How To Find Cheap Airfare

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Nothing makes a flight more pleasant than knowing you got your ticket at the lowest possible price.
Added January 4, 2008

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You Will Need

Computer with internet access
Telephone
Some patience
Flexibility

Step 1.
Plan ahead

Plan ahead. Airfares are usually lowest if you book at least 21 days in advance.
Step 2.
Be flexible

Be flexible about departure and return dates. Fares are generally cheaper if you stay over a Saturday night.
The best fares are often available on Wednesdays between midnight and 1 a.m.; that’s when most airlines readjust their prices for the week.
Step 3.
Consider alternate airports

Consider alternate airports. Say you want to go to New Orleans. Flying into Baton Rouge may be cheaper, and it’s only an hour away.
Step 4.
Check online travel sites

Search online travel sites like travelocity.com, cheapflights.com, expedia.com, hotwire.com, and bestfares.com. Check at least three before making your selection, since fares can vary by hundreds of dollars.
Step 5.
Check airline’s website

Before making a purchase on a travel site, head to the actual airline’s website. Sometimes, booking through the airline itself can snag you a cheaper seat.
Discount carriers like Southwest and JetBlue don’t always show up on travel sites, so search their websites directly.
Step 6.
Call airline’s 800 number

Call the airline’s 800 number and ask for their lowest fare—without giving specific travel dates. Service representatives often don’t tell you about lower fares that are just a day or two before or after your target date.
When calling airlines, always be polite and friendly. Studies show service people will go the extra mile for you if you’re nice to them.
Step 7.
Have a good trip

Pack your suitcase and have a good trip!
Americans between 18 and 34 take the most flights.

Comments View all (13)...

Another online travel site to consider is: kayak.com. It's worthwhile to look for cheap fares on these sites. Once you narrow down an airline though, it's often worthwhile to go directly to the airline's website and book the fares from there. They're about $5 to $10 cheaper on the airline website.

Reply about 1 year ago by dinkarg

If your in Europe try Ryanair.com Super cheap. About 10 euros for one ways tickets. The catch.....Super ghetto. No reserved seating, first come first serve and some people wait about 3 hours+ to get a cheap flight. But a lot of locals use this airline so its not too bad. You make up in savings!!!

Reply about 1 year ago by pjvaldez

"The catch.....Super ghetto" Nice, that pretty much sums Ryanair up - they even charge people extra to use a wheelchair: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/3994913.stm

Reply about 1 year ago by nimprojects

This is a pretty good video - most suggestions are good but everyone has another discount carrier that has a cheaper fare. Farecast and kayak are normally about the same as most other discounters - the best thing to do is to google discount airfare and try as many of the discounters as you can stand.

Reply about 1 year ago by tt08929

ANother good site to look at is farecast.com. they have an interesting additional feature, whereby they number crunch trends to predict for you whether they think an airfare is likely to go up or down closer to the date of travel, thereby assisting you in deciding when best to book. Also - apparently mondays are also a typically cheaper day to book travel according to some guides I've read

Reply about 1 year ago by pinkydarkes

We just discovered vayama.com Cool site for international trips. Try the 3D seat map.

Reply about 1 year ago by jdthein

another good site is skybus.com :) this was very useful! :)

Reply about 1 year ago by crazymikala

vayama.com is a really good site for international trips. Never found a website that is so easy to use. Highly recomended.

Reply about 1 year ago by Ram

Nice and love it ! I usually book airline tickets from http://www.expressairlinetickets.com, it is very good as well. Thank you.

Reply 11 months ago by expressairlinetickets

This is very American-centric, although I suppose you have many non-US viewers… In Europe as well as Ryanair mentioned above (in my opinion and experience, a very nasty company) there is Easyjet which has real fares ( I use them often) from about 5 euros (plus airport taxes) from, say, London to other European capitals. They tend to use smaller airports well outside the capitals, but still, it's cheap. You more or less have to book online, best is way ahead or be very flexible. Major carriers NEVER discount here, though of course they have cheap fares if you book ahead.

Reply about 1 year ago by bripi

Nice and love it ! I usually book airline tickets from http://www.expressairlinetickets.com, it is very good as well. Thank you.

Reply 11 months ago by expressairlinetickets

A definite must if you are a student, is: http://www.studentuniverse.com/ They have seats that are reserved for students on many of the airlines, and you can get quite a discount sometimes. Other times it's about the same as all the other sites. Your mileage may vary.