Steemian @elissahawke from Australia Wants to Know: How do you get the best deal when purchasing your airline tickets?
Unfortunately there is no magic website that just gives you the best deal. It takes clever strategy and know-how. If you apply this knowledge, I'm sure you'll save big from now on when purchasing your air-fare.
Never travel to a specific day.
Never think to yourself, "I want tickets for May 23rd" and just stick to that. Always be flexible and travel to the price of your ticket. Many online sites will offer flexible travel search options.
I prefer Kayak.com, they will bring up a chart showing three days after your preferred date, and three days before. You will often see major discrepancies in price right off the bat, as you can see here below.
Never buy your ticket without first learning the market of your travel rout.
As soon as I get an idea of where I may like to go, even if it's 6 months out; I start to investigate to get a general idea of the price range. I'll go on Kayak and start to do a sweep through the calendar, just observing the general price patterns, and make note.
Check nearby airports.
In some destinations there may be nearby airports that offer you a much better deal. For example flying from Ecuador to Florida. The preferred rout is Quito to Ft. Lauderdal, look at the difference in price if you buy tickets for Quito to Miami.
Use major airport hubs.
This year I'll be taking a bus from Albany NY, three hours south to fly out of NYC to Bangkok for 350 dollars. If I flew Albany - Bangkok it would cost another 195 dollars minus my 20 dollar bus ticket. Instant $175 dollar savings for 3 hours on a bus!
Use popular travel routs.
Even if the airport is not a major hub you can still get great tickets if it's a popular destination. A great example of this is Cancun, Mexico to NYC, Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale. I'll be flying Cancun to NYC June 29th for $165; wrapping up my Central America tour.
Never give up!
The airlines will often put up tickets for sale at random times through-out the day. Literally you can do a search at 1:00 pm, then do the same search at 1:00 am and see quite a discrepancy on the exact same search.
Furthermore, with the cookies technology, the companies can record what your interested in and may or may not show you the best price. I recommend using a program like Ccleaner to clear your cookies and history. This way, you get a new clean search every so often.
Don't buy too early, don't buy too late!
As a general rule I try to buy my tickets three to eight week out, before my travel date. If you buy late you risk getting stuck with less options and higher prices. If you buy early, often a better deal will come along and you will already be locked into what you have.
Never limit yourself to one site.
I always start with Kayak.com. One of the best features on Kayak is that it offers an automatic search for the other major sites like Expedia, Priceline, and so on. When it comes to advance searches, Kayak is best. But even then they don't do it all.
Go direct to the source.
Once you see the companies flying your rout in the Kayak search, go directly to their website. They may be offering a better price or a special on the same exact flight. You can then simply buy directly from them.
Understand the major online ticket sites don't work with every Airline.
Their are approximately 5,000 airline companies in the world and not all of them have a deal with Expedia or Kayak! Many of these are called "low cost carriers" Here is a link to a list of them from Wikipedia. Recently I used this strategy in Colombia, flying from Medellin to Panama City. Copa shows up in Kayak, but Viva Colombia does not. Look at the price discrepancy below!
Never buy round trip, unless you are taking a two week vacation from home.
If you live the perpetual traveler/ backpacker lifestyle. Keep yourself open and free. Take advantage of land crossings, and cheap one way tickets. Don't lock yourself into a schedule unless you absolutely have to.
If you see your ticket, buy it!
After doing all your homework and you have a really good idea of what you should be paying, then you see your ticket being offered, grab it! Don't hesitate, as the airlines play games. One minute the ticket is available, the next minute it is not; and may not come available again until randomly at 2:00 AM the next day!
How to bypass the onward ticket problem when flying one way.
Stay tuned we will be covering that shortly!
Please resteem if you want your followers to save big too!
A link to my first hit article "WORLD TRAVEL REPORT: ECUADOR"
Note: I know what I know, and that has worked well for me. I encourage others to bring their advice and strategies to the comments section! Thank you - World Travel Pro