Visit a travel website, such as Expedia.com, Orbitz.com or Travelocity.com. These websites act as your own personal electronic travel agent.
Navigate the search engines on the websites. Put in your departure city and destination city, along with the dates of your planned travel. Wait while the website pulls up information for you.
Review the information. Look at which airlines offer flights from your departure city to your destination. Some airlines will be omitted from the list if their fleet does not travel to and from the cities you typed into the search boxes.
Compare the ticket prices. Sort the prices in order of lowest to highest, if the website allows you to. Study the lowest airfares and read the fine print, taking note of whether the tickets are for one-way travel, or if the price represents a round-trip ticket.
Look for hidden fees. Hidden fees can add to the total cost of the airfare, which may make an airline's tickets no longer the lowest.
Revise some of your travel information to see if lower rates are available. For instance, rather than flying on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, see what tickets would cost if you changed your departure and return flights to the weekday. According to Flight.com, air travel on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is typically cheaper than flying on the weekend.
Visit airline company websites, such as Delta Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines. For international flights, check the websites for such airlines as Air China and British Airways.
Type in your travel information on each website you visit. Wait for the results to appear. If a particular airline does not have flights to and from your departure or destination cities, then cross that airline off your list and move onto the next website.
Write down the prices of the tickets. Keep a list of the airline names and how much the tickets cost for each website you visit.
See if you can apply any airline points or "sky miles" from a credit card that you own. Also, look into promotions that the airline may be running. Promotional tickets are discounted, but they are also nonrefundable.
See if the airline flies into other airports in the area surrounding your destination is. If you are flying into a major airport, airline tickets may cost more than arriving at a smaller airport in a less busy city. For instance, instead of flying into San Francisco, fly into San Jose and drive the extra distance. That way, you can save on airfare.
Compare the prices on your list. Find the lowest ticket and compare it to the cheapest one you found on the travel website. Decide which airline offers the better deal.
