Nowadays with all those travel agents and airlines it seems to be a piece of cake to find cheap flights, but there is usually more than meets the eye to that and sometimes it is a real art to find budget tickets with some reliable airline. But, don’t get upset already as there are some tips and tricks which could make it easier for you to fly cheap and comfortable.
Since we are living in the era of the internet, you don’t have to leave your room and a comfortable armchair in order to look for a discount. Namely, the first tip would be visiting aggregators.
Kayak, FareCast & Farechase
The most famous and efficient among them are, no doubt, Kayak, Farecast or Farechase. If you are new to this, it would be good to tell you that aggregators are web sites which compile information about a particular subject, compare and review them so that you can have everything analyzed and set for you to use the results. Those web sites all compare and review numerous airlines but it is a good idea not to be lazy and browse all of them as the results may vary.
For example, Farecast, as its name implies, offers the service of predicting a fare but bear in mind that this is not too accurate. Those web sites don’t charge anything.
Orbitz, Priceline & Cheaptickets
Another option lies in ordinary search engines specialized for discount prices. Those are Orbitz, Priceline or Cheaptickets. It is important to say that those search engines require that you pay a certain, usually small, fee. For example, Orbitz is a web site where you can find detailed information about flights, airlines and fares
HotWire
There is yet another kind of bypassing indirect reservation service and Hotwire.com is the site which provides customers with cheap flight tickets, hotel rooms and rent-a-car services directly. And there is something interesting about the service this site offers – you don’t know the name of the airline until you buy the ticket. It seems to be a pig-in-the-poke method as there is no possibility of refund, but it is a very good option nevertheless.
Ticket Bumping
There are some a bit shady and not so reliable ways to get a cheap ticket. One of them is bumping. As its name suggests, this is a sly method and don’t expect that you can practice it on a regular basis as it is often possible during the peak season, when all airlines are completely booked. The procedure goes like this: most airlines usually bite off more than they can chew, to put it metaphorically. This means that they allow overbooking and when a crowd of people gathers in front of the gate and there are not enough seats, the airline in question offers a free voucher for the next flight. Sometimes, you can strike it lucky and even get some cash!
Newsletters
The last but not the least way is to subscribe for the newsletter with airlines and they will regularly notify you about all the news and various specials which can be unbelievably cheap, but you’ll be informed only a couple of days before the flight itself. This goes for all American airlines including Continental, American, United, Northwest and many others. It is a widely known fact that the cheapest tickets can be bought directly from web sites of airlines, so do not forget to have a look at their offers.
Read polices and disclaimers
To wrap this whole tips’n’tricks topic up, it is important to stress that you should always read a disclaimer because cheap flights usually do have a catch 22, and in order to have some benefits from them, you need to be well informed about what you are getting into. No refund policy and very rigid terms when it comes to changeability are some of the shortcomings which you should have in mind when buying budget tickets, but it is scientific fact that you can’t have it all.
Bon voyage!
