Cheap flights to
New Jersey

Contrary to what you might have heard, there isn’t a magical day or time when airfares are always the cheapest. There is, however, a period of time before any flight when tickets are typically the cheapest they’re going to be. For domestic trips, it’s 1-3 months before departure. For international trips, it’s 2-8 months beforehand. We call this sweet spot the Goldilocks Window.

But if your travel plans happen to be during the high season, or your actual travel dates are set in stone, we’d advise looking to buy even further in advance. Planning a summer holiday on the Jersey Shore? Start looking at fares over the winter. And remember that while there are occasionally last-minute bargains, the vast majority of the time, ticket prices go up dramatically before a flight. This is especially true 21, 14, and 7 days before takeoff, so be sure to book before then.

Sometimes, the best option for getting where you want to go isn’t the most direct route. If you’re headed to New Jersey, you’ll find plenty of nonstop flights into Newark, but they may not be the cheapest flights. Before you click the buy button, we recommend trying what we call the Greek Islands Trick, in which you find the best fare on a flight that gets you pretty close to where you really want to be and find another transportation method to make up the difference.

With our Newark scenario, some of the other airports to check for cheaper fares are obvious—namely, the other two NYC-area airports, LaGuardia and JFK. But don’t overlook airports outside the NYC bubble. There may be a super low fare from an airport close to you that flies into Boston or Philadelphia, for example, and from either of those cities, you can hop on a train or rent a car to get where you’re going in New Jersey for less than it might cost to fly directly to the Garden State. And, yes, this may take more attention to detail in the planning, but the savings can be big.

Just as there are sometimes better deals on flights to airports that are close to where you ultimately want to go, there are also sometimes better deals on flights that leave from different airports than you might usually use. If you live in the Los Angeles area, you may already be accustomed to searching multiple airports for flights. But it’s a good habit to get into, no matter where you live.

We see unbelievably low fares that depart from airports all over the country, both big hubs and smaller airports, and you never know when one of those might save you a bundle. Even if you live in LA, you can benefit from shopping around more broadly. A nonstop flight from LAX to Newark might be $450 or more roundtrip, but a nonstop flight from San Diego could be under $300 roundtrip. That $150 savings might make a road trip worth your while.

Being flexible with your travel plans is one of the best ways to save money on a trip. This can mean favoring the shoulder seasons (or even low season) instead of the more expensive peak season—which is roughly June-August in most of New Jersey. High season means greater demand, and greater demand means airlines will raise the prices of tickets.

Flexibility comes in multiple forms, though, and one that you may not know is about what days of the week are generally the cheapest to fly. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays are often the cheapest days to fly in a given week, so try to schedule your flights on those days. Fridays and Sundays tend to be the most expensive days to fly, so try to avoid those if you can. Of course, if your trip is over a major holiday like Thanksgiving, these generalizations won’t apply. But you may still be able to save a bit of money if you look at flight options a few days before and after your target travel dates.

We all like tech tools that make our lives easier—especially if that also means saving money. Tracking the constant changes in the cost of airline tickets is made infinitely easier with the help of fare alerts. You simply set up an alert for a specific trip you’re watching, and you’ll be notified by email when the price drops. Do this far enough in advance that you’ll be able to see prices trending up or down and therefore be confident you’re getting a good deal when you click the buy button. If you’re considering multiple trip options, note you’ll need to set up a fare alert for each one. Or you can simply join Going and let us do all the searching and tracking for you.

Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) is by far the largest and busiest in New Jersey. It’s the biggest hub for United Airlines, is also one of JetBlue’s focus cities, and is also served by 28 other airlines—which means your options for flying into Newark are plentiful. There are more than 85 airports in the United States with nonstop service into Newark Liberty, as well as airports in more than 50 other countries that also offer nonstop service to Newark.