Article: Finding the Best Airfare: Hints/Tips/Tricks

Sure, finding the ultimate airfare deal is difficult, right? Most of us know that scouting out the very best possible airfares to beat those outrageous prices can exhausting. Putting in hours and then days, and up to months of searching for that ideal bargain can be very grueling and unpleasant.

Thus, here are some essential guidelines you should consider when looking for inexpensive airfare:

Where to Look
The key word is ‘everywhere.’ But it’s easier than it sounds. With the help of a great tool called an "aggregator" you should never have to individually search multiple Internet travel sites. This free online tool, such as Mobissimo.com and Kayak.com, search nearly every airline and airfare website and display the best fare found for the particular route you requested in a single click. But the Internet doesn’t always have answers to the best fare - check the travel ads in the newspaper or talk to a travel agent. Sometimes an agent can access fares nobody else can and have what you are looking for. A future article will compare airfare aggregators.

If you've found a good fare on a major travel site such as Orbitz or Expedia, type in the same details on the website of the airline that operates the flights you've found. Often, it is a few bucks cheaper and there is no booking fee.

Sign up for Alerts
Have a particular fare you are searching for? Let Orbitz or Travelocity alert you when it becomes available. These free and timesaving services will allow you to designate an airfare that fits your budget on a specific route and they will immediately e-mail you once an airline has matched that fare. A brief sign-up is required. Or, try Southwest Airline’s “ding” fares. This service, also free of charge, will alert you of their low fares on your computer daily and must be booked fast. Install software at southwest.com/ding.

When to Travel
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are normally the cheapest days to fly, whereas Fridays and Sundays are often the most expensive. Late-night departures, or red-eye flights are also occasionally priced cheaper than daytime flights on a particular route.

Stay Saturday Night
A business traveler often wants to return home no later than a Friday night, and that person is usually willing to pay a higher fare for that privilege. On the other hand, tourists or casual travelers like yourself don’t want to pay as much and would consequently travel less. Therefore, airlines developed a smart way to sort out this matter by charging different fares to the same city called the “stay over Saturday night” concept. And since you are agreeing to stay over Saturday night, you must be a low-budget tourist and they charge you less as a result! Although recently, a few airlines have dropped this idea on routes to some cities, so don’t be afraid to disregard this idea.

Alternate Airports
Many large cities have multiple airports, therefore providing more fare options from your arrival and/or departure city. For example: A recent fare from Newark to Los Angeles costs $381 round-trip. Another fare costs $266 from New York Kennedy, which is 21 miles from Newark, to Long Beach, California, which is only 17 miles from Los Angeles. Sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity will tell you when a cheaper fare is found from a nearby city or airport or give you the option of including the search of alternate airports.

Buy Special Fares
Senior citizens, students, and children can receive discounts on airfare if a fare isn’t already discounted. Senior fare savings are rarely phenomenal, but the itineraries are not subject to as many restrictions as regular fares. To find them, you may want to inquire with the airline. Student airfares offer great bargains and are practical for students attending college or university. StudentUniverse.com and STAtravel.com are two leading examples as well as AirfareDig’s very own student airfare finds page. Children fares are available when traveling with an adult and can be ¾ of the regular fare. When booking, be sure to identify that you are traveling with a child in order to take advantage of any applicable fare.

Have a Flexible Schedule
I cannot stress this tip enough. With a flexible schedule and the more dates you have available for flying, the best fare options will open up. I highly recommend Travelocity’s flexible date search, which will show you the best current possible airfare for up to 330 days! Of course, you can narrow the search down to only a month. Another great site is FareFacts.com or Expedia’s Fare Compare which both use the same strategy.

Split-fare Strategy
This strategy is one of the best and least known ways to save on airfare thought of by airfare guru George Hobica. A person can book a round-trip flight from point A to B and then book another round-trip flight from point B to C. For example: A recent fare search for a round-trip flight from Los Angeles to Memphis cost about $400 on several carriers. First, I searched for fares from Los Angeles to Denver, and I discovered a $99 round-trip sale on American. Then I looked for deals from Denver to Memphis, and found $175 round-trip on United. The savings was a whopping $125. More about this strategy will be in a future article.

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