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The Sweet Guide to Cheap Airfares
Yesterday my aunt Joyce called up my grandparents, frantic to tell them that airfare to Seattle over Thanksgiving weekend had skyrocketed and looked like it was only going to keep going up. It turned out she had just barely managed a reasonable fare by getting tickets for Thursday (aka Thanksgiving) morning, rather than beforehand, allowing her and the family enough time to spend together.
So how was it that I managed to get tickets for my grandparents for only $198 round-trip WITH taxes? Well, I have my method, and because I think it's silly not to share, I'm going to. I hope it does you some good in your vacation or business-trip planning.
First things first, it's always best to look for your airfares way in advance. 90 days is the rule of thumb, but occasionally airlines will offer deals if you purchase more than 21 days in advance-- the closer you get to the departure date, the less choices you'll have, and the more expensive tickets will be.
Thus, Secret #1 is have flexible dates. Since my grandparents don't have work or school like I do, they can leave whenever they want. Flexible dates are often key to scoring good ticket prices. When shopping for flexible dates, remember these mini-secrets:
(1) Never depart or return on a weekend (Saturday or Sunday).
(2) When traveling during a holiday period, avoid the two days before and after the holiday for booking your travel- the prices will be more expensive.
(3) If you can't avoid those two days, be flexible with your departure time-- for example, be willing to leave on a red-eye flight, rather than specifying an exact time, like 12:30pm or even something more general, like "Afternoon."
(4) The most popular departure times are late morning to early afternoon (from around 11am to 4pm). If you can depart before this or after this, you'll stand a better chance of getting a better price.
Now the fun part-- knowing where to look. Even if you use an aggregator site such as Travelocity, Orbitz, HotWire, CheapTickets or PriceLine, there are certain things that you'll never see or have access to. For example, many airlines offer deals specific to their website, even if they share their other pricing information with aggregator sites. You'll also miss out on some airlines altogether, like Southwest, which frequently doesn't appear on aggregator sites at all!
My favorite websites for checking airfares:
(1 ) Yahoo! Travel - This is powered by Travelocity, but it avoids a lot of the fancy graphics, complicated pages, and so forth. Sometimes you'll even find better deals BECAUSE it's on Yahoo! Unlike a lot of the other sites, you can specify if you need a senior discount, because that can often affect fares.
(2) Kayak.com - Unlike the other sites mentioned above, this is a different sort of aggregator-- one that doesn't actually sell the airfares, but gathers data from all of the other sites and then helps you find the best offer for your needs. Kayak also features a Matrix that allows you to see the cheapest flights among a range of airlines (nonstop or multiple-stops), and a chart that helps you figure out when to buy, and/or when to change your departure date for the better fare.
(3) Farecast.com - Farecast is a bit like Kayak in that it doesn't actually sell tickets, but it gathers data from all the big websites and airlines and shows you the best deal. If your trip is within 90 days of your search, you can even see a recommended "farecast" telling you whether to buy your tickets now or wait for the prices to drop.
(4) STATravel.com - Student airfare prices tend to be some of the hardest to come by, because it seems like airlines have the attitude of "You're an adult, pay the adult airfare!" But while hundreds of other companies (movie theatres, credit card companies, etc.) offer special deals for students, airlines don't-- usually. But thanks to STA Travel, there are good deals for students! The sites/airlines it searches are limited, but you can often find better deals on STA than you would on some of the other aggregators! If you get a BLUE ticket, then your dates can be MUCH more flexible and the price is only a bit higher (in most cases).
I'm sure you've also heard of the other big ones, but if not, here they are for your reference anyway:
* PriceLine
* Hot Wire
* Orbitz
* Expedia
* Travelocity
* Individual airline websites (especially good: Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Northwest)
Secret #2 is never buying too soon. Make sure you do sufficient research before you plop your credit card number down anywhere. If you take the time to check out AT LEAST three of the websites mentioned above (in my favorites), you're likely to find better deals to compare with. Even the sites that use the same engines (for example, Kayak and Farecast both look at Orbitz and Travelocity; both Orbitz and Travelocity look at the big airlines, such as United, US Airways, American, and Alaska) often find different deals. Make sure to compare them all.
Secret #3 is sort, sort, sort! Many people never bother to look at the additional pages of search results, and they never refine those results when they do get a lot of them. If you sort them out --for example, by whatever your most inflexible variable is-- then you're more likely to find what you need.
For me, I refuse to fly United, so whenever I have the option to remove United (or multiple carriers that use United) from my results, I do. It helps refine my search. The same thing goes if you can only depart from a specific airport (or airports)-- I can fly out of Burbank, Los Angeles, or Long Beach, but Ontario is a bit too far. You can also sort your results by price, departure time, arrival time, and much more. Check out all the options and be sure to view ALL the results pages!
