The world of cheap-flight search may be changing now that Google’s jumping into the game: GigaOM reports on Google’s acquisition of ITA Software Inc. here, and Google writes about it on its own blog:
Today, almost half of all airline tickets are sold online. But for many people, finding the right flight at the best price [...]
Lifehacker wrote a post breaking down how they go about finding cheap flights online in 2010. There are some new bits of info, like how to use twitter to your advantage, and tracking refunds after your ticket’s been bought.
Read the full post, The Frequent Flier’s Guide to Finding Cheap Airfare, here.
Cheap Air reports an early-January airline fare war happening — a fare war that ends in about 28 hours, so if you’re interested you had better act soon: “It’s been a see-saw start to the year fare-wise. Last week, the airlines launched a three day Air Fare Sale. Once it ended, United led [...]
I’m trying out Kayak’s iphone app for flight + hotel searches. It’s easy to use — I’m pretty fast with a regular web browser, and things usually take longer to do on the iphone than they do with the non-iphone web. Not Kayak.
I’ve been using Bing Travel (formerly Farecast) for most of my cheap-flight and [...]
The New York Times’ article, Beating the Bushes for a Bargain Ticket, breaks down nine tips for finding cheap flight deals in today’s air travel world. A few of them are no-brainers, but heck, there’s a large no-brain market out there.
Here’s the Times’ advice, with my notes after:
Book Directly With The Airline
Sign Up For Private [...]
The Associated Press reports on the best time to book flights:
The co-founder of Lessno.com, a Web site that offers international flights, says it does matter.
“Our experience with airlines has shown us that they update available seats around 12 a.m. Eastern time every day,” said Assen Vassilev, who is also the company’s CEO.
He added that weekend [...]
It used to be site59, now it’s LastMinute.com — a decent site catering to couples traveling together and looking for last-minute deals — no more than seven days in advance.
The folks at moneyfortherestofus.com wrote up a situation-specific guide for finding cheap flights.
If covers topics like:
If you have Fixed Dates and a Fixed Place
If you have Fixed Dates and a Fixed Place, and your travel dates are within the next few weeks
If you have flexible dates (Kayak Buzz, Airfare Watchdog, Farewatch, Mobissimo, and Farecast)
If you [...]
I’ve got a three-prong strategy for finding the cheapest and best flight fares these days. It’s not complicated, but it takes a little effort.
Bookmark your town’s low-fare list on Air Fare Watchdog. Check it weekly, and when you’re ready to book a flight check it daily. This site finds fares you’re unlikely to get anywhere [...]
I have never seen a flight-fare search program do this before: List the cheapest fares for one route for an entire month. This one does that, and it does more. Here’s a screenshot of the best deals when flying from Chicago to Denver in December:
You have to register before you can use it, and it’s free to use, and it’s well worth it. Check it out at http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/