Finding a cheap flight has become quest-like for us frequent low-budget travelers. The most effective ways to find the cheapest flights change often and in order to find the best deals it is essential to pay attention to the newest websites and tools. Here is a list of tips and tricks to ensure that you save your money for your actual vacation.
1. The two most important assets in your quest are patience and perseverance. You will need to devote some time to comparison shopping, so before you start you should settle down at your computer with a cup of coffee and a pad of paper and pen so that you can take notes on the various price offers from the different sites you will need to check.
2. Know your vocabulary- not all search engines are like. There are different types of search engines and each has different strengths and weaknesses. Airfare aggregators work by searching multiple different airlines. Kayak, Yahoo Fare Chase, Sidestep and Mobissimo are all aggregators. It is a good idea to check all of them, however, because they often return slightly different results. Once you have completed these searches you should have an idea of the range of prices you will be looking at for your trip. Often times you will find the cheapest flight through one of the aggregators but don’t give up yet- you need to make sure you haven’t missed out on a deal.
3. For good measure you should now check the traditional booking engines. Traditional booking engines also search multiple websites but they charge a small booking fee if you buy your tickets through them. Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, Cheaptickets, and Hotwire are all traditional booking engines.
4. Be sure to utilize the best features of each search engine. For example if you are looking for a package deal you should try Site59. If you have flexible travel dates be sure to use the flexible dates feature on Fare Compare and Travelocity. If your destination is not set in stone then try the neat tools on sites like Kayak Buzz, Airfare Watchdog, Farewatch, Mobissimo and Farecast.
5. Check the websites of each individual airline. Be sure to start with Southwest Airlines because the aggregators do not pick up their fares. If you find a fairly good deal through one of the search engines on a particular airline then go directly to the airline’s website and buy the flight there. You will normally get better customer service buying direct.
6. Remember that not all flights are alike. It is more challenging to find a good deal on an international flight than on a domestic one. The websites that are geared for international searches are Mobissimo, Sky Scanner and Do Hop. Most of the traditional search engines also search internationally. Don’t forget to check websites for airlines that operate out of your destination country (ex. Ireland and AerLingus, Mexico and Mexicana). If you are not sure what your destination’s home airline is you can visit WhichBudget.com. For international trips it can also be worth it to talk with a travel agent as they can sometimes obtain special deals.
Hello. I often use Expedia, Cheapglight.com, Edreams but also some more… I mean, I don’t think there is a general rule. Every month it’s different and the cheapest one can become more expensive and vice versa. It’s hard to find the cheapest flight but if you search and search….you’ll find it.
I would use multiple comparison sites at the same time by typing in a query like “cheap flights” in Google at use three sites to find the best deal.
Comparing prices from several website could lead you to the cheapest flights you could get.