Plan your vacation in the off-season. The most expensive times to fly are in the summer and over Christmas and Easter holidays. Flights in late spring and early autumn are usually significantly cheaper than peak season travel. Even cheaper sale prices can be found in late autumn, just before the winter holidays, and in early spring when tourism is slow and airlines are looking to fill their planes.
Be flexible with your travel dates. It's cheaper to fly on a Tuesday or a Saturday than on a Monday or a Sunday. Many online reservation sites, including airlines' direct booking sites, allow you to search for airfares within one to three days of your preferred travel dates or even give you the prices for flights for an entire month.
Compare airfares by using online fare comparison tools. Several websites allow you to enter your travel dates and your departure and arrival airport information into a single form, after which you choose three or more travel websites to search and display prices for your itinerary. Sites such as Booking Buddy, Fare Compare, Side Step and Trip Mama can assist your side-by-side airfare comparison shopping. Most comparison sites do not include low-cost carriers such as Southwest or Jet Blue, however, so be sure to check with those airlines directly.
Book your flight in or out of regional airports. Many low-cost carriers are able to save you money on your ticket by flying into airports just outside major metropolitan areas rather than busier, city airports. Consider, for example, flying into Newark International Airport instead of JFK in New York City or Oakland International Airport instead of San Francisco International.
