30 Places to Find Cheap Airline Tickets

Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 7:06pm by admin

By Heather Johnson

Scoring a great deal on plane tickets is only one of the challenges air travelers face these days. Unbearably long security lines, bumped flights, lost luggage and congested air traffic are commonplace. While we may not be able to control homeland security or overbooked flights, we are able to share with you some of our secrets for finding cheap airline tickets. Read below for 30 places where you can land a great deal on your next flight.

Tools and Resources

Check out this list of tools and resources that are designed to help you find the best airline deals available.

  1. Farecast: This website has predicting airfare trends down to a science. Their fare prediction tool “shows if the lowest fare is rising or dropping over the next seven days for the specific dates and cities searched.” Travelers are given the option of buying now or waiting until the fare drops to purchase tickets.
  2. WebFlyer: This website is known on the Web as “the frequent flyer authority.” Great for business travelers or passengers who vacation often, visitors to this site can find all kinds of bonus promotions, special deals on airfare and other insider information.
  3. SideStep: SideStep is touted as “the traveler’s search engine.” Instead of visiting site after site to research cheap airfares, consider using SideStep, which searches discount ticket sites and airfares from the airlines’ websites to bring up the cheapest tickets anywhere on the Web.
  4. Yahoo! Travel: The Yahoo! Travel page has lots of resources for planning vacations, including searching for great deals on airline tickets. Check back often to view the featured discounts leaving from your city.
  5. Airline websites: The article “SoYouWanna Find a Cheap Plane Ticket?” reveals that purchasing tickets directly from the airline can actually pay off — if you’re willing to be flexible. Last minute reservations are usually the cheapest, and “if you can adjust your times to fly, you increase your chances of getting a cheap fare.”
  6. Ding!: Southwest Airline’s popular tool is a desktop application that notifies travelers whenever a special deal pops up going to one of their choice cities. There’s only one catch: in order to secure the discount, you must purchase the ticket by the end of the day.
  7. PlaneTickets.com: This website posts links to most major airlines, but it also connects travelers to special deals within the U.S., to Europe, the Caribbean and more.
  8. Kayak: Kayak is another site that searches for cheap airline tickets across the Web. If you’re unsure of buying from a discount website, Kayak allows users to buy directly from the airline or agency that offers the lowest price.
  9. BookingBuddy: This website lets travelers search sites like Kayak, SideStep, Hotwire and other discount companies to find the best deals available.
  10. TripStalker: This tool is a “new, easy-to-use application that grabs the best online travel deals” and notifies you when they go on sale. Follow the link to download the software.

Consolidators and Discount Agencies

Many times the best deals can be found through consolidated airfare companies that feature wholesale prices. Read below to connect to listings for consolidated and discount agencies.

  1. LowestFare.com: Travelers don’t have to sacrifice non-stop services or first class comfort when they buy their discount tickets from LowestFare.com.
  2. CheapTickets.com: CheapTickets.com has all kinds of flight deals, including airfare and hotel or transportation packages. Students can also find special discount deals, and the Volunteer Vacation Savings Program offers “special savings for schools, religious groups and non-profits.”
  3. Airvalues.com: Utilize this company’s airfare search engine to book cheap tickets going to top international locations like Tokyo, Paris, Barcelona, Dublin, Athens and Moscow. Flights within the U.S. are also available.
  4. Cheapseats.com: This company “specialize[s] in cheap flights, discount airfare and cheap tickets worldwide.” If you’re looking for a great deal on international flights, start shopping around with Cheapseats.com first.
  5. AirlineConsolidator.com: This “online travel agency specializing in discount international airline tickets” has literally millions of flights in its database waiting to be sold at consolidated prices.
  6. Fareline International: U.S. passengers traveling abroad should check out Fareline International “to find the best wholesale airline ticket pricing available.” The site also features travel guides to cities like Amsterdam, Venice, Prague and Zurich so that you can plan your trip and book your flight all at once.
  7. Faremax: This website offers access to “millions” of airline tickets at consolidated prices and hosts a blog, forum, photo galleries, a personal travel planning page that holds all of your confirmation numbers and more.
  8. AirSaver: AirSaver boasts that travelers can save up to 65% on regularly-priced airline tickets when they use the company’s database of international and domestic flights.
  9. Consolidated Fares: This easy-to-navigate site features flights to Paris for just $202 from the U.S. and other fantastic deals.
  10. AA Travel: AA Travel’s website believes that “vacation is not a once a year event. It’s a lifestyle.” You don’t have to be a high roller to appreciate their discount prices and fabulous connections.

Helpful Websites

Use these websites to find more deals on traveling by air.

