Finding cheap international flights is harder than it sounds. One would think that with multiple search engines that can search hundreds of airline schedules in seconds available to anyone with an internet connection, the process of tracking down the lowest cost for a simple plane ride would be easy. But it’s not. Different sites (which all claim to have the lowest fares) come up with different results for the same search criteria. Many sites are only affiliated with a few airlines. Some airlines, like Southwest Airlines, only make their fares available on their own websites. Other websites make it difficult to search for a wide variety of dates, making it difficult to find the cheapest fare if you need to get to Thailand sometime in late October. You don’t want to have to search each day leading up till Halloween.
A lot of times the most advertised sites are not the best. They can afford to advertise and throw lots of money at an advertising budget specifically because they work with the big airlines, which are usually not the cheapest. International air travel has a lot of small, cheap providers these days, and often times their best fares can fall through the cracks. Find a small up and coming flight search engine; those usually are affiliated with the lowest cost airlines. Sites that are specific to a specific country are always a good idea, because that limits the scope of the company’s expertise. For example, if you’re in Australia looking for international flights, a good site would be cheap international flights. Low fares out of Australia. You know the company is focused on that one area, and more likely to be connected with schedule of all the flights leaving Australia.
There is still no google for airline booking, no large consolidated search engine that provides you with all the information. Airline ticket information is still very fragmented, so expect to look multiple places. But remember to be local when you can.
Demo River says
thanks! helpful!
Locationless Living says
Glad to help!