Sunday, October 22, 2006
Five Basic Tips For Finding the Best Airfare
There are lots of tricks for finding the cheapest airfares out there. While my advice on this topic could be quite long, today I'm going to provide you with just a handful of techniques (five) for finding the lowest fares.
- Travel on Tue, Wed, or Thu. Demand for tickets is lowest on these days, which means that travel on these days is cheaper. So if you can try to schedule your flights on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you're likely to find some better deals.
- Avoid preferred airports. In markets where there are more than one airport, quite often travel through secondary (or tertiary) airports can be cheaper. Thus, if you're price sensitive, it frequently makes sense to look at these less-preferred airports. Examples: In San Francisco, try Oakland (OAK) or San Jose (SJC). In New York, try Islip (ISP). In Boston, try Providence (PVD) or Manchester (MHT). In Los Angeles, try Burbank (BUR), Long Beach (LGB), or Ontario (ONT). In Chicago try Milwaukee (MKE). In Dallas try Love Field (DAL) (where Southwest recently became able to sell tickets anywhere in the country). In Houston, try Hobby (HOU). In D.C. try Baltimore-Washington (BWI). In London, try Luton (LTN) or Stansted (STN). In Paris, try Orly (ORY). In Rome, try Ciampino (CIA). In Toronto and Buffalo, try Hamilton (YHM). And in Cleveland, try Canton-Akron (CAK).
- Be willing to change planes. Generally speaking, the airlines know that the people in the biggest hurry to get somewhere are willing to pay a premium for this privilege. For this reason, if you're looking to save some kwan, be willing to buy longer itineraries that involve stop(s).
- Check everywhere. Taking the time to research fares thoroughly is always in your best interest. I always start with a website that reaches into other websites and searches for the lowest fares. It's called Kayak. After that, I'll often check out a few other sites, like Cheaptickets, Orbitz, or Expedia (and in Europe, also try 1800CheapSeats). Keep in mind that Kayak doesn't search Southwest, and Cheaptickets, Orbitz, and Expedia don't check Southwest, jetBlue, and other Low Cost Carriers (LCCs). Finally, I'll check out the websites of the airlines themselves, because sometimes they have inventory and prices that don't show up anywhere else on the Internet.
- Look in advance. As a general rule, it makes sense to start looking for your airfare in advance of your trip, but not too far in advance. Usually you want to buy your airfare more than 21 days before you travel. But if you search too far in advance--say, more than three months before your trip--you may not find the best deals. This is because the complex computer systems that allocate prices often don't begin to generate the lowest airfares until closer in time to the flight (this process is called yield management, which I'll talk about another day).
There are quite a few exceptions to this rule that you must be aware of. First, it usually pays to buy as far in advance as possible if you're planning to fly on an LCC, which use much more simplified systems for allocating prices to seats. It's usually first-come, first-served for the cheapest tickets. It also makes sense to be looking for international tickets as far in advance as possible, primarily because there's so much less inventory available (though this appears to be changing, but only time will tell). Finally, if you're planning domestic travel inside the U.S. on or near a major holiday (Thanksgiving, X-Mas, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Easter), again, because of limited inventory, it frequently makes sense to begin looking as far in advance as possible.
