1. Choose the departure and arrival cities.
The first step to getting a great deal on airfare is to choose your arrival and departure cities. It is best if you can make it to a large airport instead of starting in a small town. Start with your actual starting place and destination and then, looking at a map, choose a few possible airports. You may look within a 100-mile radius and choose cities that you can easily get to yourself or to where you can get a ride. This will allow you to have some options when it comes to pricing tickets.
2. Call your travel agent.
The next step on planning your budget trip is to give your travel agent a call. This person is a great resource when it comes to destination information. Find out about typical seasonal weather conditions and find out about any special packages the agent knows about. You may need to pay a nominal price for these services. If you don’t need all of the above information, you can at least get a basic quote for free. The quote will give you a reference point for what to expect for airfare prices.
3. Revise your travel plan.
After having visited with the travel agent, or researching conditions yourself, you may need to revise your travel plans. Make sure that you are sure about the approximate timing and all of the possible departure and arrival cities.
4. Shop with an online travel booking service.
Online booking services offer quotes for free also. You can test out different combinations of departure and arrival cities, combine airfare with rental cars and hotels and make an educated guess about how easy it will be to find the flight you are looking for. Online searches offer a plethora of information with minimal effort. It takes a little time, depending on how many cities you want to compare.
5. Choose flexible dates.
While searching online, it’s important to stay flexible. Different days of the week will influence the cost of your flight. If you can flex your departure and return times a little bit, you can save quite a bit of money. If your dates are set however, you will have an easier choice as there will be fewer pricing options for you. If at all possible, allow for one to two weeks of variation in your dates of travel.
6. Pick the Lowest Price.
This seems like an easy step, but it can take a little bit of sorting to figure out what is the best deal. If you have entered options for airport location, dates and time of day, there will probably be several different flight or package options from several airlines and rental car companies and hotels. When you are sure of the lowest price available to you and you are sure of your preferred dates of travel, it’s time to move to the last two steps.
7. Shop with the airline directly.
You should have noted the name of the airline from your lowest price pick. Once you have determined this, call the airline or go to their website. The airline’s price will almost always be ten or more dollars cheaper than the travel site’s price. The same applies to your rental car company and your hotel. The one instance in which it will be better to go back to the online travel site is if they have offered you a package deal that costs less than the individual quotes from the companies after they are added up. In most cases, especially if you only need airfare, going to the airline directly will save you money.
8. Take your flight.
The last step in finding cheap airfare is the easiest. You just need to make sure that you make it to the airport in time to make your flight. If you have reserved a flight out of an airport in a different city, allow for traffic in your travel time. Enjoy your trip!