How to Compare Plane Tickets Online

Searching for online plane tickets is a form of creative detective work. New, stylish, user-friendly search engines pop up everyday claiming to offer lower fares and competitive flight agendas. But scanning prices, itineraries and airline deals doesn't have to take a whole summer or winter: start with the most refined search engines and narrow your travel requirements until you find that shining deal.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Internet
• Travel dates

1. Zero-in on prices with a mega search engine. Go to a flight website like travelsupermarket.com, Kayak Travel (kayak.com), Priceline for travel within the U.S. (priceline.com), Sky Scanner for European flights, (skycanner.com), or others. Enter your travel information. The search engine sorts through hundreds of flights and arranges that travel data on the top bar of the next screen or in a series of pop up windows. Organize the results that meet your travel wishes and needs.

2. Check layover times. For long journeys, a layover can last a few hours or a whole night. Consider spending the night at an airport hotel and catching the next leg of the trip in the morning. A stopover in an additional city adds spice to your trip and cuts prices, if the hotel offers budget suites.

3. Search with a regular, all-purpose search engine. Use google.com, dogpile.com or a yahoo browser to pull up pertinent plane prices and itineraries. Enter, for example, "Prague to Yerevan, cheap, flight, tickets." The search will pull up every kind of flight with those two destinations that are cheaper than normally priced tickets. The advantage to using a search engine is that you are not getting sold to by a particular airline. The search is unfiltered so that it includes all relevant flights matching your route.

4. Compare the flights including taxes. Airlines tend to quote prices excluding all taxes and add it to the price-tag later. If you want a cheap scheduled flight, check the top five. If you have more time or want a cheap charter flight, check the others too.

5. Contact the airline directly. Once you have found that golden ticket, go directly to the airline's website--prices are generally even cheaper there. If you can, call up the airline and order your tickets over the phone. The airline might charge a fee for over-the-phone sales, but representatives can tell you about more deals and ticket options.

6. Be flexible. Consider all options before making a choice---talk to travel agencies, perform searches with other online engines, contact with an airline representative on an online chat (like travelpapa.com). The more searching you do the better chances you have for scoring an excellent seat in the skies.

References

• Hostels Central - Online Search Engine Advice
• 1st Holiday Store - Cheap Flight Advice

Resources

• Matador - Helpful Travel Community