Careful planning can get you that cheap airline fare
Every day, millions of Americans are engaged in a game of wits with the airlines as they try to snag the cheapest airfares. The good news is that there are several things you can do to buy cheaper airline tickets.
First, you must recognize that this is indeed a game of wits. Your goal is to travel for as little as possible, the airlines’ goal is to get the maximum profit per flight.
At first blush, these may seem like opposites, but not necessarily. Selling a few cheap seats is often part of a wider tactic to maximize plane revenue. Just aim to get one of these.
How does this work? Well, airlines can advertise the lower fares, sell a few of them, and raise price thereafter. They can also use a low price to fill seats on an almost empty flight on the premise that a cheap seat is better than an empty seat.
Alright then, let’s get down to brass tacks and see how we can absolutely find the cheapest seats on a flight.
Technology
Solution number one is technology, namely the Web. To get the best fares, you must use online travel sites to find your fare. The less preferred way to do this is by going to each airline’s website, but this is too tedious.
However, you should sign up for weekly email notifications of fare sales from a few airlines. This is helpful as such fares may appear only on airline sites for a little while.
The best approach is to use websites like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity, who collect and compare fares from multiple airlines, saving you the hassle of doing so. In fact, you can even use overarching travel sites like kayak.com that aggregate fares from several travel websites to give you even more choices.
When booking your flight, you can often find better fares if you are agreeable to a non-direct flight, a flight with say, one or two stops.
To save even further, search for airports that are close to your intended departure and arrival airports if you have that flexibility. Being flexible in this way and in your time of departure and arrival can result in savings of hundreds of dollars.
When Should I Buy My Ticket?
This is more of a challenge, as airlines’ yield management models for selling seats change prices daily based on varying demand, among other factors.
A good rule of thumb is not too book your flight too early as the earliest bookings rarely get the best prices. They don’t account for the most expensive either, but it often good practice to monitor a flight from 2-3 months out and buy your ticket a few weeks later.
Last-minute purchases used to offer more opportunities for cost savings by airlines not wanting empty seats. However, airline models have made these opportunities fewer and far between, leaving you likely to pay sky-high fares in the days before a flight leaves. The last-minute gamble therefore, rarely pays off any longer.
Are Certain Days of the Week Better?
The earlier part of the week tends to be better for airfare sales. This is not a hard rule but a generalization. Tuesday for some reason, tends to be the busiest day of the week for airfare purchases, but the reason is not entirely clear, other than a rumor that Tuesday is the best day of the week to buy airline tickets. There is also no hard evidence of this.
Airlines change their fares up to three times a day, so one way to monitor fares is to sign up for email alerts for price moves on travel websites.
In addition, Saturday tends to be one of the cheapest days to fly, while Sunday tends to be one of the most expensive.
Of some small note is Expedia’s price guarantee, which states that they will pay you the difference if you find your flight at a cheaper price 24 hours after booking it on Expedia. Plus, they will throw in a $50 travel coupon.
Don’t get too excited about this offer though – it is more marketing than paying actual rewards. You have to find the lower fare and report it, not Expedia, and it is not likely to drop in 24 hours. Also, most travelers don’t keep looking after they have booked their fares.
So in summary, use technology, sign up for email fare updates, don’t book too soon, monitor trends and airline fare sale announcements and be flexible in your travel planning. This will help you bag that low fare for your trip.
