How to Find the Best Air Fare

Expensive airfare is one of the biggest financial obstacles any individual or family may encounter when planning a vacation. Depending on your destination and how many people are traveling in your party, airfare costs can skyrocket to thousands of dollars. There are several steps a traveler can follow in order to keep airfare costs down.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Finding Cheap Airfare

Things You’ll Need:

Internet connection
Internet connection

Step 1

Book your flight as early as possible to get the lowest possible airfare. Use this well-known, time-tested fact in conjunction with two other strategies. First, utilize any airline membership programs you have. You can exchange your frequent flyer miles for cheap airfare rates. Also, try to fly on days that are less popular. Monday through Thursday are the best days to book a flight since most people can only book flights between Friday and Sunday because of work.

Step 2

Use an Internet "aggregator," which is a website that compiles airfare costs from many different websites so you can compare the prices. The most common aggregator sites are Kayak, Yahoo FareChase, SideStep and Farecast.

Step 3

Use a traditional discount booking website if the aggregator websites are not producing anything helpful. Some of the most popular discount booking websites include Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity and Cheap Tickets.

Step 4

Try flying out of a smaller airport. For example, Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX, is commonly used when flying in the Southern California area. About an hour away is Ontario International Airport, which is smaller but has many of the same flight routes and is usually less expensive to fly out of because of the smaller demand.

Tips & Warnings

Getting an early start on your research is the most important thing you can do. The longer you wait to buy airfare, the less effective all of the steps will be. Also, you can visit an airline's website to search for cheap airfare, but this should be your third option after using aggregators and discount websites.

Article Written By David Montoya

David Montoya graduated from University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and holds a Master of Arts in American Indian studies. His writings, covering a range of topics including law and travels, have appeared on various websites. Montoya passed the February 2011 California State Bar Examination.

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