Finding Cheap Air Fares (to Europe and overseas)

Timing is everything when it comes to cheap tickets. Many of the airlines have pre-season sales (months in advance) so you have to check major and minor airlines (look for the Special or Deals) - obviously not just North American based airlines but European and sometimes South Asian, Far East, Middle East, and other air carriers.

[Most of what I write applies to tickets for short-term tourist visits to Europe. Things may be different for buying tickets for long-term stays ( 3-6-9 month or 1 year.) ]

Likewise, there is also the possibility of 'last-minute offers' and a quite a few sites that seem to offer them, but personally, I can't live with the uncertainty when I know I have to be somewhere and when other things depends on having a set schedule. By the way, many airfare sites have trip search options that allow for Flexible Dates - which can sometimes be a quite a savings. For examplel, USAirways (dot com) has flights to Madrid, but when you search be sure to select their Low-Fare search option (meaning flexible dates within 3 days of departure and return). You can keep 'moving' the period of travel to see if there are cheaper fares - earlier and later.

Another important strategy on most airflight searches is to look for alternate departure or arrival airports - it's typically a small check box. Large cities may have several airports - although you need to know how far these airports are apart or from where you'll be coming. Cheaper airlines sometimes are cheap because they are using airports in locations or more distant cities from main metropolitan areas. New York is special since it has 3 major international airports (JFK, Laguardia (LGA), Newark (EWR). Some international airlines use all 3, but some only have flights to one of these airports. Same is true for a few more US cities and also some European cities (although the regional airports are harder to reach), for example San Francisco is served by 3 regional airports ( SFO, San Jose, Oakland).

Oddly enough, it may sometimes be cheaper to depart from a city other than the airlines's main 'hub' airport. Not always true, but you'd be surprised that a ticket from JFK to Madrid might route you IAD (Wash DC) and PHL (Philadelphia) but might end up being cheaper (and of course longer), than a direct flight from PHL to MAD.


Don't rule out Orbitz.com because kayak.com most often just refers you to Orbitz or the airline's own website, or another cheap fares site.) One particular cost-saving feature of Orbitz is its ability to find Multiple Carrier rates. Many times using two different (and sometime allied or even competing airlines) turns out to be the cheapest fare. Strange.. because normally two one-way fares are quite a bit more expensive than round-trip tickets. But Orbitz can find one-way fares from separate airlines and pair them up cheaper than what the single (major) airline offers. Also, you may be able to find a cheap fare to Dublin, London (or other UK ciites), Frankfurt, Brussels, Zurich and then get a low-fare European airline ticket for the remainder.

You'll need to find which discount airlines fly from your connecting (entry port) and your destination so see a list at:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Discount_airlines_in_Europe
http://www.discountairfares.com/lcostair.htm
http://www.whichbudget.com/

Another place that's worth a look is Yahoo Travel (actually operated by Travelocity). You'll sometimes find similar flight fares that rival Orbitz, but please know that mainly Yahoo (as do Expedia, Travelocity and the other major travel sites only give you what the airline itself is offering PLUS you'll pay at least a $5 booking fee and may have to pay for paper tickets to be delivered to you ($20-$40) extra cost.

It's worth knowing that some airlines in Europe are only now changing from paper tickets to electronic tickets - in fact, some airlines may not accept them (easily for boarding) at ALL offices/airports - even when their US partner airline has issued the e-ticket. (Like .. duh! - It happened to me but that's another story).

Yahoo has something called Dream Maps. It will show you several cities from and the cheapest air fares based on being VERY flexible. It's a bit hard to find from the main page (the URL pasted below may not work). Go to travel.yahoo.com and you'll see One-Way, Multi-City, More in the Find It Fast Flight Search box. Click More and there is a link to Dream Maps on the right column. Dream Maps gives you options for lower fares because the dates are fairly restrictive for the lowest fares - so if you're flexible about departure dates and returns, you may be able to get a good deal.

Dream Maps link:
http://edit.travel.yahoo.com/config/ytravel_dreammapsource=YD&.intl=us

Yahoo (and several travel sites) offer Fare Chase tools such as regular e-mail updates about low fares to/from your destination, even Messenger notices about low fares, and your own blog or website widgets to search for the lowest airfares (see for example, Yahoo Farechase Tools: Alerts, Search).

If you are going to be travelling several times over the course of 1-2-3 years, it is wise to choose one airline or one airline alliance so that you can start earning flight miles (mileage). Mixing airlines on one trip or changing air carriers every time may save money but in the long run if you fly more than once a year (a long distance flight), you definitely could be collecting enough miles to have a free flight later on. Flying once a year or less would probably not earn you enough to make a difference since most airlines have now reduced the period of validity for saved/accrued miles (it used to be 3 years but several have now changed to 18 months).


One another point that may help -- notice when new routes start. Often the air carrier will put tickets on sale or discount them (especially on certain weekdays) in the first weeks or months after the new route service starts. For example, United will start a new Denver - London route. So look to see if there might be a sale campaign that coincides with your travel plans. Major and discount airlines usually don't offer these special deals over the normal Internet travel websites, such as cheaptickets, orbitz, yahoo. etc. So you have to visit the airlines' websites.

I know this was more info than you wanted to get, but other people may use it. Others may also have better tips.