If you are serious about finding a cheap airfare for any given trip, you might
try the info below. It's all about exploring the alternatives! There's no magic
to it, although there is sometimes luck when you find a great sale and actually
get seats. Here's what I do:
- DO NOT buy anything until you're satisfied you have all the info that can
be had, maybe 1-2 hours research with a fast Internet connection
- Buy as far in advance as you can. With fuel prices fluctuating, airfares
haven't gone anywhere but up recently. The only time to violate this advice
is when you can go any time, a luxury that's not available for most of us.
To get three weeks away from work, the minimum plan to amortize my trip to
Europe over, I plan nine months in advance and can only go between the end
of school and the beginning of the end of fiscal year madness. So I have to
plan rigidly. But otherwise, you can wait for a sale and make a spur of the
moment decision. Can't wait until my kid is out of school and we can go in
the off-season. Boy, will we get bargains!
- Check Kayak, Orbitz,
Expedia and
Cheaptickets at
minimum. Kayak is a consolidator (shows fares from all major travel search
engines), although I have found that sometimes they miss fares. Each of the
latter three negotiate some deals of their own with the airlines, which is
why I check all three plus Kayak. None of them show all the airlines by themselves,
which is why you check them all. There are others, but I rarely find anything
different.
- Check Hotwire and
Priceline,
if you're willing to deal with their restrictions (usually they won't tell
you the best fares until you give them a cc number and agree to buy). I don't
use them myself, except once for a hotel room and car in New York. Their regular
fares are nothing special, only the bargain fares are worth anything and they're
the ones they won't show you until you're ready to buy.
- Check for student fares if you're traveling with a student, using the search
words "student airfares" in Google or any other major search engine.
StudentUniverse
is one, there are others. We haven't really used them. But other members of
the party can get a cheap fare as long as they have a student accompanying
them.
- For international destinations including around the world tickets, check
Bootsnall. Also has
great destination information and blogs. Haven't found that they have such
great domestic fares.
- If you're going somewhere in the US that they fly near, check out Southwest
Airlines. They aren't listed on any of the travel sites except their own,
and they often have really cheap fares with flexible constraints to close
airports. If they fly within 100 miles, they may be cheaper, and it may offset
the cost of a car or alternative transportation - not to mention the headache
of flying into a huge airport like Kennedy.
- If you are looking at an airline you haven't flown before, check them out
on AirlineQuality.com.
This site rates airlines by passenger opinions, and has helped me make decisions
about who and when to fly. For example, if you don't care if your flight is
late often but value the comfort it offers due to expanded legroom on all
flights, by all means fly the airline that has rated low with others who are
more in a hurry than you are.
- If you have a long layover and aren't allergic to the idea of sleeping in
an airport (I always bring two of my sarongs for a bottom and top sheet, an
inflatable pillow and my ipod for white noise), then rate your airports on
SleepingInAirports.com.
No, I'm not kidding - and it has really helped me make flight decisions. It
also tells you what the airports have to entertain you while you're there,
and surprisingly, there's quite a range, from spas to exceptional shopping,
as well as talking about restaurants in the airports.
Let's plan a hypothetical trip: Las Vegas to Rome
- Using the above sources, look for the best fare between your destination
points, allowing as many stops are you are prepared to deal with.
- Now, look for sales on other destinations in Europe (London and Paris are
popular sale destinations), and then use Air
Berlin, EasyJet,
RyanAir, HLX,
FlyBe out of England or
any of the other low
cost European airlines to make a connection for yourself.
- Using a sale fare and a simple low-cost connection, you may save yourself
$300-$500 per ticket on your flights, and the connection probably will cost
between $19 - $60. Be aware that many times these low cost airlines use the
secondary airports such as Beauvais in Paris rather the CDG, or Ciampino in
Rome rather than Fiumacino, but don't let that deter you. There is always
a way to get between the airports - just allow yourself plenty of time.
Worst case, you may find a delightful stopover that you wouldn't otherwise
have found. Or, you could go crazy like me and add three stops (Vienna, Paris,
Copenhagen) to your next trip because the flights were only $32 each!
Let's plan a hypothetical trip to the Big Apple from Las Vegas:
- Using the above sources, look for the best fare between your destination
points (Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark), allowing as many stops are you are
prepared to deal with.
- Now, think about flying to Philadelphia on Southwest
instead! It's only two hours by car, train or bus between the cities, and
you may save several hundred dollars per person. It was only $125 for the
week for our car on hotwire, so the $400 (min) we saved on the tickets paid
for that and more, even with parking in New York and we had lots more mobility.