12 steps to the best airfare
Virgin Atlantic brought competition to the Transatlantic game, and helped lower prices in the process
How to get the best deal on plane tickets to the U.K.
Old travel truism: no two people on the plane actually paid the same price for their tickets, even though they're going to the same place and getting the same service.
The guy in 22B might have ponied up $1,300, while the person in 22C with whom he amiably chats during takeoff paid just $320 (note to person in 22C: don't break it to him; you'll ruin his vacation).
This site will help you be that guy in 22C.
The secret to landing the least expensive plane tickets every time is to know where the deals are, search wisely, and never pay retail if you can avoid it.
Here is cheat sheet on how to do this: a brief roundup of all the tips, steps to take, and websites to use to find the cheapest airfare. Click on any one to get much more information and tips on that particular technique.
Don't pay retail
- Shop around – Use an aggregator to comparison-shop all the booking engines and travel agencies at once (Momondo.com, Skyscanner.com, Google.com/flights, Vayama.com, DoHop.com). » more
- Buy wholesale – Consider a consolidator that buys in bulk (FlyInternational.com, CheapTickets.com, CheapOair.com, TFITours.com, etc.). » more
- Book blindly – Opaque fares from Hotwire.com and Priceline.com come with lower costs, but less control over precise flight times and airlines. » more
Know that timing is everything
- Know your travel seasons – High season (and high prices) is June 15–Sept 1 and Dec 15–Jan 6. » more
- Buy at the right time – The sweet spot is 8–12 weeks out. » more
- Be flexible – Look into flights leaving/returning a day or two earlier or later for potentially huge savings. » more
Know where the deals are—and get them delivered to your inbox for free
- Get deals newsletters & e-savers – Sign up for for sale alerts with airlines and at deals sites like TravelZoo.com, Frommers.com, BudgetTravel.com, SmarterTravel.com. » more
- Get fare alerts – Know when the prices to your favorite destinations drop (Airfarewatchdog.com, Farecompare.com, Yapta.com, Farecast.com). » more
Deploy insider secrets
- Be smart about frequent flier miles – Get elite status on any airline, get perks—no checked bag fees, free exit row seats, first to board, airport lounge—at every airline in its alliance. If you're elite on American Airlines, you're elite on British Airways (Skyteam.com, Oneworld.com, Staralliance.com). » more
- Price out vacation packages – Buy air/hotel or air/car (or all three) together at a discount. This is not a tour; your trip is your own (Gotoday.com, Gate1travel.com, SceptreTours.com, Expedia.com, Untours.com). » more
- Look into alternate airlines – Whether it's a carrier from a third country (say, Aer Lingus via Dublin, or Air Portugal via Lisbon), or a low-cost upstart (like Norwegian or WOW). » more
- Investigate the Big Ben Switcheroo - Find a cheap fare into London, then fly no-frills elsewhere for peanuts. » more
Airfares links
- Momondo.com - (Aggregator) Before I get into details, just know this: 95% of the time, I find the lowest fares on Momondo. Momondo quietly blows most of the other aggregators out of the water. It searches more than 600 airline sites, plus booking engines, search engines, travel agencies, online discounters, etc. This is two to three times as many sources as the competition—including the low-cost carriers and no-frills airlines most of the other search engines ignore—and it pays off. You can also quickly see which flight is cheapest and which quickest (and which best overall), as well as use all the usual filters on the results (length of flight, departure/arrival times, number of stops, airlines, etc.). I ran Momondo through many tests, and it almost always found the lowest available fares on domestic, Transatlantic, and inter-European flights. It found fares from carriers none of the others did, and when it did find the same flights as some of the competition, it almost invariably managed to find a lower price for it. For now, at least, I'm calling it: Momondo is the single best resource out there, bar none.Partner
- Flyinternational.com - (Consolidator) The airfares branch of AutoEurope.com consistently offers among the cheapest (and most reliable) European airfare consolidators out there. Barring some sale fare elsewhere, this is where I almost always end up buying my transatlantic tickets for the simple reason that they are almost always the cheapest. This is also why I chose to partner with them for this site.Partner
- Skyscanner.com - (Aggregator) Another excellent aggregator that, like Momondo, also includes the little low-cost carriers and no-frills airlines ignored by most other search engines. I like that you can be as vague on your departure/arrivial points as simply an entire country, rather than a specific city of airport—you never know when, say, a flght into Manchester will actually be cheaper than one to London.Partner
- Hotwire.com - (OTA) Offers regaular fare searches and Hot Rates opaque fares (cost less, but with slightly less control over departure times and other details)Partner
- VirginAtlantic.com - Given all options, I will actually pay a bit more for Virgin Atlantic flight than one on any other airline. They just treat you so much better.Partner
- Google.com/flights - (Aggregator) Google has acquired ITA, the original airfare booking engine long used by travel agents. It's now available to the general public, and niftily shows you the rough current lowest cost for flights to pretty much anywhere from your hometown via a Google map measled with red dots marking major cities around the world. It doesn't allow you to book, but will tell you where/how to book the results it finds. Not really a strong performer on internaitonal flights yet—though, oddly, does a good job with last-minute international fares, so worth checking.
- Expedia.com - (OTA) Expedia—which does a fine job on middle-of-the-road fares—is the last remaining of the Big Three online travel agencies. (Expedia bought both Travelocity and Orbitz in 2015; Travelocity's search results are now identical to those at Expsia, and we can only hope Orbitz's lackluster results follow suit.)Partner
- Hipmunk.com - (Aggregator) The aggregator that rethought how searches should be delivered—and I always like those who think outside the search box. All results are shown on a timeline, and the default sort-order for flights that match your search is "Agony"—a combination factoring in price, flight duration, and stopovers—so that the least annoying options pop up first. You can also sort more traditionally by price, duration, departure time, arrival time, non-stop only, and ask it to favor your preferred airlines (or airline alliance). One drawback: It really only serarches the airlines directly plus a few booking engines like Expedia, so you're not getting the full story (no discounters are in the mix). Still: handy.
