How to get the best discount airfare
There is a fare war out there with airlines, travel sites and travel agents offering discounted airfares. All that you need is patience and some search skills to locate the site that is offering the best discount airfare.
You can always start with the sites of airlines. Most airlines offer discounts if you buy tickets directly from their sites. Sometimes, these may be the best discounts, but not always. However, it makes sense to note down the discounted fares being offered by them before logging on to search sites.
These sites like Kayak.com or Sidestep.com search the databases of all travel sites, including airline sites that allow them, and display the best fares. They save you the trouble of visiting each site individually and searching for best fares.
However, some big travel sites like Travelocity.com have started closing their databases to these search engines because they don’t want to loose traffic or revenue to other sites. So, you need to visit the big travel sites like Expedia or Orbitz to learn their discounted airfares.
If you are not in a hurry, then you should spend a couple of days checking airfares at random hours; say 8 in the morning, 4 p.m. in the evening or 10 p.m. in the night. You may find a flight that is offering a discount of almost 50% on the rates it was quoting in the morning. However, you have to be lucky and persistent to be able to get such fares. They get sold out very quickly.
You can also try the flexible fare searches, if your dates are not final. This gives you the airfare on different possible dates. Locate the date when the fare is the lowest and make the booking.
Another way of getting discounted fares is to book two or three weeks in advance or to travel during the lean season. You will find that most airlines give you big discounts on such bookings.
You can always start with the sites of airlines. Most airlines offer discounts if you buy tickets directly from their sites. Sometimes, these may be the best discounts, but not always. However, it makes sense to note down the discounted fares being offered by them before logging on to search sites.
These sites like Kayak.com or Sidestep.com search the databases of all travel sites, including airline sites that allow them, and display the best fares. They save you the trouble of visiting each site individually and searching for best fares.
However, some big travel sites like Travelocity.com have started closing their databases to these search engines because they don’t want to loose traffic or revenue to other sites. So, you need to visit the big travel sites like Expedia or Orbitz to learn their discounted airfares.
If you are not in a hurry, then you should spend a couple of days checking airfares at random hours; say 8 in the morning, 4 p.m. in the evening or 10 p.m. in the night. You may find a flight that is offering a discount of almost 50% on the rates it was quoting in the morning. However, you have to be lucky and persistent to be able to get such fares. They get sold out very quickly.
You can also try the flexible fare searches, if your dates are not final. This gives you the airfare on different possible dates. Locate the date when the fare is the lowest and make the booking.
Another way of getting discounted fares is to book two or three weeks in advance or to travel during the lean season. You will find that most airlines give you big discounts on such bookings.
