The first rule of cheap travel is to plan ahead

Do some hunting. You will be in a better position to evaluate between rival offers that at face value may look very similar. Travelling from London to Paris for example. London has 4 airports. Paris has 3 airports. Therefore there are 12 potential departure and arrival combos . The differences in flight times and taxi fares are pretty big , even for a pair of major cities so close together.

Websites such as this one that you are currently visiting , or others offeringtips on cheap flights are a great source of information for anyone looking for a cheap air trip . You need to know where the airports are, who flies from them and above all what the alternatives are. Knowledge is Power said Sir Francis Bacon and he wasn’t even a frequent flyer!

The second rule of cheap flights is to be flexible about destinations.

We human beings are by nature pretty single minded. Being highly focused is a survival trait that has stood humanity in good stead. Once we decide on something we can usually stick to it and thereby get the mammoth hunted/fire burning/cave cleared of sabre tooth tigers etc. However, a disadvantage of our single-mindedness is that when a plan does not work out exactly we tend to see it as a failure. “I wanted to go to Florence, but could only afford tickets to Rome, so I staid at home”.

Not good! We need to free ourselves from this sort of thing and grab those ultra cheap flights to exotic destinations as and when they appear. Thankfully we can do it if we try. My sister has embraced this philosophy and as a result has managed to explore pretty much half the planet for little more than the cost of a few weeks stay in a European four star beach resort. She flies for less because she is prepared to change distinations at the last moment.

The third rule of cheap flights is to be flexible about flight times.

For some strange reason all want to travel after breakfast . It just feels better But because everyone else wants to do it , the airlines are not adverse to upping the charges of these flights . Its all just free market capitalism at its most basic .

Why not ignore the herd of early morning flyers and opt to take off at quarter past stupid o-clock at night instead. The ‘red eye’, as the American TV shows used to say, is usually 30% cheaper. Sometimes far more than that!

In summary, be smarter, be flexible and be a bit of a night owl and you can fly pretty much anywhere on pretty much any budget. So long and enjoy the trip.

Airlines and hotels are known for changing prices at the drop of a hat. If you think going direct to the airlines web site to save commission you are not doing yourself any favors. Most no longer pay commissions and the online flight pricing services are in business selling other product lines related to travel that make them a profit. In fact if you pick a specific date for your flight you may find that other sites are offering lower prices than the main airline site.

From what I recognize there are 4 major providers of flight information to the online sellers  and travel agents. Each have access to special deals they use to stay ahead of the competitor. This is way every online service has different flight times and hotel discounts listed.

I found one service that is 100% free to join and has access to three of the four  services as of May 2010. The site is called Rovia and is founded as a travel agency so they have travel agents available by phone and email vs a broker service just selling a seat.

When you go the the discounted travel web site you see all the major airlines. One unequalled difference is if you sign up as a favourite(a) client, which is free to do you are given access to what would be called a members only area. This area gives you a few lower cost options plus access to Southwest airlines prices. I love southwest and find they have great prices in may markets. What was a total surprise to me was I could purchase the same ticket through this discounted site at a price lower than on the Southwest Site a lot of the time.

The site also has auto rental, hotels and condo rentals . I have never booked a rental car so I can’t tell you about the value but I have prices out a lot of hotels. They have a section on top that are  better values  and if you pick out a few of the best value  four and five  star hotels and compare prices you can find substantial savings over other already discounted sites. Save the link and compare apples to apples when you are ready to book a flight or hotel. It is always free and open 24 hours a day.

In addition to the standard hotel and flight booking they offer villa and private condominium rentals which can save you hundreds in rental fees compared to traditional hotels. You may be able to rent a exclusive condo for 7 days less than 3 days in a average quality hotel and have an extra bedroom, family room and kitchen. They use the same rooms sold as time shares so the quality and locations are top notch and you never have to be subject to some worthless time share sales pitch to get the discounts.

The Rovia site uses independent travel representives. If you have a lot of friends booking travel or work for a business booking travel you may be able to earn extra commissions if you become join as a travel consultant. Of course the flights don’t pay any commission but hotels, rental cars, villas and condos pay commissions. The cost is very low and theydon’t have long term contracts. The details can be found on thsi site. It has a 20 minute video that gives all the details about the company. Of course if you are only interested in saving money on flights and hotels then you have no obligation to get involved with sales. Just enjoy the free site and your savings on travel.

Airline tickets are the #1 searched for ticket item online and polls show 30% of all airline tickets are electronic tickets.They are offered for sale by all major carries, airline ticket counters, travel agents and web pages. The tickets are similar to negotiable documents and are personal and cannot be transferred to another person. Discount airline tickets are readily available on the internet and are subject to the individual airline’s Terms and Conditions. Online airline tickets are deeply discounted because the airlines sell about 7-100 seats on each flight to contracted online vendors.

The Internet is really your best choice to find cheap airfare to anywhere in the world and is a way to find cheap plane tickets quickly and easily.

Most airline web sites will note what day deals are posted but great deals are harder to find these days, and you’ve got to go beyond the obvious. You can always get the latest airline ticket deals from all the top travel providers online but use your flexibility with your exact flight times to take advantage of any available deals.

Reservations are always subject to availability at the time of booking and reservations professionals are usually committed to helping you plan and schedule any vacation accommodations. Travel planning and reservations well in advance is always advised but reservations are only completed by purchasing the tickets. There is no single travel reservations site where you can always find low prices, cheap airline tickets, discount hotels, or discount rental cars but with billions being spent every year, on-line reservations really do work.

Consolidator Airline Tickets are discounted airfares that are sold by most major Airline Companies to help fill seats and are generally the best discounted airline tickets available. The prices of airline tickets are constantly going up and down with most tickets being completely nonrefundable. Remember that round-trip airline tickets are often less expensive than one-way fares and cheap airline tickets are available at peak times, but you generally have to book far in advance. Budget airline tickets are great and in general, these deeply discounted airline tickets are released early Wednesday morning for travel during upcoming weekends.Now go online and save you some money!

Happy Traveling

Auckland Semper Jr loves and studies Traveling since 1993. He loves doing research to contribute to ezines, newsletters and websites. You are more than welcome to use his articles as long as a link to his website is provided that search engines can follow. For more information about Airline tickets visit http://www.infoairtravel.com

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