National Cheap Flight Day: Follow these 3 tips to find affordable airfare

With the peak summer travel season winding down, it's time for National Cheap Flight Day.

But don't let the misleading name fool you into rushing to book your next trip.

"There's no specific day where flights are going to be at their cheapest," Katy Nastro, a travel expert at Going, tells CNBC Make. "That's just not the case." 

Instead, Nastro says that the best time to book air travel will always be in relation to when you're planning on flying. This period when the best rates tend to be found is called the Goldilocks window. 

It gets its name because it's not too far away from your travel date, but it's also not too close. For domestic travel the Goldilocks window is between one and three months before your flight, while for international flights it is between two and eight months ahead of your trip. 

However, there's more to finding affordable airfare than just getting the timing right. Here are three travel expert-approved tips for National Cheap Flights Day. 

If you know there's a trip that you want to take this year but you're not ready to buy your tickets yet, that shouldn't stop you from perusing flights. Doing this periodically in the weeks or months before you book can be help you get your bearings and set your expectations for how much you'll want to pay.

Nastro recommends using search sites like Google Flights, Skyscanner and Momondo to compare prices. 

"It doesn't matter where you're searching as long as you get a good sampling of those flights from multiple different areas," she says. "That will give you a better understanding each week and each month of what those flight prices look like." 

Gemma Jamieson, Skyscanner's senior global PR manager, says putting in the time while doing your research may help save you