  1. Orbitz: Search for cheap airline tickets or snag a great deal on an entire vacation package when you book with Orbitz.
  2. Travelocity: This popular site often has the best deals online. Before you make your reservations, check to see if there are any featured deals to places like Las Vegas, the Caribbean or Hawaii.
  3. Hotwire.com: Take advantage of Hotwire’s Travel Ticker tool, which finds unbelievable airfare and hotel deals in your choice of cities.
  4. Expedia.com: Everyone knows the Expedia.com TV commercial, so why not go ahead and book a flight with them online? Travelers can “track low fares with Fare Alert,” subscribe to great deals with the RSS feature and more.
  5. ITA Software’s Fare Shopping Engine: Travelers must create an account to search for tickets on this site, but the low prices are worth it; however, one user on Lifehacker.com warns that “you won’t be flying first class” on any of the flights.
  6. Tripmama: Word has it that “Tripmama knows best” when it comes to finding cheap airline tickets. This site searches discount airfares from other websites and features special deals of its own.
  7. TicketComps.com: This website relies on customer reviews and recommendations to “provide great advice about vacation or business travel arrangements,” including cheap airline tickets. Passengers can book last minute tickets or subscribe to the site’s RSS feeds for personalized travel deals.
  8. FlightNetwork: This website offers excellent deals for flights leaving from Canada to anywhere in the world, including the U.S. and Europe.
  9. Priceline: Priceline lets travelers bid on flights, hotels and car rentals and book last-minute travel deals at amazingly low prices.
  10. Mobissimo Travel: Mobissimo Travel pulls airline ticket deals from other sites and lets you compare prices so that you always get the best offer.

Comment below to share with us your secrets for finding cheap airline tickets!


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Filed under: Airlines, Budgeting, Features, Vacations

52 Comments »

  1. You missed one - http://www.flycheapo.com.

    Comment by tom — December 21, 2007 @ 8:50 am

  2. How you can miss http://www.cheapoair.com

    They are doing very good…I do lots of research before booking any tickets and trust me 8 out of 10 times I have booked with them as they had better fares…..

    Comment by srv — December 21, 2007 @ 8:59 am

  3. You forgot to mention http://www.dohop.com, a great flight search engine that searches more than 660 airlines and OTA´s for the best and cheapest way to your destination. Check it out!

    Comment by ghh — December 21, 2007 @ 10:10 am

  4. Airfarewatchdog.com .. they just listed a fare from New York to Toronto for $280 RT including taxes available only on Air Canada web site. I looked on Kayak and it was $200 more for the exact same flights and dates. They also list fares on Southwest no one else does. A totally awesome site I think.

    Comment by Audrey — December 21, 2007 @ 5:40 pm

  5. Great list. Thanks!

    Comment by Tony — December 21, 2007 @ 9:40 pm

  6. Awesome list!

    PS: the cheaptickets link goes to cheapseats.

    Comment by gennessee — December 22, 2007 @ 3:39 pm

  7. itasoftware is not a booking site, but a ‘lookup’ site where you can use several parameters to get the flight you want. It is the same kind of backend used by travel agents.

    You mainly have people flying economy, this is why there is a focus with most features on it. Obviously it is hard to grasp to use the option button to get biz class an above out of it as well.

    Yes, it does not have all airlines in it, but depending on where you are flying this is more than enough to give you a quick overview. I booked my last three flights to the US from Europe through this - checking everything up and then using the information on flights, aircrafts etc to call the call center and book them.

    And you do not have to get yourself an account - the clearly visible guest login is more than you will ever need …

    Comment by Nicole Simon — December 23, 2007 @ 11:20 pm

  8. Great List!

    Comment by Bryan — December 25, 2007 @ 5:57 am

  9. Another to add to the list: http://www.flycheapabroad.com

    I’ve had better luck finding low fares on that site than some of the others.

    Comment by Bilingual Blogger — December 26, 2007 @ 5:44 pm

  10. Good for European flights

    Comment by Ercolino de spiacico — December 27, 2007 @ 12:58 am

  11. Sorry, this is the correct address!

    Comment by Ercolino de spiacico — December 27, 2007 @ 12:59 am

  12. Great Site that you all misses

    Comment by playtimetrucking — December 28, 2007 @ 4:46 am

  13. Sorry here it is

    Comment by Play Day Travel — December 28, 2007 @ 4:48 am

  14. Maybe it is better at other times, but I did a search on flycheapabroad.com for 2 people to fly roundtrip from St. Louis to London and it came up with over $7,000.00!!! Not so cheap.

