Airfares vary every season, every week, every day, even at the time of day you fly. Peak seasons such as Christmas or mid-summer are usually expensive to fly, airfares can double and you'd end up paying much more than if you travel at any other times of year.
One strategy that most travelers do is to book flights early. For international trips, it is recommended to reserve your tickets 6 months (even a year) before your intended trip. When you browse for airfares online, try to change your day of departure. Sometimes, a single day can make a difference in your airfare cost. I have read somewhere that the best day to purchase a ticket online is Wednesday. I am not sure if this is true.
There are a lot of websites offering cheap airline tickets (domestic or international). When I travel domestically within the U.S., I always take advantage of my being a PhD student and purchase my ticket at Student Universe. The site offers big discounts after confirmation of your student status. However, the availability of the tickets are so limited. StudentUniverse.com doesn't have available flights to foreign countries most of the time. When I searched, for instance, a flight that goes to the Philippines, I always get a note of "does not have any student seats available".
Kayak.com probably is one site that you can get best airfare deals. I browsed for a flight to the Philippines using the data below:
Departure city: Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Departure date: December 10, 2008
Destination city: Manila, Philippines
Return date: January 14, 2008
Kayak.com returned 432 results with $1629 as the cheapest airfare via United Airlines with 2 stops. Not that expensive than what I initially thought, knowing it's a Christmas season and people are going home.
I tried another site that I stumbled upon in a forum -- farecast.live.com. Results showed 236 flight options with the cheapest fare of $1631, just two dollar more than kayak.com. I don't understand why this one is a "little" expensive when the total travel time is in fact an hour longer than the one offered by kayak.com.
Then I tried www.bt-store.com. I've heard the site has good deals for cheap international flights. Wrong. Using the same flight, day, time, the cheapest I could get is $2014. That's too way expensive.
If I have to choose, no doubt that I will go for kayak's price: lesser by two dollars and shorter travel time. So far, I find Kayak.com a great site for finding affordable airfares.
Leave me a comment of you know of more sites with the best air ticket deals.Labels: Travel Tips
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