One of the most frequent questions that people ask me is how to get a deal on airfare. In a previous article, I discussed how prices will change dramatically, depending on the day that you leave and arrive home. Did you know, that the price of your flight will also change based on the day of the week that you book your trip. I know this sounds bizarre but the rates for a given flight will fluctuate from day to day. So, if you book on one day verses another, you could end up paying hundreds of dollars or more, for the same seat. Why on earth does this happen? Simply, because an airline will typically run a deal for a couple of days, then return the rate back to it's original amount. Thus, if you want to fly round trip from Denver to Rome on Tuesday, you could pay $850 per person but on Thursday, the same seat could cost you as much as $1,020, and on Saturday it could cost a whopping $1,470. So by waiting just four days, your rate for the exact same seat could go up by as much as $620 per seat! This might seem completely nuts, but it's true.
So how does one find that lower rate on a flight? One great place to start is the Internet. The Internet is inundated with websites that specialize in travel, specifically booking flights. Sites like Kayak, Travelocity, and Orbitz, can let you know how much a flight will be, and help you figure out what a good deal might look like. You simply enter in your travel information, the where and when; and it will provide you with the rates of many of the major airlines that fly to that destination. Some smaller airlines and regional carriers do not pay these travel sites for there bookings and thus do not show up on these types of sites. For example Southwest Airlines, a major carrier in the Denver area, does not appear on any of these sites, instead you have to go to their privately owned website to book a flight with them (sneak preview to Saving Money On Airfare Part 3). Now like I said, prices do have a knack of changing daily, so do your homework. Everyday for at least a week or so, document the prices that these sites generate. This way, you will discover what a good deal for this flight you wish to take will be and what day you will want to book it on. Do not skip these steps unless you have to book a last minute flight. Otherwise, you might feel that the Lufthansa $1388 on Saturday was a great value, when on Tuesday you could have booked a flight on US Airways for $850 or on Wednesday on American for $862. Now after a week of diligent note taking, you probably will notice a weird pattern starting to occur. The prices and airlines will start to repeat themselves. The system typically works in a cyclical pattern. Thus, every Tuesday, US Airways will be the most inexpensive carrier and on Wednesdays, American Airlines will be the cheapest and so on. So the challenge is to find out which carrier is the cheapest for your trip. Keep this in mind, that this is just an example of how this cyclical pattern operates and that not always is American Airlines the cheapest on Wednesdays it could very well be Delta or United, but this pattern does occur on most domestic and international flights.
One thing that you will need to realize is that rates will fluctuate from week to week as well, but not by much. For example, American Airlines might charge $862 one week and $867 the next. In spite of these slight variations, you can get a real feel for how much to spend on that flight and when you should pull the trigger on it. One last thing you need to be careful of, is that as you approach the given date of the flight, the prices for this flight will not fluctuate as much, they will stay consistently on the higher end of the spectrum. Thus, this strategy does not work well with last minute flights, which is a flight that is less than a month out. Oh, and keep this in mind when booking a flight, always try to book early. The best rates are usually available either months out or at the last minute, but if you wait until the last minute and a plane you want to book on is near capacity than you could end up paying a premium for that seat. So buyer beware! I hope that these tips can help you find a good deal on your next flight.
www.expedia.com
www.kayak.com
www.orbitz.com
www.travelocity.com
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