Find Cheap Airline Tickets: Cheat Sheet
People often ask me “What’s the best search engine to find a cheap airline ticket?”
The simple answer is that there is no one best search engine, rather, it depends on where you’re going and when you can go and your flexibility in both of these. In short, you’ll find the cheapest airline ticket when you’re flexible about your dates and about your destination.
So, what I’ve done here is compile all the best search engines for finding cheap plane tickets. They are categorized depending on what type of travel resource you’re looking for.
It’s essentially an Ultimate List of Cheap Airline Ticket Search Engines.
Below I’ve listed the category of travel search engines/websites — for instance, International Travel Search Engines or Domestic Discount Airlines — then I’ve given a brief description of when to use those sites, and then I’ve listed the best sites within that category.
For people who frequently search for cheap airline tickets, there are a few sites and tools that may even be new to you — like those in the Market Comparison section.
Without further ado, I bring you the:
Find Cheap Airline Tickets Cheat Sheet
Market Comparisons/Buy or Wait
Before you buy a ticket, check out these sites to see average fares, price history, and if prices are rising or falling. Again, check these sites out before you start looking into airfares to get an idea of what you should expect to pay.
Farewatch (Shows average fares)
Kayak (after searching click on ’show chart of fare history’ in left hand corner)
Farecast (for tickets in the next 30 days shows if prices are rising/falling)
Aggregators
The best search engines for searching for airline tickets. You don’t book through them, rather they redirect you to the airline’s homepage. (This is what makes them different from online travel agencies.)
Kayak or Sidestep (same company now)
TripAdvisor
Farecast
FareCompare
International Searches
When you’re searching for an international ticket, I have found these search engines to be best for finding a cheap airline ticket.
Vayama
Mobissimo
Skyscanner
Momondo
Trabber
Trax
Non-Aggregators/Online Travel Agencies
These sites allow you to search for cheap tickets and buy through them. This means that you deal with that company and not the airline if something goes wrong. (I generally advocate booking directly with the airline.) The online travel agencies may charge ticketing and booking fees for booking through them.
Expedia
Orbitz
Travelocity
Hotwire
Priceline
CheapTickets
Discount Airlines Sites (Domestic)
If you are flying in the US, these airlines are considered discount airlines. They have fewer routes and (arguably) fewer amenities. Also, they don’t always show up in the aggregators or online travel agencies search engines. So I recommend that if they serve your city, you search their sites separately.
Southwest
Sun Country
Spirit
Jet Blue
Virgin America
Midwest
Frontier
Air Tran
Alaska Airlines
Complete Discount Airline List and International Discount Airlines
Too many to list here, but check out Wikipedia’s list of low cost airlines. It’s awesome.
Price Tracking / Alerts (for tickets not yet purchased)
If you’re watching ticket prices, these sites easily allow you to set up a notifier, and will email you if ticket prices drop. For instance, if you’re looking for a cheap flight to Seattle from LA sometime in August for under $125 — you enter that information and these services will email you when that occurs.
Price Tracking for Refunds (after purchasing ticket)
If you’ve already purchased a ticket, this site will notify you if the price drops and you deserve a refund.
Flexible Dates within 1-3 days of a date
The best search engines for finding cheap airline tickets if you have flexible travel dates.
Kayak or Sidestep
Orbitz
Travelocity
Very Flexible Dates
If you have extremely flexible travel dates, like being able to leave anytime in the next month or 6 months, these sites will help you.
Kayak (330 days out)
FareCompare (330 days out)
Travelocity (330 days out)
Orbitz and Farecast (30 day window)
Flexible Dates Flying on Weekends
If you’re looking for a flight on an upcoming weekend, these sites are best.
Flexible Destinations (including last minute travel)
If you don’t care where you’re going, you just want to go somewhere cheap, these sites list destinations with cheap airline ticket prices.
Last Minute (formerly Site59)
GoToday
Kayak Buzz
Farecast
Mobissimo Activity Search
Airfare Watchdog
In my ebook, How to Find Cheap Airline Tickets, I have a printable, 1 page reference sheet with this list. If you want that and more tips on how to find Cheap Airline Tickets, buy the ebook now.
I hope you find this Cheat Sheet useful. Please consider bookmarking it with your favorite bookmarking site, so that everyone can learn how to find a cheap airline ticket.
What are your favorite travel search engines?
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Why are you encouraging flying on a so-called ‘green travel’ site?
Flying is one of the most polluting things we do. thumbs down
D
@Dave — Thanks for the feedback. We actually have a post for Thursday about this issue. We don’t advocate flying all the time - but unfortunately it’s sometimes necessary. We believe that people should get out there and explore the world because this cultural exposure is part of being a green traveler.
It’s a great list. I want to share it with my ’seniors’ who always looking for less expensive ways of traveling.
@ Cathy - You are more than welcome to share this list with your seniors. Once you’re retired you should be able to afford to travel (even in this economy.)
Seriously? “People often ask” you?
Let’s be honest here. How about “someone asked me once”, or even more realistically, “I like to imagine that someone might ask me someday”.
Give me a break.
@ Bud well considering the author writes for a webpage on travel, I dont think it is out of the realm of possibility that she gets asked that question quite often.
Elizabeth,
Thank you so much for this awesome “cheat sheet” I wasn’t aware there are so many ways to get cheaper airline tickets nowadays. I knew for Orbitz and Traveocity, but didn’t have any clue for others.
Keep it up,
Ela from SR22 Guide Guide
@ Bud - Not really sure exactly what you’re problem was with that statement. As I’m sure most other travel writers do, we get a lot of emails asking about our favorite travel search engines.
Great list. I don’t think some peop[le realise how hard it is to get a quality list like this. There are so many fraudulent sites out there that will just direct you to a bad deal. Thank you!! P.S. Two other sites I found quite good in the past are http://www.opodo.com/ and http://www.ebookers.com/
I just found your site through Get Rich Slowly but wanted to comment.
I live in Europe and there is http://www.airninja.com that searches through the discount airlines in Europe.
I looked for such a site for a long, long time and finally found it mentioned on a forum somewhere.
@Becky - Thanks for the suggestion about AirNinja. I’ll check it out!
wao whats great suggestation. Thanku very much for sharing.
Nepal Treks
very nice tips thanku very much
Nice list. Even helpfull for a travel agent to get nice deals for their guests. Thank you for the list.
This is really good resource for those looking for cheap flights tickets for any destination.
thank you.its good for the who are roaming for cheapest tickets.
what a good offer.thank you.
what a good offer.thank you.