Looking for cheaper airfare is as easy as scouting airline websites. One airline may offer a round-trip ticket for more than another airline. Checking the various airlines can uncover specials not found any other place. Unadvertised web fares often pop up on airline sites, especially for destinations that airlines find hard to fill. Travelers should check every couple of days to see whether their have been price reductions.
Low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines (southwest.com), AirTran (airtran.com), Frontier (frontierairlines.com) and JetBlue (jetblue.com) often use secondary airports in certain cities, and those airports aren't always off the beaten path. Instead of O'Hare in Chicago, you might fly into Midway. A traveler in Dallas may go to Love Field instead of Dallas-Fort Worth International. Flying one of these airlines often results in cheaper fares and may save you the headache of overcrowded airports.
Weekend travelers often fly out on Thursdays and Fridays and return on Sundays or Mondays. Business travelers start trips at the beginning of the week and return at the end, if possible, to spend weekends with family. That leaves Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, three days where it is possible to find cheaper fares. Mid-week planes may not be as crowded as those filled with travelers looking forward to a weekend getaway or returning home from one.
Buying 21 days or more in advance of a trip can produce substantial savings. Travelers often do not know itineraries over three weeks ahead, especially in the business world. Leisure travelers know their itinerary, but they may wait for cheaper fares to pop up. Airlines often find some routes aren't booked solid less than a week before departure, so they may open up some seats at a discount to book them.
Travelers who aren't as rigid with their schedules can often earn discounts by staying longer. If an airline offers round-trip fare for substantially less one day after a scheduled departure, switch the itinerary so the return trip is on the cheaper day. It will involve staying one more night in a hotel, but that could trigger discounts as well. Hotels often use multinight discounts to encourage longer stays from travelers.