    Comment by CW — December 30, 2007 @ 8:52 pm

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    Comment by betterfuture — January 7, 2008 @ 2:43 am

  17. Hey, great list. I travel quite a bit and usually book on Orbitz, but I think I’ll check out some of these other places next time.

    Thanks,

    Shane

    Comment by Shane — January 7, 2008 @ 10:41 am

  18. Book cheap flights to China, experience something different!

    Comment by FunnyChinaStuff — January 7, 2008 @ 2:18 pm

  19. Great overview with one omission.

    TripSync, (tripsync.com), is the newest and most efficient online business travel booking tool that’s specifically designed to accommodate SMB business travelers and those in their company who book their travel. TripSync is free to use and there are no booking fees, reducing the overall cost of your travel.

    TripSync’s features include;
    • TripSync is Completely Mobile – You can book a flight, hotel room or rental car right from your web-enable PDA or Smartphone!! Never get stuck at an airport again.
    • Book & Hold – Place your reservation on hold for 24hrs, retaining price and space. Finalize your schedule or get approvals without loosing availability and pricing.
    • Outlook Integration – If you use Microsoft Outlook, your trip is entered into you calendar as an event. You can even modify hotel and car reservations by simply dragging and dropping them in your calendar.
    • One Office Solution - TripSync enables users to book and manage travel for one or multiple travelers, from one tool. TripSync is efficient, easier to use and more economical than any other method of booking business travel.
    • Flight Alerts – Notifications via email or SMS text message for delays, cancellations, etc.
    • Weather and Airport Info – Check the weather for your destination and find out about the airport
    • Security Wait-times – Your flight might be on time but you can easily miss it if the security wait-times exceed the amount of time you’ve allotted yourself.
    • Departure and Arrival Info – Allows you to see how busy the airport/airline is by displaying actual real-time information.
    • 24/7 Quality Customer Service
    Check out TripSync, (tripsync.com). It’s the absolute best online business travel booking tool, and it’s free.

    Comment by DavidS — January 10, 2008 @ 12:08 pm

  20. Another good research site is FareCompare.com. Also, Cheapseats is now just the same as Travelocity - so they don’t have anything you wouldn’t have already found.

    Comment by MattH — January 12, 2008 @ 3:21 am

  21. An useful tool to follow your favourite itinerary’s quotations: http://www.yapta.com

    It’s cool.

    Comment by Mariano — January 12, 2008 @ 8:01 pm

  22. I knew most of these before, but doesn’t Kayak “subsume” BookingBuddy . . . not the other way around? And how about the new sites that aren’t just price-driven, but focus instead on travel themes?

    Comment by San Fran Kango Man — January 13, 2008 @ 7:52 am

  23. Just a hard working father of 5 and grandfather of 5 with
    airline tickets comparable to most of these sites thanks.

    Comment by Brian Fish — January 13, 2008 @ 9:11 pm

  24. I Love to travel and know alot of sites, but this one I will be keeping ’cause theres some sites I need to check out for our next trip this spring

    Comment by waveracer — January 14, 2008 @ 2:56 am

  25. don’t forget http://www.cfares.com!

    Comment by bain — January 14, 2008 @ 11:00 pm

  26. This is an excellent site and source for cheap/comp. tickets and excellents packages for travel and their cruises are outstanding.

    Comment by Kevin — January 15, 2008 @ 3:17 am

  27. Its awsome!! Great cruise, golf and travel packages. I love it

    Comment by ytb.com/thebrillianttraveler — January 15, 2008 @ 3:30 am

  28. Nice Article to read about
    Save upto 70% on hotels reservation in New York city

    Comment by Nancy — January 15, 2008 @ 10:01 am

  29. Just recently was recommended http://www.bt-store.com Amazing deals to get over to Europe from the US ;)

    Comment by Tiffany — January 16, 2008 @ 6:37 am

  30. Very helpful list guys, you should also add http://www.viator.com as a list of great things to do on any destination.

    Comment by Jason — January 18, 2008 @ 6:46 pm

  31. not everyone is flying from the US or canada.
    i am interested in cheap flights from Africa to Europe/americas, and cross atlantic to europe.

    any ideas??

    Comment by txikia — January 20, 2008 @ 4:03 pm

  32. I have used a combination of these tools over the past couple years. I have found the perfect solution for me. I use Kayak.com and Orbitz.com then go to the airline webpage to purchase. The prices always seem to be lower on purchasing direct from the airline. Probably has to do with paying commission.

    I have also pricelined a couple trips and have found the flights to be everything I paid for. Saving so much has its negatives.

