day money-back guarantee.

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