10 Super $$$ Saving Tips For The Purchase Of Your Next Airfare
This article is fantastic and I had to include it here so that you could get the benefits of what Michael Bluejay has put together for people just like you and me.
"I spent a lot of time researching the various engines that purport to find the cheapest airfares, and I found that they're definitely not all the same.", says Michael Bluejay.
For example:
Did you know that if you search Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, or LowestFare, you won't see any flights offered by Southwest Airlines? -- even though Southwest has some of the best U.S. fares around? If you book on one of these sites for a route that Southwest serves there's a good chance you'll pay too much -- probably not what you were expecting if you went to a site called "Lowest Fare", right? Things you should know.
- Be flexible with your travel dates. If you insist on traveling on specific dates you'll pay a lot more. If you can leave or return even a day earlier or later you'll often save you a lot of money. Use Travelocity to find airfares for flexible travel dates. (Click "flexible dates".) Orbitz also has a flexible date finder but it's not quite as easy to use.
- Book at least two weeks ahead, preferably three.
When you buy early you save. Book at least two weeks before your flight (preferably three), and at least 30 days for international flights.
Sample fares we just checked2:
$444 - Booked 5 days in advance
$261 - Booked 19 days in advance
$192 - Booked 26 days in advance - Staying over Saturday no longer necessary.
So far as I can tell, the old conventional wisdom of staying over a Saturday night before returning is no longer necessary. I tried several searches and the return flight was never any cheaper if I set it for Sunday or later. - Fly mid-week if you can.
Weekend flights are usually more expensive because that's when most people fly. Flying midweek usually means a cheaper fare.
Sample fares we just checked:
$412 - Leave Sunday, return next Sunday
$337 - Leave Monday, return next Monday
$337 - Leave Friday, return next Friday
$314 - Leave Tue/Wed/or Thu, return next Tue/Wed/Thu - Using neighboring airports sometimes gets you cheaper airfares.
Several times we've saved a lot of money by flying into the Newark, NJ airport instead of into a New York airport, even though each was about the same distance from our destination in New York City. Once we saved $200 by flying into Philadelphia instead of Atlantic City, then took a $6 train ride (1.5 hours) to Atlantic City. Travelocity and Orbitz can automatically search neighboring airports for you.
Kayak is nice by assuming you want to search nearby airports, and giving you a nice list of the prices for each airport it finds (rather than dumping all the results together). It's kind of slow, but not only is the nearby-searching feature nice, it also found our sample fare for $12 cheaper than Orbitz. - Always check the round-trip price even if you're flying one-way.
For some bizarre reason, one-ways often cost more than round-trip. We just checked Austin to San Jose, and round trip was $274, while one-way was over $700! - Avoid busy holiday dates.
Most people leave the day before Thanksgiving and return the Sunday after.
For that reason those are the most expensive dates to travel.
You'll save money if you travel on Thanksgiving Day itself, or if you return the following Friday, Saturday, or Monday.
Book multi-city trips using the special search.
If you're traveling to City A, then to City B, then
returning to your original city, use the special multi-city search
provided by both Travelocity and Orbitz, instead of searching
for three different one-way fares.- For U.S. to Europe, fly to London first.
"Kelly Fine of Alternative Wedding
Ceremonies writes: "We found that it was much cheaper to fly to London on
one airline and fly from London to the Continent on another airline. This seemed to be true no matter what city in Europe we wanted to go to. And it was impossible to find a cheap flight from anywhere to Bratislava, so we found a flight to Vienna, which is only a little over an hour by bus from Bratislava.
Flying into central and eastern Europe is much more expensive than flying to
western Europe." - Use the proper website to search for airfare.
To get the best fare you need to use the airfare search sites tailored to your situation, as listed below. You should also check at least two of the sites listed because no one site consistently gives the best fare.
For general domestic fares where my dates are flexible, here's what I usually do:
1. Check Travelocity.
2. See if Orbitz can beat it.
3. See if Southwest or Jet Blue can beat either.
4. If not, then go directly to the airline's website for the cheapest fare that Travelocity or Orbitz found, and see if the airline will give a better price directly.
5. Go with whichever of the above is cheapest.
When I need specific dates, I use Sidestep.
More and more, last minute bargain websites are showing up and there are some great bargains to be had especially with regards to discount airfares. Following some of these simple tips and making sure that you do this with all your trips, will help to ensure great savings and a better trip for your next vacation without the added burden of over spending on airfare!
This is our #1 tip for getting the best airfare! Ignore it at your peril.
Sample fares we just checked:
* $444 - Insist on leaving on the 5th and returning on the 7th
* $333 -Willing to leave on the 5th and return on the 8th
If you're super-flexible and don't need to book right away, then try a fare watcher like My Yahoo to monitor prices on a daily basis, or sign up to get the airline's weekly email of discounted fares for unsold flights.
Happy flying!
