Seven tips for finding best deals on airfares

By The Washington Post and Knight Ridder

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Other links Sign up for Travel e-mail NWsource: Travel

Blink these days and you could miss an airfare to remember.

With travel-booking technology constantly shifting and airlines posting ever-changing fares — sometimes hourly to trump the competition, you have to move fast. Here's a primer on how to snare a decent airfare.

Go to an all-purpose travel site . The Big Three — www.orbitz.com, www.expedia.com and www.travelocity.com — still command the lion's share of attention, inasmuch as you can book your flight/hotel/car in one spot. While all have exclusive Web deals not available elsewhere, some airlines aren't represented on the sites, fares can vary wildly, and the sites charge a $5 or $6 booking fee — so consider the trio a starting point, not the finish line.

Another useful tool is ITA Software (www.itasoftware.com), which developed Orbitz's easy-to-use fare matrix. While you can't buy online, it'll direct you to where you can book and offers myriad info on different flights, including warnings such as "airport change, long layover."

Check an aggregator . The new wave of booking aggregators are quickly becoming the lazy bargain hunter's best friend, since they do all the work for you. Aggregators (including www.sidestep.com, www.qixo.com and www.bookingbuddy.com) scan booking sites and cull the results. They work in one of two ways: Either you download them or go to their Web sites.

SideStep, which must be downloaded, allows you to plug in your dates, etc., and then scans various booking/airline sites. SideStep says it checks everything from Orbitz to all the major airlines to consolidators such as Airfare.com to low-cost carriers such as JetBlue, Southwest and Independence Air.

If a price and itinerary match your needs, SideStep won't book your flights or charge your credit card. Instead, it redirects you to the Web site of the source whose offer caught your eye, and takes a small cut for providing the link.

(Don't like to download programs? SideStep will be available as a Web-based search engine this fall, and already has Web searching available for rental cars, www.sidestepcars.com, and hotels, www.sidestephotels.com.

The ones you don't have to download are generally much clunkier. Bookingbuddy for example, lists the booking sites and then you have to click on each one individually. Qixo is slow, and it charges a $20 fee.
 
The new Mobissimo, www.mobissimo.com, quickly scans multiple booking sites; it's still in a "beta" testing mode, although it works well. Also new and still in beta-test versions are Yahoo's FareChase, www.farechase.com, and Kayak, www.kayak.com.

These sites aren't perfect, but it's easy to see why people quickly become fans.

Mobissimo appears particularly strong for international travel because it searches a variety of European sources. One drawback: Its list of deals doesn't indicate whether a price is for a nonstop trip. For that, you have to click through to the source.

Check individual airline sites . Check airline sites to see if they can match the fares you've already found. You can often snag extra frequent-flier miles for booking directly with the carrier, and you'll avoid the service fees on the Big Three and some of the aggregator sites (as well as the fees charged by some airlines if you call their reservations number). Note that some discount carriers — including Southwest, www.southwest.com; JetBlue, www.jetblue.com; Independence Air, www.flyi.com — are not widely represented among the discounters and aggregators, if at all.

Also, sign up to receive as many airline e-deals as your spam filter will allow, as the specials are usually available for only a limited time.

Check Priceline and Hotwire . Priceline, www.priceline.com, has eliminated some of the nail-biting now that it offers surprise-free booking (showing airlines and flight times along with prices). Daredevils can still bid for a flight, then discover the airline and times after payment is rendered. Check out www.biddingfortravel.com for bidding pointers.

Hotwire, www.hotwire.com, shows you the price up front, then gives you two hours to find a better deal elsewhere. It reveals the carrier/flight times after you've forked over your credit card. Our advice: Check the Hotwire price, then try to beat it elsewhere.

Check other budget sites . A number of sites — including www.smarterliving.com, www.onetravel.com and www.travelzoo.com — are frequently updated and full of bargains. Each Wednesday, Travelzoo unleashes its Top 20 best deals, which include airfare specials, packages and hotel deals. Look for them on the site or sign up and have them e-mailed to you.

Consider last-minute specialists . If you have to be some place in the very near future, check out the packages at services such as Site59, www.site59.com. It offers late-breaking air/hotel combos from just a few days out to weeks in advance. While you may not need the hotel, the package price could very well beat the no-advance-purchase fares being offered elsewhere.

Call a travel agent/consolidator . For complicated, costly international flights contact a consolidator or a travel agent. Consolidators purchase blocks of tickets and pass the discounts on to consumers.