How to Purchase Cheap Airline Tickets

Passengers on the same flight rarely pay the same price for their tickets. Numerous factors determine ticket prices, but the surest way to get the best deal is to be thorough, be flexible and know where to shop.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Be thorough. Don't rely just on travel Web sites for the best deal; call airlines and travel agents, and ask about promotional or special fares. Look for Internet specials on Web sites of smaller airlines such as Southwest Airlines (southwest.com), JetBlue Airways (jetblue.com), Ryanair (ryanair.com), AirTran Airways (airtran.com) and WestJet (westjet.com). Also browse your local Sunday newspaper's travel section and major travel magazines.

2. Be flexible. Avoid peak vacation months and holidays, buy as far in advance as possible, fly midweek and off-hours, and stay over Saturday night. Better yet, put your vacation on stand by until a fare war erupts.

3. Research all the major online travel agencies such as Orbitz.com, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com and lastminute.com. Each has a unique arrangement with the airlines and may offer different fares on the same flights. Each site also offers numerous package deals and last-minute bargains that change daily.

4. Book your flight as part of a travel package that includes car rental and hotel accommodations. Such deals are sold in bulk to tour operators who resell them to the public at prices that are usually far less than standard a` la carte rates. Most major airlines offer their own vacation packages, such as United Vacations (unitedvacations.com).

5. Consider the name-your-own-price ticket providers such as priceline.com and Hotwire.com. You can save up to 40 percent over the lowest published airfares, but it's not without risk: The exact airline, flight times and routes are not disclosed to you until after you've purchased your tickets: think red-eye and layovers.

6. Purchase from a consolidator--a wholesaler that buys discount tickets in bulk. It's an excellent resource for cheap international tickets. The Sunday travel section of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times are the best sources for consolidator fares, but they're often nonrefundable or have brutal cancellation penalties.

7. Look into courier flights, where companies hire a courier (you) and use your excess baggage allowance for their time-sensitive business cargo (see How to Fly for Free).

Tips & Warnings

• Many charter operators sell their discount vacation packages only through travel agents, so don't rely solely on Web-based fares.
• Last-minute airfare specials are often available through free weekly e-mail announcements from airlines. They're usually announced on Tuesday or Wednesday for travel that Saturday, and tickets must be purchased online.
• Try to book a ticket in its country of origin. For instance, if you're planning a one-way flight from Paris to Rome, a France-based travel agency will probably offer the lowest fares.
• Lowest-price fares often require one to three weeks' advance purchase, are nonrefundable, require a certain length of stay, and carry stiff penalties for changing dates and destinations.

[GetATrip]

on 12/29/2008 Still from Get A Trip.com, I ran out of word space--hate that when that happens! To sum it up folks,"there is no free lunch" much less "free airline tickets" Sure if you collect oodles of airline miles one day you'll fly "free", and this is an intelligent approach for many say Fortune 1000 employees or frequent flyers, but to get those flyer miles is rarely if ever the cheapest way to fly. This is an old post, should anyone want some "real" advice on traveling the airlines cheapest, let me know, because they are not posted here!

[GetATrip]

on 12/29/2008 From Get A Trip.com, going live on January 25th'09. I have spent in the thousands of dollars in order to research buying consolidator wholesale flights and hotels. Hotels have far more play with what you can offer a customer and is quite easy to beat any published fares. What has me baffled is some writer talking about "free flights". I have personally traveled the trade routes of the world on a shoe string budget, to over 44 countries and am still waiting to see "free flights". Enlighten us !!! If I could find free flights I'd resell them for $50 bucks a ticket and become a millionaire overnight. If you are going to post on this site at least have some direct experience with what you are sharing.

Even the trade route ships that discount up to 70% are not free. Even if you offer to work on them, this is hardly my idea of free, as the work is usually grueling. The cabins may

[avidmacuser]

on 9/26/2007 Sorry, my bad, the correct link for my above message should be http://www.tipconnection.com/tc_travel_tips_and_credit_cards.php

Scroll down to where it says "Travel Tips - Fly for Free!" Travel Planning, Tips on Airline Credit Cards and Free Airline Tickets.

The 4'th or 5'th article is 'Everything You Always wanted to know about airline and Air Miles Credit Cards'

cheers

[avidmacuser]

on 9/2/2007 A good idea to get some tips and advise on how to fly for free as well as getting some information on airline credit cards which could save you a bundle. Found some good information in regards to cheap or even free airline tickets at http://www.tipconnection.com/tc_travel_tips_and_credit_cards.html

cheers

[johnlerner]

on 11/3/2006 TicTrip Travel - They combine all the big Airline Ticket sites.
http://www.tictrip.com/airfares You only have to type in where you are going one time and search over 400 Airline Ticket Websites.
It's really cool and saves a lot of time finding a low price Ticket.