Find the Best Flight Deals

I start off immediately with Kayak.com. While companies like Orbitz, Priceline or Expedia pull flight fares from the airlines, Kayak.com pulls data from the previously mentioned travel sites themselves as well as the airlines. That means that whatever great deals and promotions that the other smaller travel sites have, Kayak.com will display those same promotional (if any) discounted flights. But the real advantage of Kayak is its size. Kayak will pull up similar flights options from other companies because it has a much larger, extensive network of travel sites and airlines. Here you can really start to compare prices.

Kayak.com is the benchmark I start with. Then, I will usually check against a Priceline and more importantly, the airlines themselves. Also, Kayak or any other travel site will list the airlines that has the best fares. Going directly to the airline’s website might actually prove to be more beneficial as they often have internet specials on flights for between specific time periods.

Internet deals directly from airlines usually – if not always – impose restrictions such as non-refundable and non-transferrable tickets. You also can not modify dates at all. Cheap Tickets, by the way, doesn’t allow you to modify flights after purchase.

If you want to fly domestically from one city to another in the same country, check the local airlines. You will get better deals with the local airlines than the major carriers.
Also, check on different days to see whether flight costs have changed. You can also check the difference in cost as far as arrival and departure days. Thursdays through Saturdays are more expensive than Sunday through Wednesday.

Example: A trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, which is the old capital of Thailand, had a cost of $241 minus taxes and fuel surcharges on Kayak.com. The airlines was Thai Airways. I researched this on a Saturday. On Sunday, the price went down to $210. I checked the local airlines in Bangkok, Nok Air, which runs from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The total roundtrip cost on Nok Air was $107. But, the payment gateway was not functioning correctly on Nok Air’s end. I went directly to the Thai Airways site and discovered that they were running a promotion called “Hot Deals” from April to September.

The total cost from Thai Airways via their internet “Hot Deals”? $131.

So, you just have to do your homework.