how to find the

Cheapest Airfares

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Cheap Airfare Tips Search Engines compared When your travel dates are flexible International fares Other sites Exit Rows Don't fly United Fan mail

Summarized Tips for getting the cheapest airfare

• Be flexible with your travel dates (click "flexible dates" at Travelocity)

• Book 2-3 weeks in advance, 30 days for intl. flights

• Fly mid-week if you can

• Check fares at nearby airports (e.g., San Antonio instead of Austin). Orbitz can search nearbys for you automatically.

• Check roundtrip fares even if you're traveling one-way. Round-trips are often cheaper.

• Travel on Thanksgiving Day itself instead of the day before Thanksgiving.

• After Thanksgiving, return on Friday, Saturday or Monday instead of Sunday.

• Fly on Christmas Day itself instead of the days before Christmas.

• If you're traveling to more than one city, use Travelocity's or Orbitz' special multi-city search.

• For U.S. to Europe, flying to London first is often cheaper.

• Use the correct website for your situation. See below or at right

If your travel dates are flexible
When you insist on traveling on specific days, you pay a lot more for airfares. If you're flexible about exactly when you leave and return, you can get much better deals. This is our #1 tip for getting the cheapest airfare. Ignore it at your peril.

Sample fares we just checked1:

  • $444 - Insist on leaving on the 5th and returning on the 7th
  • $333 -Willing to leave on the 5th and return on the 8th

Use the services to get great deals when your travel plans have some leeway.

Search Engines

Most search engines make you put in specific dates, but on Travelocity and Orbitz you can enter just the cities and then they tell you which travel days have the lowest fares. On Travelocity click the "flexible dates" button, and on Orbitz click "Find low fares for weekends and flexible trips".

Weekly Netfares

Every Wednesday the airlines offer deep discounts on undersold flights for that weekend. Downsides: You usually have to leave on Thu/Fri/Sat and return on Sun/Mon, and your choices of cities are limited. As I'm typing this, the only trips available from Austin are Denver ($147) or El Paso ($87), but those are excellent deals for roundtrip airfare.

Rather than having to visit each airline website separately, just go to Travelzoo or Best Fares and choose the city you want to travel from. Then they'll show you all the deals from all the major airlines. Many of these are decidedly cheap.

International Flights

AirCourier doesn't use a search engine, it just lists what flights are available, and right now offers only international space-available flights. AirCourier also charges a membership fee, though the amount they save you on your airfare can easily exceed the membership fee. One disappointment was that they sold our test address to spammers.

USA3000 offers service between select U.S. cities and Bermuda, Cancun, La Romana, Puerto Plata, and Punta Cana. In Sept. 2004 we checked and found a roundtrip fare between Baltimore and Bermuda for $160 (!), while the best Orbitz could find was closer to $400.

Find which travel days are cheapest
If your travel dates are flexible, just enter the cities you're flying between and let Travelocity find which days are cheapest to fly. Being flexible with your travel dates is our #1 tip for getting the cheapest airfare.
Travelocity.com

More features than anybody
Flexible dates, multi-city trips, shows total duration for multi-leg trip, lets you specify special meals, and lets you pick the exact seat on the plane(!). What more do you want? Recommended by Michael Bluejay.
Orbitz.com

If you liked my guide to Cheap Airfare, you might like some of my other sites:

 

how to find the

Cheapest Airfares

a public service of MichaelBluejay.com | Contact me

Cheap Airfare Tips Search Engines compared When your travel dates are flexible International fares Other sites Exit Rows Don't fly United Fan mail

©2001-07 Michael Bluejay Inc.