How to Find a Low Airfare
Shop around., Search airline sites individually.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Shop around.
Don’t assume that all online travel agencies have the same fares.
They don’t.
Especially on international fares, one of these online travel agencies could have a fare several hundreds dollars less or higher than another.
It is not uncommon for one site to have tickets that aren't even available on another site.
Check all the online agencies, and use multi-site search engines.
For example, in one search test, Travelocity was selling seats to London on Virgin for $400-$470 round-trip, taxes included, from east and west coast cities, even for peak summer travel.
Those fares were only available on Travelocity, not Orbitz or Expedia (they weren’t even available on Virgin’s own site). -
Step 2: Search airline sites individually.
Increasingly, some airlines have “private” sales, reserving their very best fares for their own sites.
With the exception of Southwest, which sells fares on its own site exclusively, most of the airlines that do this are smaller domestic airlines or large international carriers, but even Delta has done it, and not just for last minute weekend fares.
Alaska, Air New Zealand, Malaysia, Frontier, Qantas, Singapore, SAS, Varig and others are using this strategy.
Low cost carriers like USA3000 and Allegiant Air usually don’t share their fare data with third-party sites at all, although Jetblue fares are included in Travelocity, Cheapair.com and Kayak searches now, and USA3000 fares in Sidestep.
Detailed Guide
Don’t assume that all online travel agencies have the same fares.
They don’t.
Especially on international fares, one of these online travel agencies could have a fare several hundreds dollars less or higher than another.
It is not uncommon for one site to have tickets that aren't even available on another site.
Check all the online agencies, and use multi-site search engines.
For example, in one search test, Travelocity was selling seats to London on Virgin for $400-$470 round-trip, taxes included, from east and west coast cities, even for peak summer travel.
Those fares were only available on Travelocity, not Orbitz or Expedia (they weren’t even available on Virgin’s own site).
Increasingly, some airlines have “private” sales, reserving their very best fares for their own sites.
With the exception of Southwest, which sells fares on its own site exclusively, most of the airlines that do this are smaller domestic airlines or large international carriers, but even Delta has done it, and not just for last minute weekend fares.
Alaska, Air New Zealand, Malaysia, Frontier, Qantas, Singapore, SAS, Varig and others are using this strategy.
Low cost carriers like USA3000 and Allegiant Air usually don’t share their fare data with third-party sites at all, although Jetblue fares are included in Travelocity, Cheapair.com and Kayak searches now, and USA3000 fares in Sidestep.
About the Author
Alexis Campbell
Creates helpful guides on organization to inspire and educate readers.
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