Take Flight for Less: A Step-by-Step Guide to Booking the Lowest Priced Airfare

Don’t believe that the first price you see is what you’ll pay! With a little effort, you can save on airfare!

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Planning a trip can be stressful, especially when trying to keep your costs down. There are steps you can take to make sure you locate the best-priced airfare for your journey. Here’s what you need to do. To make it easier to understand, I’ve included an example with screenshots.

The first price you see for airfare may not be the best! By spending some time and with a little effort, you may be able to save yourself quite a bit of money!

• Start your search as early as possible: Booking in advance can result in lower fares because you’ll have more options to choose from than if you wait and book at the last minute.
• Do your initial search and take notes: I usually begin my search on Expedia when I look for flights. Give it your origin and destination location and your dates, and search for a round-trip ticket. In my example, I searched for a round-trip ticket leaving from Atlantic City and flying into Los Angeles July 17 — July 24. When I searched, I was told $496 was the best round-trip price. I’ll jot that down with the airline information as well as the stops required (this had me stopping in Orlando, which seems out of the way!).

My initial airfare price began at $496 — ouch! I didn’t want to have to spend that much.

• Check alternative airports: Here’s why I like using Expedia — if I click Flying From, I’m shown alternative airports that I might want to consider. My best option listed instead of Atlantic City would be Philadelphia, which is 46 miles away. When I click it to try it and click search, I see a non-stop flight for $340. I’m actually tempted to grab that, but I want to do some more searching! I’ll jot that one down as well, making note of the new route and price. If I click Flying From this time, I may see other airports I could consider like Trenton Mercer — in my case, there were no flights from there, but when I clicked again, I was given the option of Newark, and that dropped the round-trip price down to $281 with direct flights. I’ll also experiment with changing the Flying To location to see if this might help, but in my case, it did not. Make sure to take notes as you go so you’ll be able to get back the best price you find.

By changing to an alternative departure airport, I was able to drop the price by $215 down to $281 round-trip.

• Try pricing one-way flights as opposed to round-trip: There are times when this can save you money as well. If you don’t need to depart and return to the same airport (for instance, if someone is driving you), take a look back through the alternative airports you were considering.

Also look at one-way flights instead of round-trip. Expedia shows you alternative date prices when you do this, making finding the lowest fares easier.

• Think about altering your dates if you can: For my search, I see in the above image that by departing two days later or three days earlier, the one-way fare drops from $130 to $99. When I checked the return, I saw that changing dates there also saved me money. My return one-way dropped from $151 to $99 and I did that just by adjusting the dates I’d travel. If you’re flexible with dates, there may be lower prices for you.
• Be prepared to book quickly when you find something you like: I can tell you from experience that prices can change rapidly. Just because a price is available now doesn’t mean that it will be there later. I started out thinking I’d need to pay $496 and I’ve gotten the price down to $198, just by changing to an alternative airport and adjusting my dates. I think that’s a great price for a coast-to-coast flight, so I’m not waiting — I’ll book now.
• Consider package deals if you need more than just airfare: If you know you’ll need more than just airfare, consider taking a look at package prices. Using the route and the dates that you know gave you the best airfare, you can try adding on a hotel and/or a car rental as well.

Finding the lowest-priced airfare can be done. It takes doing some research and being willing to make some changes if they can work for you. When you find what you consider to be a great deal, think about grabbing it before it disappears.