How to Book Cheap Plane Tickets

Do you travel by air, do you want cheap plane tickets? No matter your destination, whatever your reason for flying or how frequently you need to book a flight, it's always great to know how to get the cheapest plane ticket available.

There are hundreds of deals available these days, from low cost airlines, websites with special offers, accumulating air miles and under booked flights that the airlines need to shift the seats on. How you go about getting the cheapest flight available will depend on your flexibility in changing the dates and times of your planned travel.

To get the best out of the tips and instructions on this page, you are going to need the following:

• Computer with internet connection
• Pen and notepaper
• Diary or calendar
• Calculator
• Telephone
• Credit card (only if you are ready to book)
• Map of your planned flight route
• An open mind

Remember, be as imaginative and flexible as possible about the date you want to leave, where you wish to fly to and the time of day (or night) you are prepared to fly. Certain routes have more flights, and are therefore often cheaper and flights at particular times of day offer lower cost fares.

Obviously your destination is going to determine which airlines are available to you. For instance you wont be able to use an airline that only flies the west coast if you are flying from Boston to Atlanta. So start by searching for airlines that cover the route you plan to take. A google seach on Boston to Atlanta flights will turn up thousands of results, so to ensure you only get the information you are looking for dont forget to start your search term with " (a quotation mark), this is called exact match searching.

If you are flying internationally, then you are further restricted to the airlines you will be able to use. The US has internal airlines, and companies who specialize in overseas travel. However you may find that the airline of the country you are flying to can often offer the best deals. For example a search for a flight from London to Doha, Qatar (a 13hr flight) using Gulf Air, gave a best ticket price of 88GBP as opposed to using British Airways, who lowest fare for the same trip was 368GBP.http://bookings.gulfair.com/GF/webqtrip.html?_flowExecutionKey=_cE2473B83-1F47-BBDE-7B55-0516EA079DFE_k6CAA80B1-F11B-8167-272B-14FF4F290AA0 http://www.britishairways.com/travel/fx/public/en_gb?eId=111011×tamp=0131091858

When you have your search results on line, go ahead and check 10 - 15 sites for prices related to exactly the same dates, note these down on your notepad, by website, airline and price. This is the only way of making a clear initial comparison. You are going to want to go through these again and make further notes, based on savings that those airlines offer, so leave a couple of columns for that information.

You may have some crossover airlines if you searched through cheap flight websites, as each will be providing you with prices across lots of companies, thereby giving you the same airline more than once. You may find that different websites will give a different price for the same airline and same flight. Make a mark next to the lower priced ones.

For a list of sites that offer cheap tickets online, see Step 4: List of Cheap Flight Websites.

It is always an idea to go back to each of the sites you have listed, to double check you have the correct pricing information. While you are checking that, you should also look at hidden costs, overheads and possible restrictions. Some things you should look for:

• Travel Insurance
• Airport taxes
• Other taxes
• Fees
• Surcharges
• Baggage restrictions
• Refreshments extra

More often than not, the booking screen will give you that information, often saying something like "Lowest price including taxes, fees, charges and surcharges."http://www.britishairways.com/travel/fx/public/en_gb?eId=111011×tamp=0131093739 If you are unclear as to what is included in the ticket price, make a note to ask when making further enquiries.

Make sure you note the inclusions and exclusions down, alongside each listing on your notepad. You will be beginning to see a picture forming of where you are likely to get the cheapest ticket.

Now you have a list of airlines and prices being offered by cheap flight websites, along with whatever other information you were able to glean, the next step is to check the airline websites themselves. If you don't have the website address, a quick search will usually turn up their official website near the top of the search page.

Visit each airlines official website and search for the same dates again, this will usually give you a selection of flight times as well, and the prices for each will usually differ. For example a red-eye, or night time flight, will generally be cheaper than a flight during the daytime. If you are flexible about the hour at which you are willing to travel, you will always get a better deal. Make a note of these prices, you may find you are already getting cheaper plane ticket prices than were being offered on the cheap flight sites.

While you are on the website, check if they have a "special deals" or "offers" tab at the top, you might find something on offer right now that fits in with your travel plans.

Start crossing off airlines that stand out as being more expensive, regardless of flight times, try to whittle your list down to only those companies who really offer the cheapest flights. Also, make a note of the airlines telephone number, whose flights are the lowest priced, you will be calling them later.

Finally, when you have narrowed your selection down to three or four, or however many represent the best deals, you will need to grab your notepad and telephone and start speaking with them directly. The questions you want answers to are:

Best price for a given date - but tell them you are flexible by a couple of days either way, this can bring surprising results.

Cheapest flying time - ask if they have night time flights that cost less

Best place to buy for the best deal, ie. booking with a credit card on their website can often provide a discount of up to 10%

Standby availability - the clerk should be able to tell you if there are frequently standby seats available on your particular route, and when they are.

Be really nice to the clerk, if you speak to them in a friendly manner, they are more likely to be very helpful toward you.

You should by now have the cheapest plane ticket available, with the best place to buy it, and know just when you will be going to the airport for that cheap flight.

• Expedia.comhttp://www.expedia.com/
• Lastminute.comhttp://www.lastminte.com/
• bmibaby.comhttp://www.bmibaby.com/
• lowfares.comhttp://www.lowfares.com/
• cheapflights.comhttp://www.cheapflights.com/
• skyscanner.comhttp://www.skyscanner.com/
• travelsupermarket.comhttp://www.travelsupermarket.com/
• flightcentre.comhttp://www.flightcentre.com/
• travelocity.comhttp://www.travelocity.com/
• globester.comhttp://www.globester.com/

This is by no means a definitive list, many more can be found by searching for cheap flights on the internet.