To find cheaper airline tickets, use online travel services or a travel agency, consider different airports and destinations, negotiate directly with airlines, and look for discounts for military personnel, students, and government employees. Fare wars can also offer temporary discounts.
Finding cheaper airline tickets today can mean looking into different online travel services along with the carriers’ official websites. Some of these websites allow potential customers to refer selected flights whenever bigger discounts become available. Other services such as Priceline may allow customers to bid for lower priced tickets, but may also require immediate purchase of those tickets or a much more flexible schedule. The cheapest tickets can be found through online services, but be prepared for unpopular departure times and long layovers at airline hubs.
Another source of cheap airline tickets is a travel agency. Many times a professional travel agent can negotiate a package that lowers the price of tickets provided a specific hotel or car rental is booked. This type of discount would most likely be linked to popular tourist destinations like Orlando or Las Vegas. It might not apply to those traveling for a family reunion in Des Moines, Iowa, but it never hurts to ask the travel agent about a possible package deal.
Some people find plane tickets cheaper by thinking outside their comfort zone. The closest airport does not necessarily offer the lowest fares. If you’re willing to drive to a different airport, the savings could be substantial.
The same also applies to the destination city. A flight from one regional airport in Huntsville, Alabama to another regional airport in Akron, Ohio may be more expensive than a flight from Birmingham to Cleveland. In some cases, the opposite may also be true: a regional flight can be cheaper than a flight from a major airport.
While airlines don’t encourage this tactic, some people find cheaper airline tickets through a practice called “flyovers.” Overflight works best when the passenger’s actual destination is near an airline’s hub city, such as Dallas, St. Louis, or Atlanta. Instead of booking a direct flight to one of these hub cities, an experienced passenger can book a less expensive trip with a planned layover in a hub city. A direct flight to Dallas, for example, might be relatively expensive, but some American Airlines flights with connections in Dallas are often cheaper, since Dallas is a hub for American Airlines. The passenger simply disembarks in Dallas and does not board the connecting flight.
For those who prefer to stay afloat, there’s also the option to negotiate directly with the airlines for special discounts. Military personnel or students are eligible for substantial discounts, for example. Government employees are also eligible for discounted airline tickets.
Sometimes a major airline uses discounts to encourage use of its low-cost commuter service. Occasionally airlines compete for business through “fare wars,” which can lower the price of some airline tickets by 40% or more. These savings are notoriously temporary, so it pays to book these flights as quickly as possible.
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