Find your cheap flights! I am the self-named goddess of finding cheap flights on the net... I am going home in November for Thanksgiving for $300 return - London to New York, on a reputable airlines. (no Mom, I am not flying with chicken crates again, I promise!) Most of the time, my finding these cheap flights just involves me typing "New York to London, cheap, flight, tickets" into the search engine of "Dogpile" and then exploring the options given for hours. But sometimes, I got lucky and found a website, airlines, or advert source that I could usually count on! Once I find these, I bookmark ’em and always try them first. And now, you lucky folk can know them too (because I am just that nice). Now, I know there is not much information (BUT STILL SOME!) for finding flights to continents other than North America and Europe, but I am writing this article from experience, and when I do venture to another continent (as I hope to do this year), I will update this page with the wealth of information I acquire.
Let’s start with my favorite...
I recently have found some websites that are incredible! They have engines which search for the best fares between multiple cheap fare airlines! Saves me all the legwork! Now, not all the time do they work, so you may want to double check if you can get a better fare by contacting the airlines website yourself, but in general, you really don’t have to do both, because they get you the best price!!!!!
Europe:
Goo Flight offers "10 low cost airlines, 18 countries..., [and] 176 cities." This great site condenses the best of the low coast airlines into one search engine to make discount fare shopping super easy and reliable! The airlines used are RyanAir, EasyJet, Bmibaby, MyTravelLite, Basiq Air, Volare Web, GermanWings, and Hapag-Lloyd Flug.
Sky Scanner gives you the options to choose when you want to fly by day, weekend special from a certain city, and fares for your destination for a 30 day period. The "month" choice (30 days = a month) is perfect if you have flexibility and hope to find the cheapest flight possible. Also, the "month" option has a brilliant graph that shows you the fares, when they are the cost peaks, and is interactive! I love it! I am thrilled someone came up with this idea! Airlines that are searched by Sky Scanner are: Air Berlin, Air Scotland, Basiq Air, BMI, bmibaby, Deutsche BA, EasyJet, Flybe germanwings, GlobeSpan, Hapag-Lloyd Express, InterSky, Jet2, Jetmagic, MyTravelLite, Ryanair, Sterling, and Virgin Express.
On Apple Fares, you can chose search by a basic "run of the mill" flight search, a flexible search to search for the cheapest price, weekend trips, indirect flights (aka stopovers), and a mega search (under the "more" tab) that gives you so many explanations, I cannot begin to explain. Airlines that are searched by Applefares are: Air 2000, AirBerlin, Air Scotland, BasiqAir, BMI, bmibaby, Duo, easyJet, ExcelAirways, flybe, Flying Finn, Germania, GermanWings, Globespan, Hapag-Lloyd Express, InterSky, Jet2, JetMagic, My TravelLite, SkyEurope Airlines, SkyNet Airlines, Sterling, Virgin Express, and Volare.
Intercontinental or Within USA:
Most of these companies do enough advertising for themselves (as they are big corporations), but for the new-bee, I will put them on here, because they are very good, and I usually check them first, before I start on a full-out search of the web.
Opodo * * * * Easy Value
Actually, they are UK sites, so don’t try to get cheap US flights on here, but for International travel, they are great!
Priceline is great for travel with in the USA because you can name your own price, and see what airlines picks up your bid! My only warning is that once you have made the bid, you are stuck with it. Read the fine print my friend! Priceline UK has yet to come out with the "name your own price" or the William Shatner commercials, but they still have pretty darn good fares.
Not as good, but may help... Cheap Tickets, Orbitz, Travelocity, Yahoo Travel, Expedia
LowCostAirlines.org is a fantastic, in depth, and fairly opinionated website that lists cheap airlines and search engines that run within countries or continents.
One great bit of info that they offer (in bold under the "Within EUROPE" category) is very important for understanding how to buy tickets on the web: "All airlines have the most flights from their Home Base!!" This means that you should not be surprised when you find that the majority of flights offered by Volareweb originate in Italy, and Air Berlin originate in Berlin, etc. Even better, LowCostAirlines.org tells you where the home bases are!
Attitude Travel offers a nicely laid out list of many of the cheap airlines in Europe, where they fly to and from, and what country the airlines are based in.
Air Courier:
Haven’t tried it or know anyone who has, but from the sound if it, it really sounds amazing! (Tho, maybe a little sketchy sounding, too.) From what I have figured out, express mail companies rather send overnight packages as baggage on a passenger plane because customs lets it pass much faster. But for all luggage on a plane, there must be a passenger, and that is where you come in. You give up your luggage space (and say in the scheduling of the flights) in exchange for a heavily discounted ticket. Check out these links:
International Association of Air Travel Couriers
UK Version of Int’t. Ass. of Air Travel Couriers
About Budget Travel, Air Couriers
Hitching a ride on airplanes:
Dude, you just got to check it out to believe it! I think I might try it tho! My flight to Moscow... I’ll let you know how it goes. Craziness!
Must read articles for the cheap price hunting virgin:
Check out this page: 1stHolidaystore and make sure to read the section called "How to make sure get cheap flights." Brilliant and very true.
Another article I recommend that every person "new to hunting for a cheap fare" reads is: How good is my Discounted Airfare deal?? It gives a buyer the means to compare how good the deal he is getting and attempts to give a concrete/mathematical formula to figuring out how much you should be paying for your flight. I don’t hold this formula as gospel, but it gives the beginner a good idea of what price is good to have in mind as a goal.
Also helpful...Art of Travel
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> How to find cheap flightsPosted by taina Excellent stuff!!! we want more of Annie!!! finding cheap flights is really easy when you’re located in the central Europe and/or have the choice between several operating airlines but alas... if you’re stuck in Scandinavia e.g. Finland or Sweden basically the only operating air lines are national ones which are darn expensive for a student. Luckily, there is nowadays FlyingFinn *hint: fly to helsinki from london, stanstead* but thats about it. Connecting flights is an option -e.g. Ryan Air- but not necessarily worth of it all, in my opinion. maybe some day everything will be better..? anyways, great site; keep up the good work! cheerio, taina, from Finland -> Show all |
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