best airfare secret
 

Have you ever tried to book a flight and literally see the prices change as you try to purchase? That just happened to me and it got me wondering what all you savvy travelers do to get the lowest airfare possible to a destination. Advice?

First, make sure you check all the discount sites. Travelocity, expedia, qixo, orbitz,etc. Then check the airlines sites. Often you can find as good or better prices on their own sites. Recently, I booked tickets from Grand Rapids, MI to Maui for $732 on United. The "discount" sites wanted between $900-$950! Also, if you can, check out the sites either Tuesday after midnight or first thing wednesday. They often offer lower fares, and they don't always last. Happy hunting!!!!

Be flexible with your dates. Once you find that great fare call airlines directly, many airlines will much that price.

I have a newspaper clip pasted somewhere on my desk that says airlines re-load their reservation system every nite around 2 a.m. That it's a good idea to check in the middle of the nite because seats may become available (at low prices) that weren't earlier in the day.

Boy, I hear you about those price changes! After watching the price carefully and deciding it probably wouldn't go any lower, I finally purchased two round trip tickets for $540 each to Frankfurt, Germany from Orlando to visit my son in the Army. Three weeks later the price dropped to $465. And of course Delta wants $200 per ticket to change them, so it's far from worth it.

Postal- My mom just had a similar experience with Delta and they gave her a voucher for the difference. I couldn't believe it! Call them-- it's worth a shot.

frontline.com searches all the websites at the same time- airlines, travel sites ect- I just found out about them and so far they have been the lowest in all of my searches.

Frontline.com works great -- for keeping ticks off your dog.

My advice is don't get too locked in with any single search engine. I run ITA software with sidestep first and then mobissimo. Then the airline sites and the big-name engines.

If the airlines reload their prices at 2 AM, what time zone is this in?