    Comment by Chris the low fare finding Guru Estes — January 26, 2008 @ 7:40 am

  33. Don´t forget about http://www.travelgrove.com when you are looking for cheap flight.

    Comment by Stefan — January 26, 2008 @ 1:20 pm

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    Comment by Tim Bennett — January 29, 2008 @ 2:29 am

  35. There is also The Brilliant Traveler at http://www.ytb.com/thebrillianttraveler it is a new and excellent site to book travel.

    Comment by K. — January 31, 2008 @ 4:23 pm

  36. Also try http://www.vayama.com

    Comment by J — February 4, 2008 @ 6:58 pm

  37. Thanks for the info. I do want to add I had a horrible experience with expedia.ca. Had to change my ticket and it was impossible to make contact with them. They promise to reply to email in 24 hours but never replied. Tried to call and was put on hold for 2 hours. When I finally got an agent was cut off. Ended up calling corp offices at Expedia.com and they sent me to AA to change my ticket, which cost extra. Wrote to complain to Expedia president and NEVER heard back. Doubtful I will ever book with them again.

    Just searched multi-city trip to Asia and Australia from Canada and got excellent service from both Vayama and travelocity. Both answer the phones really fast. Vayama website is really well designed. Shows flight paths and it’s easy to change dates to do additional searches.

    Comment by linda — February 4, 2008 @ 9:06 pm

  38. When traveling to North Carolina just clik here for your one stop travel experience.

    Comment by North Carolina Tourist Guide — February 17, 2008 @ 12:57 am

  39. I also use Carefreetrip.com

    Comment by Kyle H — May 1, 2008 @ 8:47 pm

  40. You have missed out tgels.com.

    tgels.com is web 2.0 vertical search engine that gels (searches in real-time) multiple booking sites and aggregates published, wholesale, lastminute deals with guiding information and guide selections (patent pending). The search is done in real-time and allows the user to compare air fares from multiple booking sites such as Orbitz, Cheaptickets, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Hotwire, Travelation, Lastminutetravel, Cheapoair, SkyLow, Travelnow, Yatra, Makemytrip, airline web sites like United, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, American, Spirit, NWA, USAir, Continental, Airtran, Singapore, Air France, British, Virgin, Lufthansa, WeFlyHome, etc.

    tgels.com (patent pending) guide selections keeps updating the lowest and attractive fare tabs in real-time keeping the user guessing and jumping as the colors tabs change in real-time. One can find some very good air fares and save from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars.

    Comment by Advertiser — May 5, 2008 @ 12:12 am

  41. This is a great site to book travel. They also have great golf packages and a special honeymoon registry. Look here before you go on your next trip!

    Comment by Kathy Young — May 7, 2008 @ 11:28 pm

  42. Very good article. Thanks

    Comment by Thailand Hotel — May 14, 2008 @ 11:51 am

  43. wooh… nice article here. Thanks for all the info! Really helpful for people who love to travel and “wish” to travel…Thanks much!

    Comment by Gracey — July 1, 2008 @ 11:56 pm

  44. Great article.

    To find good hotel deals this site helped me a lot:

    hotels.findoutwheretogo.com

    You can pick a hotel and find which booking sites offers it for the lowest price.

    Comment by Susan — July 5, 2008 @ 1:50 pm

  45. You cannot beat the deals on this site.It is fantastic and I only use it!

    Comment by K. — August 2, 2008 @ 1:49 am

  46. This is the best Travel site barnone! International,cruises,Golf packages,Hotels they even have travel resources(passports etc)

    Comment by Ellen — August 2, 2008 @ 1:54 am

  47. You cannot forget about http://www.thebrillianttraveler.com Don’t travel without it!

    Comment by Bethanne — August 2, 2008 @ 1:57 am

  48. Awesome list …thanks. I used a couple of the sites before but some are new for me.
    Thanks again for the great list - Bookmarked and Stumbled .

    Comment by Nikky — August 8, 2008 @ 12:27 pm

  49. A very fine website in the travel genre. Though there are many sites…, this is one of the best I’ve come across, from the standpoint of its sheer number of travel offers. There are, for example, 8 pages or so of cruise deals. There are short trips for $250 or less. A separate link takes one to the prestigious Collette Vacations. Among my favorites were the various Australia/New Zealand combinations, especially the 27 day tour for some $4400. Quite reasonable! Overall, site is of very fine quality,…www.thebrillianttraveler.com

    Comment by D. — August 12, 2008 @ 9:11 pm

  50. gr8 website

    Comment by sahara airlines — August 14, 2008 @ 9:46 am

  51. Great info.! thank you.

    Comment by Smartman — August 19, 2008 @ 2:46 am

  52. thank you for all for useful list..

    Comment by Hotel Guide — August 21, 2008 @ 1:59 pm

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