Pick your travel days wisely. Busier days (like the weekend) tend to be pricier when flying in or out. You can save a significant amount of money by picking a typically "inconvenient" day -- say, a Tuesday morning as opposed to a Friday afternoon -- to begin and end your trip. If you're using a website that shows prices for each day of the week for that month, it's much easier to view and select the cheaper days according to that airline.
Scour the tried and true discount airfare websites. Stacy Rapacon from Kiplinger prefers Kayak.com, which offers a variety of low airfare rates for both domestic and international flights. This approach mixes and matches multiple airlines at times, but if low-cost is the goal, then sampling various airlines shouldn't matter too much.
Try FareCompare.com for low-fare alerts sent directly to your email address, so you'll be ready to buy as soon as the deal is available.
Spirit Airlines is an airline with very limited destinations in the U.S. and abroad, but if the locations match up for you, it is perhaps the best deal on the Internet.
Hop on the plane at the last minute. This means keeping an eye out for last-minute deals, both on the websites listed above and elsewhere. Sometimes those desperate, last-chance offers are as cheap as they get. If your plans permit it, and you're not opposed to booking a trip to the beach only a week in advance, this can be the cheapest, most spontaneous boost to your travel itinerary.
Sign up for multiple carrier email lists, and be vigilant. They will instantly alert you to upcoming offers and discounts, and will allow you to better plan upcoming adventures. Staying "in the know" with multiple airlines or airfare websites will better your chances of finding those infrequent specials or package deals.
Use your reward points if possible. Many credit cards offer a reward program that can be used toward air travel, so if you've managed to rack up a substantial amount of these points, use it to your advantage.
If you don't already have a program like this, keep an eye out for credit card offers that are geared toward airfare rewards, but be wary of the fine print. Make sure the reward program has attainable prizes, or worthwhile money spent-versus-points ratio. It's no fun wasting time and money on a rewards program that requires an enormous amount of expenditures before you get anything in return.
