ITA Software is an extensive flight planning tool that simultaneously searches over 500 airlines around the world to provide you with the cheapest fare. ITA Software is actually the search engine used by most major airlines, such as United.com, and airline fare sites, such as Kayak.com.
Login as a guest, enter your dates and start your search. If your travel dates are flexible, select "Month Long Search." ITA will display the cheapest fares over a 30-day period for every major airline in the United States. You can only search for flights on ITA. To purchase a ticket, jot down the airline with the best fare, and buy the ticket at that airline's website.
Before you buy your ticket, you may want to know whether or not your flight is going to land or depart on-time to avoid missing a connection, or losing precious vacation time by sitting in an airport. Airlines tend to avoid publishing on-time data due to some flights being late over 90 percent of the time, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Use Flight Aware to avoid sitting in an airport longer than necessary. Search by a city and flight number, and Flight Aware will display the odds of your flight staying on schedule using information from the Federal Flight Administration (FAA) database. If a flight is chronically late, use this information to buy a ticket on another airline or for a flight at a different time of day.
Airline fares constantly change, making it difficult for you to know if you are getting the best deal. Before purchasing a ticket, check Farecast. Farecast, part of the Microsoft Bing search engine, searches on your dates and determines whether an airline fare will become cheaper or more expensive in the future based on historical airline fare data. Use this information to determine the best time to buy your airline ticket.
For a user-friendly interface to search for flights, try Kayak.com. Kayak searches airlines as well as consolidators like Expedia or Priceline to find the cheapest flight for you. Kayak uses the same search engine as ITA Software, but may show you special deals that it has negotiated directly with the airlines.
Unlike other flight planning sites, Kayak is supported by advertising, so you'll see many ads cluttering the pages of your search results. You also have the option of purchasing tickets for your flight directly on Kayak.com.
