Getting Cheap Airfare: Confidential Secrets from a Fired Airline Travel Agent

We all need to travel, but prices are rising on everything, including airfare. Knowing a little bit about how airfare is set and the airlines' pricing deals can help to save you a lot of money. Of course, airlines don't want you to know these facts, since they're not in business to help you get a cheap ticket.

Getting a cheap fare is mostly knowing where and when to look, but there are some tricks to it. First, you have to know what a good price is for a ticket. A cheap ticket in the U.S. is around $100, if you're just traveling to adjoining states. It's $150 for medium-length trips, and $200 for traveling coast-to-coast. These prices are before taxes and fees.

Why Not Fly Free?

Make sure that you have flexible travel plans, if you can. Airlines constantly overbook flights, assuming that some passengers won't show up. This means that if you can shift your schedule, volunteering to be bumped to the next flight will get you vouchers for meals and even free airfare. Just make sure you bring a book, because this strategy can end up with you spending lots of time at the airport. It can also get you free or nearly free airline tickets.

Timing is Everything

Remember that when you fly out of small airports, your tickets will be correspondingly more expensive. That means an increase of about 20 to 40. Another factor in the cost of your ticket is the popularity of the destination versus the frequency of flights. If you're going somewhere popular, but they don't send many flights, you can bet that your ticket will be more expensive.

The most popular days to travel are the weekends and holidays. This means that airlines have full planes some days, and empty ones on others. The cheapest days to travel are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as well as Saturday. Except on Friday and Sunday, it's also cheapest to fly in the evening.

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