| 1. BOOK EARLY | | | | Wednesday before Easter, the day before Christmas |
| The earlier you book the more chance you have to | | | | Eve (December 23), the day after Christmas |
| get the cheapest possible seat. While waiting until the | | | | (December 26), and the day after New Year's |
| last minute can pay off at other times of the year, | | | | (January 2). |
| those who wait to buy seats for the holidays may | | | | 5. DON'T STAY MORE THAN 30 DAYS |
| find little or no availability. | | | | If your stay is 30 to 60 days long, you can pay 10 to |
| 2. INCLUDE SATURDAY NIGHT STAY | | | | 15 percent more for your ticket. And, if your stay is |
| Try including Saturday night during your stay at the | | | | 60 to 90 days long, you might pay 30 to 40 percent |
| destination. Most of the carriers offer a discount on | | | | more for your travel. |
| their fares for travel including Saturday. | | | | 6. EXTEND THE AIRPORT SEARCH |
| 3. AVOID WEEKEND TRAVEL | | | | By avoiding major airports and flying out of smaller, |
| Traveling Monday through Thursday is generally | | | | less popular ones, you may find more availability on |
| cheaper then Friday thru Sunday. This applies both to | | | | major carriers and have access to the many budget |
| departure and return travel. Airlines charge more for | | | | airlines that tend to use alternate airports as bases of |
| weekend travel. If your schedule is flexible, think | | | | operation. Most of the search engines are able to |
| about flying on less popular days. Tuesdays can save | | | | search for the lowest fares using multiple airports |
| you a lot of money. Most business people travel on | | | | within large metropolitan areas. |
| Mondays and Fridays, while vacationers travel on the | | | | 7. USE ONLINE FARE COMPARISON TOOLS |
| weekends. If you are flexible, Tuesdays can be much | | | | Save time using the so called fare comparison |
| cheaper. | | | | webistes, which allow you to compare prices posted |
| 4. AVOID PEAK TRAVEL DATES | | | | on a great number of sites on the Internet, such as |
| Certain dates around the holidays are more popular | | | | online travel agencies and low-cost carriers. You will |
| for travel than others, and with so many passengers | | | | no longer have to look at each website individually |
| competing for a set number of seats in the airplane, | | | | and worry whether you have found the best deal |
| booking an affordable airfare on these busy days can | | | | online. |
| be quite difficult. You should try not to fly on the | | | | |