I hope these tips and "secrets" have helped you out or at least given you some insight on how the airline industry prices its tickets. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions of your own, please feel free to comment!
So how was it that I managed to get tickets for my grandparents for only $198 round-trip WITH taxes? Well, I have my method, and because I think it's silly not to share, I'm going to. I hope it does you some good in your vacation or business-trip planning.
First things first, it's always best to look for your airfares way in advance. 90 days is the rule of thumb, but occasionally airlines will offer deals if you purchase more than 21 days in advance-- the closer you get to the departure date, the less choices you'll have, and the more expensive tickets will be.
Thus, Secret #1 is have flexible dates. Since my grandparents don't have work or school like I do, they can leave whenever they want. Flexible dates are often key to scoring good ticket prices. When shopping for flexible dates, remember these mini-secrets:
(1) Never depart or return on a weekend (Saturday or Sunday).
(2) When traveling during a holiday period, avoid the two days before and after the holiday for booking your travel- the prices will be more expensive.
(3) If you can't avoid those two days, be flexible with your departure time-- for example, be willing to leave on a red-eye flight, rather than specifying an exact time, like 12:30pm or even something more general, like "Afternoon."
(4) The most popular departure times are late morning to early afternoon (from around 11am to 4pm). If you can depart before this or after this, you'll stand a better chance of getting a better price.
Now the fun part-- knowing where to look. Even if you use an aggregator site such as Travelocity, Orbitz, HotWire, CheapTickets or PriceLine, there are certain things that you'll never see or have access to. For example, many airlines offer deals specific to their website, even if they share their other pricing information with aggregator sites. You'll also miss out on some airlines altogether, like Southwest, which frequently doesn't appear on aggregator sites at all!
My favorite websites for checking airfares:
(1 ) Yahoo! Travel - This is powered by Travelocity, but it avoids a lot of the fancy graphics, complicated pages, and so forth. Sometimes you'll even find better deals BECAUSE it's on Yahoo! Unlike a lot of the other sites, you can specify if you need a senior discount, because that can often affect fares.
(2) Kayak.com - Unlike the other sites mentioned above, this is a different sort of aggregator-- one that doesn't actually sell the airfares, but gathers data from all of the other sites and then helps you find the best offer for your needs. Kayak also features a Matrix that allows you to see the cheapest flights among a range of airlines (nonstop or multiple-stops), and a chart that helps you figure out when to buy, and/or when to change your departure date for the better fare.
(3) Farecast.com - Farecast is a bit like Kayak in that it doesn't actually sell tickets, but it gathers data from all the big websites and airlines and shows you the best deal. If your trip is within 90 days of your search, you can even see a recommended "farecast" telling you whether to buy your tickets now or wait for the prices to drop.
(4) STATravel.com - Student airfare prices tend to be some of the hardest to come by, because it seems like airlines have the attitude of "You're an adult, pay the adult airfare!" But while hundreds of other companies (movie theatres, credit card companies, etc.) offer special deals for students, airlines don't-- usually. But thanks to STA Travel, there are good deals for students! The sites/airlines it searches are limited, but you can often find better deals on STA than you would on some of the other aggregators! If you get a BLUE ticket, then your dates can be MUCH more flexible and the price is only a bit higher (in most cases).
I'm sure you've also heard of the other big ones, but if not, here they are for your reference anyway:
* PriceLine
* Hot Wire
* Orbitz
* Expedia
* Travelocity
* Individual airline websites (especially good: Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Northwest)
Secret #2 is never buying too soon. Make sure you do sufficient research before you plop your credit card number down anywhere. If you take the time to check out AT LEAST three of the websites mentioned above (in my favorites), you're likely to find better deals to compare with. Even the sites that use the same engines (for example, Kayak and Farecast both look at Orbitz and Travelocity; both Orbitz and Travelocity look at the big airlines, such as United, US Airways, American, and Alaska) often find different deals. Make sure to compare them all.
Secret #3 is sort, sort, sort! Many people never bother to look at the additional pages of search results, and they never refine those results when they do get a lot of them. If you sort them out --for example, by whatever your most inflexible variable is-- then you're more likely to find what you need.
For me, I refuse to fly United, so whenever I have the option to remove United (or multiple carriers that use United) from my results, I do. It helps refine my search. The same thing goes if you can only depart from a specific airport (or airports)-- I can fly out of Burbank, Los Angeles, or Long Beach, but Ontario is a bit too far. You can also sort your results by price, departure time, arrival time, and much more. Check out all the options and be sure to view ALL the results pages!
I hope these tips and "secrets" have helped you out or at least given you some insight on how the airline industry prices its tickets. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions of your own, please feel free to comment!