With increased access to broadband internet and connectivity via smartphones, more and more people have been booking airline tickets online. Even if you’re not planning to travel immediately, it pays to learn some of these tricks so that you find the best deals when you want to book your tickets.
1. Buy Your Tickets At The Right Time
Buying tickets as early as 21 days before travel can gain you the best possible price advantage. Best to make a firm purchase of these tickets at least 14 or 7 days before departure, to get the best deals.
2. Compare Fares At Different Sites
Bookmark a bunch of travel sites and search through them for deals. Start with Orbitz.com, which gives you the best deals from the Web-only fares. The airlines that founded Orbitz are American, United, Delta, Continental and Northwest, so you’ll find the best deals from these airlines. Don’t forget to bookmark OneTravel.com and CheapTickets.com for some good, low rate deals. Also check out Travelocity and Expedia, from where you can get great discounts as well.
3. Sign Up For Fare Alerts
Don’t forget to sign up for airfare alerts on top auction, discount, airline and fare comparison sites. You can sign up for alerts for specific routes, and enjoy the advantage of knowing when to leverage on a great deal.
4. Keep An Eye On Discount Sites
There are several not-so-well known discount airlines that offer you much lower prices than bigger airlines. So it’s likely you won’t find these deals listed on top sites. Check out discount sites such as Priceline.com and Hotwire.com to get good deals on fares from American Trans Air, JetBlue and Southwest airlines.
5. Follow Up On Airfare News
Subscribe to news from sites which publish news on airfare deals. Some of these sites are Bestfares.com, USATODAY.com, Travelzoo.com and WebFlyer.com. Take advantage of the phone numbers and the direct links to airline sites you’ll find on these news sites, to do your bookings directly from the travel agents or airlines.
6. Be Flexible About Airports
If you choose to land at a secondary airport that’s at a distance away from you instead of the main airport close by, you can shave up to 50% on flight fare. You can use BestFares.com to automatically search for alternate airports.
7. Include A Saturday Stay
If your itinerary includes a Saturday night stay, you can shave off several dollars from your ticket price. Many airlines reserve their best fares for Saturday night stay itineraries.
8. Keep Your Flying Schedule Flexible
Keep your flying schedule flexible, if you can afford. It. If you keep both your flight dates and times flexible, you can take advantage of the ‘anytime’ option that most airlines keep open. You can save more money by opting to travel during less popular hours of the day.
9. Ask For And Book The Best Rates
Several airfare discount sites such as Hotwire.com allow you to locate fares based on your travel dates and destination, and preferred price (Priceline.com). Deals will expire within the hour and cannot be renewed till 48 hours have expired.
10. Check Airline Sites
Between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, airline sites allow you to buy last-minute Web fares. With some airlines such as American, tickets are offered a weekend in advance, so you can plan your trip.
11. Follow Up On Last-Minute Deals News
Stay on top of air fare news sites for last-minute airline deals such as USATODAY.com, TravelZoo.com and BestFares.com. You can search for fares based on your departure city and book flights on airline sites.
12. Don’t Buy Tickets Too Early
Ticket prices fluctuate; be patient, and don’t book your tickets weeks or months in advance. Wait, keep your eye on your preferred trip and watch out for airfare sales. When you see a really good deal, book it.
13. Check Last-Minute Aggregator Sites
Aggregator sites such as Orbitz package web fares for weekend trips from several airlines simultaneously. Packaged fares including hotels and car rentals can be had from LastMinuteTravel.com and Site59.com.
14. Use Comparison Shopping Engines
It’s a good idea to use a comparison-shopping engine such as Sidestep, or Qixo or Farechase, which brings you the rates and bargains from several agency sites and airline sites at the same time. You can also get a great snapshot of available deals through the Farefinder technology from BestFares.com.
15. Learn To Bid For The Best Rates
Another way to get the best and lowest deals is to locate good fares on sites such as Hotwire.com and then bid for lower prices on Priceline.com. Since Hotwire prices are valid for one hour, if you are not able to bid on a low enough price on Priceline, get back to Hotwire.com and accept the original price.
Karen is working for gifts for men company Adrenaline that offers a large range of experiences like skydiving in gold coast, hot air ballooning, V8 race experience and lot more all across Australia.
Image: Flickr/hirotomo
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
