Tips on Finding Cheap Airfare

Okay, so let's say your sis just moved to a new town and you wanted to go visit her-except she's 2 states away. Here starts the debate of "do I fly?" or "should I drive?". Well, people that know me well know that I'm a penny pincher (yes! I'm cheap and proud of it!) and that I will do everything in my power to find the cheapest flight available, cuz if I don't find a cost effective way to go via plane, I drivin'. But, come on. Let's get real. Nobody in their right mind would want to drive if they don't have to. So, take that extra time to really do your research. Don't be lazy and just go to Expedia.com. You might find a much better deal, even if it's just the $30 you will have saved that you can now use to take a taxi to ur sis's house cuz her dumb butt forgot to pick you up. Or, it'll be the difference of eating the most expensive plate at The Olive Garden to show off you have "good means" and give a 20% tip on top of that (hee, hee, hee) instead of doing the $5.95 all you can eat soup and salad and only give the last $2 tip in your purse (that's in quarters!) cuz you weren't bright enough to find a good deal on a flight.

Okay, so this is what I do. Hopefully you can use this a guide to make an educated decision on a "good deal".

• I gotta give it to the founders of travelocity, expedia, and orbitz. They make finding flights from multiple airlines as easy as using their search engine and printing out your e-ticket from the comfort of your own stinky computer chair. They make mad money out of the American public. You know why, mostly? Cuz they charge a service fee for their services and they try bribing you to buy "cancellation insurance". Do look at these sites for good deals, but Don't buy from these sites. Let's say you did find a very good deal on a roundtrip airfare to your sis's house. Instead on clicking "purchase", open a new internet browser window and go directly to the site of the airline that offered that good deal. Did you notice it's cheaper? I guarantee to you it is. Cuz the airline isn't charging you that "service fee" cuz you're buying directly from the source.
  
  
• Let's say you were all over travelocity, expedia, and orbitz. You weren't too thrilled at any of the prices that were being offered. Now, what you should do is go to another website. It's called Kayak. This site has most of the airline search engines in one spot. Just enter your information in their search engine and vuala! More airlines (regional airlines) are on this list. The cool thing about this site is that if you see a fare that you really like, when you click on purchase, it takes you directly to the airline's website. You get the ticket directly from the source. On the other hand, if you still couldn't find a good deal, you can get on their email alert list. When the rate falls on any airline to your destination, it'll email you to let you know.
  
  
• Despite Kayak being so diverse when it comes to airline choices, it does not have ALL airlines. Regional airlines tend to be a lot cheaper than Major airlines. But you're not going to see a few of these on the websites I mentioned above. So, this is where you really gotta do some digging. 1st, you need to find out which airlines do services in your city and in your destination's city. Go to your favorite search engine. Mine is Yahoo! Now, type something like the following: (be sure to use quotes) "your city goes here" AND"airport". Now, look down the list for the airport(s) website. When you find the city's airport site, find out which airlines service your city. Leave that browser window open and open a new browser window. Now, do the same thing. But this time, search your destination city's airport. Now you can compare which airlines service both cities. If it's a regional airline (such as Southwest Airlines) that you haven't seen prices for before, go to their website. You may find a really good deal that you wouldn't have otherwise found on major airline search engines (i.e. travelocity).
  
  
  
• Here are a few other tips you may find useful: try to search for flexible dates. You'd be surprised how one day difference could mean an airfare difference of $50 or more. Also, mid week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) are the best times to travel in most cases because airfare tends to be cheaper on those days. Being on your regional airlines' email lists can be very cost effective. Sometimes they offer deals to only those on their email list. Lastly but not least, consider taking "red eye" flights. Those are flights that depart at odd hours of the night (i.e. 2am) and those flights are always alot cheaper than taking the same route during the day.
  

So, in summary, do your research and maybe you won't have to eat McDonald's dollar menu the whole time you go visit your sister because you paid so much on an airline ticket. LOL...but on a serious note, there's good deals out there. You just gotta find them. They don't always find you.