Tips for buying plane tickets

[lady_disdain]

I am traveling in June and need to buy plane tickets. Woohoo!

But, yes, the budget is killing me, as always. I am using Kayak to search for tickets, as well as the airlines own websites, and clearing cookies. Any more tips?

[PitBullMom]

My favorite site is www.farecast.com. For US domestic flights they have a price predictor that shows the likelihood of the current price increasing or decreasing. If you sign up, they send an email when the prices changes so you don't have to check everyday.

[lady_disdain]

Oooh, that is interesting. I am going to save for future trips since this one is international.

[Tea Drinker]

If possible, buy your tickets on Tuesday or Wednesday.

This is separate from advice about what days to actually travel: plane fares fluctuate in weird ways, and prices for any given flight tend to be lowest on Tuesday and Wednesday, okay on Thursday, and worst on the weekends.

Also, most airlines still charge significantly less for a round-trip ticket than for two one-way tickets. (For complicated reasons, we just bought two one-way tickets to another city, and one one-way ticket back; I did it this way to be completely sure we would be traveling together on the flight out. But it probably would have been cheaper as a round-trip for me and a one-way ticket for the partner.) Air Canada is an exception to this (I don't know where you're going, so that may or may not be relevant.)

[oceanus]

I agree with booking your flight on a Tuesday (you can actually fly any day, but it's said that Tuesday is the best day to make your reservation).

Try www.cheaptickets.com

[KB]

In addition, try to arrange to fly on Wednesdays. That seems to be the cheapest day for most international airlines. If you can be flexible on days/times, you can save hundreds of $$.

Recommended sites to get cheap fares:

http://www.kayak.com/
http://www.momondo.com/
https://flightfox.com/contest/new

Also buy the tickets any time up to three months before you fly. They won't get much cheaper after that, even if airlines have 'sales' or you try to book last-minute, which has you running the risk of not getting tickets at all.