Saving Money on Your Summer Air Travel

Summer has begun! Frugality is the new buzzword these days and everyone is looking to save money. Holiday travel is no difference. Over the years of traveling, I have discovered ways of saving money on air travel by experience. Here they are, in no particular order:

• If time is on my side, which is the case with leisure travel, I always use www.yapta.com to help me track air fares. www.yapta.com tracks the ups and downs of the flights I'm interested in. When the price drops to my target level, I make a beeline to the airline's website to book my flights. In addition, www.yapta.com also has fare/rate deals that might work for you.
  


• If time is not on my side, i.e., I need to travel on specific dates and times at short notice for busines trips, I start my flight search on www.kayak.com and www.mobissimo.com to ascertain what the cheapest rates are. Being obsessive compulsive, I double check by searching on www.orbitz.com and www.travelocity.com even though these two sites are aggregated in www.kayak.com and www.mobissimo.com. I have discovered that no two websites give me exactly the same results, and hence I hedge my bets by searching everything.
  


• Once I find the fares I want (within my budget/target range), I avoid booking fees by booking directly using the airline's website. I find that many airline websites' sometimes run special fare sales from time to time, or more frequently, award bonus airmiles for booking with them.


• I also sign up for the airlines' e-mail lists of last minute deeply discounted tickets. These tickets are usually only offered the beginning of the week for weekend travel, so you have to be willing to travel on very short notice. Also, these tickets have restrictions on departure and return flights, so you would have to be willing to plan your travel around these restrictions.


• As a frugal traveler, I always travel deeply discounted coach. But this does not mean that I consent to be stuck in the dreaded middle seat. Before I book my flights, I always consulted my trusted guide to airplane seating, www.seatguru.com, which allows me to identify the decent and comfortable coach seats on my flights.
  


• It seems to me that the cheapest flights tend to be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (unless they are holidays), as well as Saturdays. I try to book my travel on these days, whenever possible. I also try to avoid Mondays and Fridays, which tend to be more expensive.


• If you can spare some time, hang around in www.flyertalk.com, which bills itself as "an interactive community that provides up-to-date information on travel-related loyalty rewards program." I have learned so much about finding deals listening in to the conversations of hardcore road warriors who know the ins and outs of air travel better than I do.

See also my previous blog postings:

• Frugal Traveler's Review of Travel Websites
  
• How to Get The Best Seat on the Plane
• Frugal Traveling Strategies
• Buy Now or Later? Planning for Summer Travel