How to save money on airfare: tips on cheap flights

Winter is approaching quickly and the most of us is looking forward to enjoy our holiday. No matter what destination you chose you will probably travel by air. Of course, it is comfortable and quick – but on the other hand it is also very expensive. But is it really? Couldn´t we save a lot on airfares? Lets find 5 basic rules how to save your money and enjoy flying. Read my tips on cheap flights!

Take advantages of special airfare deals

Don´t hesitate and book your flight when you find some offer! You can save more than you could imagine. If you don´t want to search for deals and offers every day you can register to one of special airfare deals site. Usually, it is very simple – register for free, mark selected routes and wait till an email alert comes.

Book early or buy last minute flights

When you want to enjoy cheap flying there are two opportunities for sure: you can book early or late – sounds like total rubbish but think about it for a second. If you book early the prices are lower than they are normally. But on the other hand you have to know the exact dates of departure and arrival in advance.

The second example is clear enough. When you book last minute flights they won´t be as expensive as usually. But as always there is a catch – you never know whether there is enough place for you and your friends and more over it is not usually possible to fly on dates you choose.

Be flexible and don´t choose the biggest airport

The biggest and busiest airports are not the right choice when you want to save on airfare. They have more expansive taxes and that´s why your tickets will be also more expensive. But don´t be disappointed. Every larger city has several airports – so it is only up to you which one you choose. Moreover, secondary airports are often served by low cost airlines.

Enjoy frequent flyer programmes

Members of frequent flyer programmes have several advantages. You earn miles and when you fly some miles you get a discount or other benefits.

Consider your baggage weight

Think about you baggage. Is it really necessary to carry some many things? If not please put out all of those unnecessary things. Why? Is is simple – you can choose low cost carrier and the price of ticket is really low. But the rate for excess baggage can exceed the price of airline ticket – so don´t be silly and take only things you really need.

Which is the best airline?

Whether you are planning holidays with your family or business travel you should consider that flying belongs to the most convenient and also the fastest way of travelling. It's quite difficult to find the "best airline". The selection of airline is always individual. However, we can at least divided the airlines into two basic groups: traditional and low cost airlines. Both groups have their advantages and disadvantages. Let's look closer at the most known airlines - both traditional and low cost. (There are many websites offering the listing of airlines, e.g. flylowcostairlines.org).

The most important advantage of traditional airlines is not only the comfort but also the wide route selection. You can find connections from one airport to many destinations all over the world. Every year there is a survey hold by SKYTRAX and then airlines are awarded by World Airline Awards. You can find many categories in which the airlines are compared and thanks to this find the best airline suited exactly for you.

Well known traditional airlines are e.g. Air New Zealand, Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines or Swiss International Air Lines in Europe, Mexicana Airlines and LAN Airlines in Central and South America or Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airlines in Asia. Actually, there are too many of them and you can find at least one traditional airline in every single country.

The most important advantage of low cost airlines is definatelly the price of the tickets. Moreover, thanks to competion of low cost carriers airlines have to make their prices even lower. That's why they often offer different airfare deals and air tickets sales. Don't tell me you don't know the most known low cost airlines such as Ryanair, Air Berlin or Condor. These low cost airlines also offer connections to many destinations all over the world.

Follow airlines to find cheap flights and airfare deals.

Social networking is one of latest marking tool. Social media - especially Twitter and Facebook - has been tagged as a fad for the youth market, but it's not a passing phenomenon – all companies will quickly learn to use it as tomorrow's essential marketing platform. Not only companies however do this. Take Obama's campaigns for example – he used many social networks and guess what- this move was very successful! That's why this technique is followed by many airlines. Lets have a look at Twitter today.

First of all, we must mention the most followed airlines at Twitter. JetBlue Airways (@JetBlue) for example more than 1.3million followers. Just right behind it there are Southwest AirlinesVirgin America (@VirginAmerica), American Airlines(@AAirwaves), Delta Air Lines (@DeltaAirLines), Alaska Airlines (@AlaskaAir), Air New Zealand (@flyairnz) and many more. (@SouthwestAir), United Airlines (@UnitedAirlines), JetBlue Cheeps (Jet Blue's last minute flight deals posted every Monday, @JetBlueCheep),

It is easy to follow every of them and get upcoming airfare sales. On the other site, if you want to follow more airlines it starts to be a little bit complicated. Just imagine you follow e.g. 20 people (friends, companies..) and you want to add another 10 airlines that adds lets say 50 tweets a day! Moreover prepare that you will have many tweets that you are not even interested in (such "Airline wishes you good morning")! And you will get lost in such huge amount of tweets in particular.

I actually find very easy solution how to find the best aifare deals without having hundreds of needless tweets. There are couple of sites gathering as much information about current flight offers and upcoming airfare sales as possible. I look at their profiles and choose one of them which seems to me as the best - @myairdeals. When you look at it now you will see only three or four best deals of the day – the rest can be found at its homepage. However they plan to make their system better and have very subtle system. Followers will be able to follow deals from/to selected destinations. The best about this system is that you can be inform about deals which you are really interested in!

This site – MyAirDeals.com - makes its users possible to sign up for free and get free email alerts about the airfare deals that suits their profile. What I really like about this site is that it is easy to understand and easy to do everything including changing profile, adding new routes I am interested in and even cancelling of account is easy.