Purchase tickets at least 21 days in advance when possible. Purchasing tickets early will generally lower the price of the ticket. Tickets purchased around 15 days before the flight start to increase in price, and tickets purchased within a week of flight are usually the most expensive.
Schedule your flight during cheapest airfare days. These days will vary by airline, but typically, traveling in the middle of the week is cheaper than flying on weekends, and purchasing tickets for major holidays will see a discount over tickets purchased before or after the holiday.
Conduct a search of airfare discount sites online. Orbitz.com, Travelocity.com and Hotwire.com offer some of the lowest ticket fares and also allow the customization to search for the cheapest ticket day during a particular time frame. These sites also offer package discounts on hotels, flights and car rentals.
Search specific airline companies that fly through your nearest airport. Some of the smaller airline companies do not show up on Internet search results or larger discount sites. You can often find some of the best deals directly through an airline's website.
Look for tickets that are sold as roundtrip tickets. One-way tickets are often more expensive than round-trip tickets.
Search neighboring, smaller airports for both departures and arrivals. Sometimes flying in and out of smaller airports will lower the price on tickets.
Fly smaller airlines when possible. Smaller airline companies, such as Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue Airlines, are often cheaper to fly than large corporation planes. In many cases, the flight may be less comfortable, but the price can be significantly lower as well.
Fly into London if traveling to Europe. Flights that fly into London are often less expensive than flights that fly into France, Spain or other European cities.