- CheapOair.com - (OTA) Upstart consolidator and discounter using the power of the Web to weave together the best bargains and negotiated discounts with three reservations systems and fifteen travel service providers—something of a mash-up of a traditional booking service and a wholesaler. It claims 18 million exclusive flight deals, a low airfare guarantee, and 84,000 negotiated hotel rates.Partner
- Vayama.com - (Aggregator) One of the original international airfare aggregators, and still one of the better ones.Partner
Air consolidators links
- Flyinternational.com - The airfares branch of car rental consolidator Auto Europe is consistently among the cheapest (and most reliable) European airfare consolidators out there. Barring some sale fare elsewhere, this is where I almost always end up buying my transatlantic tickets for the simple reason that they are almost always the cheapest.Partner
- TFITours.com - One of the biggest classic consolidators out there, boasting up to 80% off retail (though I think that kind of pricing goes to their corporate clients, not the little fish booking a single ticket). Don't let the down-and-dirty interface scare you off; it's just because they're about low fares, not a flashy Web presence.
- CheapOAir.com - Upstart consolidator and discounter using the power of the Web to weave together the best bargains and negotiated discounts with three reservations systems and fifteen travel service providers—something of a mash-up of a traditional booking service and a wholesaler. It claims 18 million exclusive flight deals, a low airfare guarantee, and 84,000 negotiated hotel rates. Good at last-minute international fares. Also offers vacation packages.Partner
- Cheaptickets.com - Decent prices, though not always the best; still, it pays to check them out. They've also a "DEALS!" section. It's actually now owned by Orbitz, which makes it part of the Expedia family.Partner
- Hasbrouck.org - Everything there is to know about consolidators on the Airline Ticket Consolidators and Bucket Shops FAQ. My esteemed colleague Edward Hasbrouck, author of the excellent "The Practical Nomad: How To Travel Around The World," regularly updates his free no-nonsense/no-bull FAQ on exactly how airlines and agencies discount tickets and how you can take advantage of it.
- Amtaglobal.com - Founded in 1946 and based in New York and Chicago, has some of the best Central and Eastern Europe fares out there (especially to Poland and Russia), though they do Western Europe, too. Just use them for airfare; their vacation packages are overpriced.
- DFWTours.com - Major player in the wholesale travel game since 1978, with consolidator contracts on 30 airlines serving 200 U.S. departure cities. It's now part of the sprawling Thomas Cook empire of travel agencies.
Deals newsletters links
- Travelzoo.com - Sign up for a weekly email summarizing their "Top 20 Deals." Very straightforward, and quite decent deals—even if they're all actually paid ads by the 180 or so top travel outfits who use this as an outlet for disseminating deals. Hey, the deals are no less genuine.
- Frommers.com - This blog, maintained by none other the Frommers themselves, lives at the website for the guidebook publishers. Updated several times a day, it is full of deals and bargains—along with observations, travel news, and pointed opinions from Arthur and Pauline Frommer and the site's editor-in-chief, Jason Cochran. (Full disclosure: All three are former colleagues and good friends.)
- Smartertravel.com - Summarizes lots of deals in many categories and sends out themed emails (seniors, students, deals from your home airport, etc.). It's loaded with bargains—though the others listed here often dig up much better ones overall—but cluttered by too many "Sponsored" deals and "member discount" links leading you to preferred vendors.
- Whiskr.net - Fairly new service focusing on flight deals.
Vacation packages links
- Go-today.com - Hands-down the cheapest and best packager of air-hotel vacations out there (along with fly-drive packages). They seem to operate under a "we will not be undersold" attitude, and their exceptionally low rates on basic, (largely) six-night city breaks reflect that. I used them once for a family trip to Paris, and everything went pretty smoothly. One drawback: it's Net-only; you have to pay extra for customer service on the phone
- Gate1travel.com - One of the consistently cheapest tour providers around. They cover the entire world and offer a range of travel "products" from air-hotel packages to escorted tours.
- Sceptrevacations.com - Among other packages, does excellent air-car-B&B week-long escapes in England and Scotland (I've done the Ireland one, and it's a great deal). Also has standard air-hotel packages.
- Untours.com - Sort of like the Platinum Edition of a vacation package, taking care of all the major costs, details, and logistics but leaving you to plan your daily sightseeing and travels. For one price, you get airfare over there, some form of transport (rental car in Scotland; Travelcard in London), an apartment, and a local contact who will help you get settled in, show you the ropes, then be on-call to help with questions. You also usually have one activity during the course of the week when all other "untour" participants in your area are invited to get together.
- Expedia.com - The big booking engine can also bundle air-and-hotel, air-and-car, or air-hotel-car into a vacation package.Partner
- Hotwire.com - Hotwire can bundle air and hotel together, or air-car, or even air-car-hotels.Partner
- Hotels.com - This famous lodging booker can also bundle in airfare.Partner
- Tripmasters.com - Good generalist vacation package and tour company.
Tips
Reid's shortcut to the best fares
All of the airfare hunting techniques mentioned on this site have merit, but, honestly, if I had to narrow it down to two crucial places to check, they would be:
1) The aggregator Momondo
2) The consolidator AutoEurope
Nine times out of ten, I end up booking my plane tickets to Europe through one of those methods.
Watch those fees!
With many airlines now charging to check even a single bag, or to pick your own seat, or for the meal, headsets, and even a pillow and blanket, it helps to know the a la carte fees before you fly.
These sites take stock of the current fees status:
