How to find cheap airfares?
 

I'm curious about how other people find cheap airfares, especially on web travel sites. For most of the ones I've seen, the user has to have a specific travel and return date in mind, as well as a location. So if you don't have a specific date, but are flexible and just want to find out what great fares are available for general time frames (i.e., we could go pretty much any time in February/March), you might miss a bargain if you put in a specific date -- if you'd put in the next day (either way), or a different city, you might've gotten a much better fare. I read travel columns online in several newspapers, but I suspect there's a website out there somewhere with similar 'great bargains' info . . . <BR> <BR>I'm also curious to know how you find out which international airlines fly to/from a specific airport -- i.e., Orlando is my nearest drive-to international airport. I know that Virgin and Icelandair fly out of there, but how do I find out if there are others? <BR> <BR>Thanks for any suggestions.

Harriett, <BR>Regarding international flights from Orlando: Martinair flies to Amsterdam, United to Frankfurt, Munich and London, Delta to Rome; American to Madrid; British Airways, American, Continental and Virgin to London and American to Paris. Icelandair operates seasonally. This information comes from the monthly publication "Skyguide" published by American Express which lists all U.S. airports and all flights originating from them,their destinations, whether non-stop, departure and arrival times and type aircraft and aircraft configurations.

I've wondered this too -- If you can go anytime, how do you find out what's available? Any especially good websites that list discounted fares in general? Thanks.

check bestfares.com's site

Harriet - you might also subscribe to the Travelocity fare finder service. If you're a subscriber (it's free) you can have them e-mail you when a fare goes up or down to a specific location. They also have a service where you choose a destination and it shows the lowest fare and the dates that fare is available. Check them out at travelocity.com.

In addtion to the a/m airlines, you might want to check other regular scheduled charter flights ex Orlando. <BR>LTU direct to Düsseldorf (2x week). <BR>CityBird to Brussels and the latest <BR>entry, Lauda-Air to Vienna (both airlines offer connecting flights to <BR>Germany). <BR>Other search engines for best flights <BR>at best prices are: Yahoo-Travel and <BR>UAL web-site. <BR>Gute Reise <BR>

Harriett - check out the cheap flight forum at www.eurotrip.com. Regards - Tom

Harriett: <BR> <BR>Another great resource is: www.smarterliving.com. You can subscribe to their email newsletter (free) and get weekly updates on some great fares - especially if you have flexibility. <BR>

Harriett: <BR> <BR>Another great resource is: www.smarterliving.com. You can subscribe to their email newsletter (free) and get weekly updates on some great fares - especially if you have flexibility. <BR>

I found a great travel agent(through dumb luck) when I was looking for the best available affordable tickets to Paris, London, Rome or Madrid in May '98 (anytime within about a 3-week period). Within a week I had two $379RTs on Air France to Paris. Then she found me a selection of hotels at less than $100 a night. I found her in the Sunday paper. It seemed as good a deal as any I'd seen on the web. Worked out super. Use the web for research, but don't count out T.A.s. Being a knowledgeable consumer is the best insurance. I also use frequent flyer airline sites, but if they don't have anything to suit me, I'll call the airline's 800 freq flyer's line. Sometimes you simply need to talk to a real person who can chase down options faster than you can do in on the web.

Surprised no one mentioned using a good travel agent. They look for cheap fares for a living. Look on the web first to get a general idea and then go to an agent. If you haven't used an agent before, go to about three or four and then use the one that's seems to fit your needs. I'm not an agent. <BR>

Hi, Harriett, <BR>We've used TISS with good results. http://www.tiss.com/ <BR>

Harriett - <BR> <BR>Smarterliving.com is a must! Sign up for their email newsletter. <BR> <BR>Check the Citybird site. They often run great deals to Brussels (we did this last year, $319 r/t) and then you can take a train to many places fairly close by. <BR> <BR>Also, sign up for E-fare "email alerts" from the airlines themselves. I'm not sure if they all do it, but we signed up to United Airlines. Back at the end of June, they emailed us about $400 r/t tickets from LAX to Hong Kong. Amazing! <BR> <BR>Needless to say, we went. Only catch is, the plane left 6 days later... For some of the deals, you have to be able to move like wildfire. <BR> <BR>:-)

Harriett, <BR>Another vote for your friendly local travel agent - btw, no affiliation. <BR> <BR>Web sites are good for research, planning, etc. But once you have the general idea of where/when/how, turn the info over to a good travel agent and they should come up with lower prices - our TA has always gotten lower prices for us (~10%+).

Dittos on eurotrip.com/ Also here are some websites that you can try: <BR>expedia.com (my favorite) <BR>1travel.com <BR>lowestfare.com <BR>travelbase.com <BR>cheaptickets.com <BR>discountair.com <BR>farebusters.com <BR>bestfares.com <BR>lowestfare.com <BR>counciltravel.com <BR>travelhub.com <BR>travelweb.com <BR>travelbase.com <BR>netfare.net <BR>go-today.com <BR>surplustravel.com <BR> Hope some of these will help.

When looking through travelocity, you can select your destination, then select that your &quot;dates are flexible&quot;. that will pull up a window with a list of fares with travel before a certain date.

www.orbitz.com and www.qixo.com are also powerful fare search engines (qixo is great and does int'l flights quickly).

You only need one site to be happy with international travel deals. That site is SKYAUCTION.COM. Just today, I saw a auction for open travel from now to the end of March 2003 going for only $116 not including the $85 taxes. I have used SKYAUCTION on several occasions and have always been happy. My last trip to Germany only cost me $250 round trip. It definitely is a great find good secret. I don't feel it is good for domestic travel but you can't beat the international auctions.

Travelocity is the way to go.<BR><BR>You put in your departure and arrival cities, go to &quot;more search options&quot; and there is a place where you can select &quot;My dates are flexible, show me the lowest fares from ___ to ___ and you can select the months.<BR><BR>I use that a lot and it seems to pull up the best rates. Sometimes the fares that come up are sold out if it's towards the end of a sale, but if you just work your way down the list you can surely find something.