all jokes aside, if you looking for tickets Expedia and Kayak and them ting is the last place you should look, Check out a site called
http://www.skyscanner.net/ which will let you ask interesint questions like,"where can i fly to from here" or "what are my options from London to the USA" The site will show the ticket prices on a chart so you can easily see that flying on day x is much cheaper than day Y.
Zuji.com does the expedia-like flexible dates, but on international flights, so you can see what's out there. However, you get results in Singapore dollars, still though, you get a good starting point, to then go and check airline flights for the real numbers.
Finally if you really want to plumb the depths, check a travel consolidator site, like Best Travel Store. The got me tix to Germany for $490 when everyone else was quoting $800+ They mostly do aisia travel though
Check out this NY Times article, some other good sites in there, I've never used all of them, so I can't say much about it. You might be able to get a bus pass one time too.
May 18, 2008
Beating the Bushes for a Bargain TicketBy MICHELLE HIGGINS
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/travel/18praccheapair.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=sloginIS it still possible to find cheap airfares? With prices rising — the average cost of an airline ticket in the United States was up 10.2 percent in March, compared with a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — and with airlines raising fees on everything from ticket changes to checked bags, it’s no wonder that a lot of travelers are talking about just staying home this summer.
But it’s still possible to score cheap airline tickets. Here are some strategies to help keep your costs down:
BOOK DIRECTLY WITH THE AIRLINETaking a page from the hotel industry, airlines have begun to guarantee equal or better prices to travelers who book with them directly. This helps drive traffic to their sites and save on commission expenses they would otherwise pay to third-party booking sites like Orbitz or Expedia. Moreover, some airlines — including Delta, American, United and Continental — are offering compensations like a $50 or $100 voucher for a future flight if passengers find an online fare lower than the one they are offering on their own sites for that flight.
SIGN UP FOR PRIVATE PRICE CUTSNot unlike clothing chains that dole out special “family and friends” discounts to employees and repeat customers, airlines quietly offer special coupon codes to travelers who sign up for their weekly newsletters or frequent flier programs. Airfarewatchdog.com, which monitors such deals and posts the codes on its Web site, reports that it has noticed an increase in deals recently, including new promotion codes in Alaska Airlines newsletters every few weeks with savings typically of 20 percent.
On April 29, Virgin America sent out a special offer to its frequent flier members with a code good for 25 percent off tickets booked by May 3 for travel through June 11. And American offered discount codes for as much as 15 percent off to Hawaii and 20 percent off to Europe early this year.
“The downside to this strategy is you’ll get a lot of extra e-mails,” said George Hobica, the founder of Airfarewatchdog.com. But given the savings, he added, “It’s worth it.”
BUY ONE TICKET AT A TIMEEvery flight normally has a range of price levels. Often, there are only a couple of coach seats offered at the lowest prices. When you shop for multiple tickets, and there aren’t enough seats available at the lowest ticket price, the reservation system automatically kicks bookings up to the next price level.
“This happens all the time, as the ‘inventory’ systems for the airlines decide to start closing out cheap prices on a flight,” Rick Seaney, chief executive of Farecompare.com wrote in an e-mail message.
On a recent search for flights from Dallas to Frankfurt for a July trip, Mr. Seaney turned up a round-trip ticket at
www.americanairlines.com for $1,431. When he searched for multiple tickets, the lowest ticket price jumped to $1,536.
MAKE YOUR COMPUTER DO THE WORKIf you don’t have the time or inclination to sift through dozens of airline newsletters for deals, you can sign up for fare alerts. Nearly every online travel site these days, including Travelocity.com, Kayak.com, Orbitz.com and Expedia.com offers its own version. Some airlines, including American, Southwest and WestJet, a Canadian airline, offer their own deal-alert software, which must be downloaded onto your desktop.
There is also a new Web site, Compete4yourseat.com, which encourages travel agents, who often negotiate contracts with airlines, to find you a low fare. Travelers fill out a Trip Request form on the home page and click Go. Once your request is bid on by a travel agent, you receive an e-mail message and can log in to view the deal.
BUY A PACKAGE DEAL
Travelers can often get a better deal with a vacation package instead of buying their airfare and hotel separately. That’s because airlines and hotels are often more willing to offer deeper discounts when airfare prices are wrapped into a package. That way, their competitors can’t see how much they’re slashing rates.
“Certain hotels allow me to provide greater discounts if creating a package, said Jay Rein, president of Travelworm.com, an online travel agency that specializes in casino, resort and other leisure destinations. “Its sort of like when you go to Best Buy. You can buy individual stereo components or a big box with the receiver and speakers for one low price.”
Orbitz.com estimates that travelers can save an average of $228 by booking a five-night air-and-hotel package instead of buying those components separately. For example, a flight to Cancún from Chicago and a three-night stay at the InterContinental Presidente Cancún Resort costs $885 a person on Orbitz.com as a package. The same trip booked separately costs $1,130 a person.
SEARCH FOR FLIGHTS AT ALTERNATIVE AIRPORTSDepending on the distance from your home to the airport, using smaller, regional airports can sometimes mean savings. For example, a recent Orbitz search for a flight from Midway Airport in Chicago to Orlando, Fla., turned up a ticket on AirTran Airways for $223 round trip, for a June weekend getaway. The lowest price for the same trip from O’Hare International Airport was $321 on United.
BE FLEXIBLEYou can often save by adjusting your travel dates by a day or two. Travel sites like Travelocity.com and Zuji.com offer flexible date searches that show the lowest airfare for your route as much as four months out.
TIMING IS EVERYTHINGTo help evaluate prices, Kayak.com offers a trend chart (after a search), which shows whether prices for a particular flight have been going up, down or holding steady. Farecompare.com displays the lowest published fare over the next 11 months for flights to more than 200,000 destinations If the prices are bouncing around by $100 or more a few times a month or more, make sure you buy on a downswing. Farecompare.com shows a 30-day history bar chart so you can quickly check volatility.
Another site, Farecast.com, predicts whether prices will go up or down in the next week.
DON’T WAIT IF YOU SEE A DEAL“If you see an airfare and it looks good to you, don’t shop — buy,” said Mr. Rein of Travelworm.com. “It’s like wandering around the shopping mall. You can walk to the next store looking for a deal and the next, and by the time you walk back it might be gone.”
