There are basically 8 rules I use on a regular basis when booking flights to be sure I get to my destination the cheapest way. These are tips that every person can easily use, frequently cutting the price in half you pay.
1. Make your reservation as early as possible. At least 14 days in advance. After this time, the air tickets can easily more than double in price and cheap air fares may not be available.
2. Be flexible with your travel time. Changing the day or the time of day can drastically reduce the price of your air flight. The best day to fly on is Wednesday, which is also the best day to book the flight on. The cheapest time to fly is early morning or late evening.
3. Fly during the off-season. Prices are a direct result of supply and demand. As demand goes down, prices go down as well, benefiting flyers.
4. Shop all the airlines. This is the most possible using a couple of key air travel websites that I recommend on my site at the bottom. Being able to check all the airlines side-by-side can make it really easy to get those cheap air fares you're after.
5. A stopover instead of a direct flight can result in huge savings.
6. Membership in some clubs like AAA can get you discounts.
7. Look into air travel packages. Purchasing your air travel, hotel, and rental car through the same place usually gives a massive discount. Using a bigger air fare website will allow you to get both cheap air fares and cheap hotels in the same place in moments. I have recommendations for this on my site as well as to which are the easiest to use and take the least time to book the flights and anything additional.
The prices on air fares are a direct result of competition, inventory, and demand. Competition is the airlines competing with each other. Inventory is how many seats are left open on a given flight. Demand is how many people are looking for air travel tickets.
8. By choosing the least-crowded flights that are the least in demand, you get the cheap air fares you want. It's really that simple.
As you can see, there are many ways to get better prices. If you use a good air fares website and choose the best days and times to fly, you can often get cheap air fares and save a hefty amount of money in the process. Most of this is easier in practice for the well setup sites to compare all the airlines side-by-side. The cheaper prices stick out like a sore thumb. There are also many hidden deals also that don't get as known, so I have done the leg work to find you the best site to book everything from cruise ship vacations to cheap hotels to cheap air fares, all in one place. Also I have tracked down running specials on the cheap air fares, some as nice as 50% off the prices of the cheap air fares giving you deals that simply can't be beat.
