If you need to cover a long distance quickly, flying is the way to go. However, the price of the average airline ticket seems to keep on going up -- airport taxes, security taxes and the cost of airplane fuel all make flying an expensive prospect. You can, though, find some of the cheapest seats on any given flight by being clever with your booking and travel plans.
Pick your departure and arrival airports, and research which airlines operate routes between the two points. Consider smaller airports or those situated farther than another airport from the the city they serve. Chicago's Midway airport, for example, sometimes has cheaper flights than the larger Chicago's O'Hare airport. London, England, is served by the major airports of Gatwick and Heathrow, but budget airlines also operate from London Stansted and London City airports.
Plan to travel when demand for flights on your route is at its lowest. Each route typically has a high, mid and low season. For example, trans-Atlantic flights from the United State typically are cheapest during the later part of January and through the month of February. Major holidays drive up the average price of a flight -- avoid traveling around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter or the school summer break if you want to find the best deal. The cheapest tickets often are available on flights that people with a standard Monday-through-Friday work pattern cannot take. A Friday evening flight on a particular route may be twice as expensive as a Wednesday lunchtime flight on the same route.
Shop around the different airlines that fly your route. Compare prices booking directly with each airline, and with consolidators who sell cheap airfares. Some consolidators will allow you to book the outbound flight with one airline and the return with another -- sometimes this works out cheaper than booking a return flight with the same airline.
