If you want to book a flight to a vacation spot, you might want to make sure you are getting the lowest possible price on that flight. Before purchasing a ticket, you should review FareCompare.com to examine flight prices. Using FareCompare, you can search flights from the airport of your choice so that you can get the lowest price. You can even find out when the best time to buy and fly is, according to website. Using FareCompare is easy and free.
Go to the FareCompare website (see link in Resources).
Know where you want to fly out of. When you go to the FareCompare website, it will automatically pre-populate your closest originating airport for you. It does this based on the IP address of the computer you are using. However, you can also type in the city you want to fly out of into the "From" box on the main page if you do not wish to use the one that is pre-populated.
Know where you want to go. As soon as you click in the text box for either "From" or "To," a box will open on the right side of the screen showing locations you can fly to at a low cost. These are the featured "Getaway" deals. You may also type your destination of choice in the "To" box.
Select your dates. If you have specific dates in mind, enter them into the "Departing" and "Returning" boxes. If not, you should have a look to the box on the right. At the top of that box will be "FareCompare Smart Shopper," which gives you options like only searching non-stop flights or searching nearby airports. The section below that is "Best Months to Travel." If you do not have specific dates in mind, you will want to look at this section as it will give you a list of the lowest fares for 3 months. Use one of those months to look for a flight by lowest price in the selected month. You will also notice below it that the most expensive month to travel is listed.
Select your search sites. Before searching for airfare you are able to select the websites that FareCompare searches for you. Your options are SuperSearch, Fly.com, Orbitz, Priceline, OneTime, Travelocity and Expedia. You can put a check by as many or as few of those as you like. When done, just click "Search and Compare" to compare airfare prices.
Use FareCompare to get information on travel deals and tips. If you click on "Cheap Travel Deals" from the main page you can get daily updates on the best travel deals around. If you click "Best Time To Buy" from the main page, you can get tips on buying cheap airfare and read FareCompare travel guides.
