When most people look for a flight they just head to Priceline, Orbitz, or one of the other major travel sites. What they don’t know is that there are a number of other sites out there search all those sites and more. These are called search aggregates and they search the big sites, airline’s websites, and the lesser known travel search sites.
I’ll break down the top 4 that you should be using to find the best deals.
FareCompare
They call themselves an independent airfare shopping site. This is the site I use the most often. An airfare search on FareCompare will search a host of sites and airlines to find you the best deal. One of my favorite features of the site is the deals from your home airport. Type in your airport and you’ll get a list of the best fares flying to different destinations. You can also break these destinations down into US/Canada, Europe, Caribbean, and many others. You can also follow them on twitter for real-time tweets about deals from your home airport.
Rarely, you will find the listed fare doesn’t match the actual price but you’re not buying anything from FareCompare so you’re not getting duped. Just double check your dates with priceline.com and make sure the price matches. FareCompare.com
AirfareWatchdog
This site more or less just shows some of the cheapest flights available. I visit this site for the top 50 fares list, the fare of the day, and to read the blog. They usually find some pretty impressive deals here. Another neat thing on this site is the ability to search for cheap flights to a certain destination from various airports. You can also search for deals from your home airport.
As usual, the continuous fluctuation of airline tickets causes some of the fares listed to not match the actual price. Double0check the fare against another site to make sure that price is still available. AirfareWatchdog.com
ITA Software
This is a straight forward flight search database. This is one of the best and its the software FareCompare and other sites are powered by. You can search specific dates, weekends, or do month long searches. ITA Software
Kayak
This is the one you’ve probably heard of. It searches hundreds of different sites to find the best price. You can set up fare alerts for your home airport that will be sent to your email. It also has a fare chart tool that can be useful when planning a trip. Kayak.com
You’re best bet when searching for your next flight would be to use all these sites. They are all free tools at your disposal. Also, if you just like to travel cheaply, let the features on these sites do the work for you. Set up fare alerts for your airport and follow them on twitter to always be aware of the deals available to you.
Was one of your favorites not listed above? Let me know in the comments below.
[photo by: Mark Sebastian]
![[Google]]( http://seat33c.com/wp-content/plugins/easy-adsenser/google-light.gif)
can hold up to 1,500 books and is smaller than a magazine.
2 Responses to “4 Sites to Find Cheap Flights”
Anil
5 months ago
I’m a fan of FareCompare – Kayak is good as well but not usually my #1 choice. For follow up though I always go directly to the airline’s website to check for exclusive offers.
Trey N.
5 months ago
That’s a good point Anil, and something I forgot to touch on. When airlines have special sales or promotions those fares usually don’t pop up on these aggregate sites. It’s good practice to check the airline’s website as well.