The other day I got an email from a fellow member of the Know More Media team. He was looking to book a holiday trip to the
I thought I would share some tips on how to find the best fares for your travels.
3. One way to avoid paying any kind of booking fees, is to book directly on your selected airline’s website. There are several other reasons to book on-line at your selected airline’s site. You can start or continue to rack up those frequent flier miles. Several airlines reward passengers for even printing their own boarding pass on-line before they arrive at the airport. You can receive several thousand miles on airlines just for printing off your boarding pass. And if that gets you closer to earning an upgrade or a free flight; all the better.
4. Some airlines do not sell their tickets to three party sites, such as Orbitz or Priceline. Southwest, AirTran, and JetBlue don’t offer their services to discount third party sites, such as Oribtz and Travelocity. In order to keep their costs down they prefer that customers book directly on their websites.
5. Be flexible with your airport locations. If you are flying to a big city try another local airport. Say you are flying to
6. One rule that everyone should follow. Do not book over the phone. Many airlines charge people to book over the phone and normally those fees can add up to 30 or 50 bucks even for a round-trip ticket. Use the airline’s website. The fares are constantly updated and allow people to check into details at their own leisure. Passengers that book on-line can now pick their seats, print off boarding passes, and receive on-line notifications of any flight status updates.
7. Print off your boarding pass on-line. I recently moved to this feature when I travel. Especially if I do not have to check any luggage and I am just carrying on a small bag. This allows me to avoid the mess at the counter and head directly to the gate. If you print off your boarding pass you can check your luggage with the skycab, give a tip, and avoid the mess at the counter too. If you request a paper ticket you can be slapped with a HUGE fee. United charges 25 dollars and US Air will charge you up to 50 dollars for a paper ticket.
8. Book early! Book early! Book early! This summer travel season is going to be full, full, full. Airlines are reducing capacity and that means the planes are going to be fuller. So in turn airlines can charge more and more for that empty seat that you so desperately want out of town.
9. There are two specific cut off dates that will keep your ticket low or allow it to jump in price. Twenty-one days before your departure date is a big number. This is where most tickets for that seat will jump 20 to 50 bucks. Fourteen days is the big one though. If you can book your ticket 14 days before you flight, do it. After 14 days, tickets can jump as little as nothing or as much as several hundred dollars. If you can book your ticket several months in advance, do it. It is rare for tickets to do down in price of what you paid, but it is common for them to go up and up and up.
If you keep all of these tips in mind, your ticket will be as low as you can possibility get it. Just remember though, with higher fuel costs this summer, ticket fares are bound to go up yet again.
Legacy Carriers/National Carriers
Discount Carriers
Third Party Travel Sites
I've put stars by the airlines that I personally prefer and fly most often. I put stars by the sites that I personally use and prefer. Though your personal opinions and styles might be different.
*UPDATE*
A reader showed me this site. Great site really! I'm impressed. It searches the major airlines and the discount sites. Sidestep
Argh, you forgot about the latest and greatest travel search engine, Sidestep! This is not an ad, I've not used them for the reasons you outlined above, but it's worth a look. Go ahead, you might find what you're looking for at Sidestep.com.
Posted by: CLL_Canuck | April 12, 2006 3:17 PM | Permalink to Comment