How to Obtain Cheap Flight Tickets

Saving money by obtaining cheap flights is so easy, it's hard to imagine not doing it. I recently helped someone save one thousand dollars on an international flight by using the principles in this article. Read on to save yourself hundreds or thousands of dollars by finding the best deals possible on cheap flights.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. 
    
   Airfare Trend Tracker

   FIND THE TIME OF YEAR WHEN AIRLINE TICKES ARE CHEAPEST.
   
   For example, I learned that flights to Costa Rica are half the price in June verses what they are at almost any other time in the year. Simply by choosing to visit in June I can save hundreds of dollars. How do you do this? There are several ways. You can go to any flight search and simply type in a different flight date ten or twelve times. You can also go to expedia.com and use their cheap flight trend tracker to discern when the best season to fly might be. This step alone can save you thousands on vacation airline tickets.

2. 
    
   Cheap Ticket Airfares

   IF YOU ARE A STUDENT OR TEACHER USE STUDENTUNIVERSE.COM FOR CHEAP TICKET DEALS
   
   Student cheap tickets are out there. There are some flights that have specific discounts for students. All you need to use this site is a .edu email address. So, if you have an edu address to use, you can use the website. I saved two hundred dollars over other sources on a flight to Scotland using this service. You can find cheap airline tickets if you know where to look! Their airline tickets are limited so it is a hit and miss service. But worth the try.

3. IF YOUR TRAVEL TIME IS FLEXIBLE USE PRICELINE.COM
   
   Priceline allows you to make a bid on cheap airline tickets. You name the price you want to pay, they see if any airline will accept it. You have to be willing to fly on any airline at any time on that day. These tickets are nonrefundable and nonexchangeable so you will want to know for sure that you are committed to flying on that day even if it is a red eye flight through the night. You can save half the price of ticket costs by using priceline. (See tips below)

4. 
    

   USE TRIPADVISOR.COM TO SEARCH MULTIPLE AIRLINE SITES AT ONCE.
   
   On tripadvisor you can search multiple cheap ticket sites at once by simply checking the boxes and putting in the desired flight dates. Each one opens in a new window allowing you to quickly compare prices and get a general sense of airline ticket cost.

5. USE FLEXIBLE TRAVEL TIME OPTIONS TO GET CHEAP AIRLINE TICKETS.
   
   Most search engine sites have a flexible travel date option. Sometimes by changing your flight date you can save hundreds of dollars. Staying over a Saturday night, flying in the middle of the week, and flexibility in airports you use will save you a lot of money on airline tickets over time.

6. COMPARE TRAVEL AGENTS FOR COMPLICATED INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL TO GET CHEAP TICKETS.
   
   Many travel agents charge exorbitant fees. When a flight costs two thousand dollars, five percent commission is a lot of money to spend. Find agents who have flat fees for their services for larger flights, and percentage fees for smaller flights. For an expensive international ticket, paying a $25 or $50 dollar flat fee can save a lot of money. For a cheap domestic flight a percentage based fee might make more sense. But I suggest on cheap domestic flights, doing your own research since it is easier to find cheap domestic airline tickets.

7. LOOK FOR CHEAP O TICKETS THROUGH WEBSITES IN THIS ORDER:
   
   1. Get familiar with: Kayak, Farechase, Sidestep, Farecast.
   2. Check the Innovators: Southwest and Jet Blue.
   3. Go to the usual suspects: Travelocity or Expedia, etc.
   4. ONLY if you want to be complete: Cheap tickets, Hotwire, Mobissimo, and Trabber.
   5. Now that you know the best deal prices, bid on priceline if you don't care when you fly or with whom.

Tips & Warnings

• Think of it this way, if you spend an extra hour searching for cheap airline tickets and you save one hundred dollars you just paid yourself one hundred dollars an hour. If you save a thousand, you made one thousand dollars an hour by finding cheap airline tickets.
• Priceline allows you to keep bidding up if you do it far enough in advance. So bid super low. When they say you have no chance of getting it say to yourself "of course not...or I should bid lower." You might be surprised. If not, wait a few days and bid again on a cheap flight ticket.
• Make sure that if you find a deal too-good-to-be-true that you haven't bought from an unknown start up company. Many people have been left holding forty dollar tickets from a bankrupt company that no one will honor. Some cheap airline tickets are cheap for a reason.

Resources

• More Practical Articles by This Author
• Expedia's Trend Tracker

[dorigillman]

on 7/5/2009 you put it out there very well. didn't know about some of the websites and i have been to a lot of them when we planned our trip on the cheap to costa rica last year.

[grammastacie]

on 6/6/2009 nice article, very informative. thanks 5*

[missbeth]

on 4/22/2009 Great tips re buying cheap airline tickets! Gave you a 5* rating ... Thanks for sharing. We want to fly to Wisconsin sometime this year. (-;

[gntlben]

on 4/22/2009 Great article. Five stars.

[chrissyjohnson]

on 4/16/2009 Nice tips on How to Obtain Cheap Flight Tickets! 5* rec