Airline prices vary greatly by destination, date of travel, date of reservation and airline. There are many websites that can help find the best prices. These websites can generally be broken up into price comparison websites, online reseller websites and the airlines' websites. All of these sites can offer customers the same flight on the same date of travel for a very different price. It's important to compare these sites to get the best deal.
Compare airfare reseller websites. Kayak, FareCompare, BookingBuddy and CheapFlights compare the fare prices of many of the major airfare resellers like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. These companies are able to sell airfare at discounted prices because they buy large quantities of discounted airline tickets from the airlines. The resale price that these companies offer is often cheaper than the going rate at the actual airline.
Go to the airfare reseller website to see if the actual cost is lower. Although airfare reseller comparison sites such as the ones mentioned in Step 1 are usually accurate, you may want to go directly to the website that is offering the flight you are interested in to check for any specials, deals or price inaccuracies. These websites include Hotwire, Travelocity, LowestFare, Priceline and Expedia. The cost of flights for the same date of travel can vary greatly per website. If you compare flights on several reseller websites, create a tab or new window for each website. These websites track users who search for a ticket, leave the site and come back. Those who come back run the risk of the site offering the same flight at a higher price.
Go directly to the airline's website. Once you find a low fare, open a new tab or window and check out the fare on the airline's actual website. For example, if the lowest price from San Francisco to Honolulu is found on Travelocity and the flight is with Continental, go to Continental Airline's website and try inputting the same travel dates to see if the flight might be cheaper. Also go to Southwest Airline's website. Southwest Airlines doesn't allow their airfare to be resold, so you must go to their website directly to see if they offer a lower priced flight to your destination on your travel date.
Change travel dates. Change the date of travel for each website to see if leaving a couple days before or after the original travel dates saves money. Also, many of these sites display cheaper prices for flights booked 30 to 60 days in advance.
Reserve the flight. The price of the flight can quickly change. Within minutes the same website may force you to pay a higher price. Try to reserve the flight as quickly as possible.
