During the last year or so I’ve been doing my own share of flying and have refined my method of constantly being certain that I always get the cheapest airfare offered. I wish I could tell you that it was incredbly simple, and you only needed a single service, but in reality that’s not how it works. There are so many different sites, and ways to get airplane tickets nowadays, that it’s become really confusing to those of us looking for the deals. But that’s what im here to help you with.

There are pretty much 3 different sorts of airfare sites:

1. Collectors or Aggregators (example: Kayak) that investigate airplane fares for a lot of various airlines. They almost never charge anything, and instead use advertisements to make commissions. These are my favorite.

2. Easy & Quick Search Engine Booking (example: Orbitz, Travelocity) these sites search all the airlines and return the same price the airline would charge you, and then add on anywhere up to $10.00 to the ticket. They do this because it’s more convenient for you than searching each airline individually by yourself.

3. The airline’s website (example: Virgin America, JetBlue, Delta). If you happen to find a good price on one of the above methods, I would always recommend that you go to that specific airlines website and research the cost of that same flight from their website, to see if you can avoid any fees.

In all the experience I have had with this method, I have come to the conclusion that you cant do everything from a single website. If you want the best deal you have to do your research and use the methods I have posted above. Trust me, they work.

What I personally do every time I fly
Step 1: Check Kayak & Yahoo Travel
Step 2: Check Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, and find the best price. If you found a good price in step 1, compare these prices too.
Step 3: Now that you have your best price, check the actual airlines website for the same flight, and see which price is lower.
Step 4: You’re now ready to book your flight at the cheapest price you can get

Feel free to share your stories if this information has helped you.

Enjoy your flight!