Experts offer tips on snagging airfare bargains

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(KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

NEW YORK -- To snag the best airfares, travellers need to be adventurous and willing to pick up at a moment's notice.

OK, now let's be realistic. Most people making summer travel plans need just that: plans. They get a week off, maybe two, and aren't going to spend hard-earned cash on a last-second whim.

But great deals are still within reach for those who have even a little flexibility in choosing where and when to travel.

"Airfares are high but there are pockets of cheap out there," says Seth Miller, an information-technology consultant who writes a U.S.-based blog under the name The Wandering Aramean.

Miller does his best to beat the system by connecting in strange cities, flying at off-hours and taking advantage of sales often offered when an airline adds a new destination.

Here are some tips from Miller and other expert travellers on how to combat rising airfares.

• LAST-MINUTE WEEKEND FARES

When airlines don't fill planes for an upcoming weekend, they slash prices.

Each Tuesday, they email offers for that coming weekend or the following one to fliers who have signed up online for the deal alerts. Travellers have to depart late Friday night or any time Saturday and come back Monday or Tuesday. An added plus: Weekend getaways save precious vacation days.

Air Canada (TSX:AC.B) sends out a weekly email that outlines the highlights of its latest sales.

• TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

Airlines are experimenting with sales on Twitter. At the forefront is JetBlue, which tweets last-second fare sales and vacation package discounts from @JetBlueCheeps. Some deals apply to just a few seats and are gone within hours.

"If you find something, jump on it," says John DiScala, who each year flies around 250,000 kilometres, visits 20 countries and writes about it at JohnnyJet.com .

Airlines such as Calgary-based WestJet (TSX:WJA) announce special sales to those who "like" their Facebook pages, and sites such as AirfareWatchdog offer alert emails (airfarewatchdog.com/fare-alerts/) .

There are also frequent fliers who search for and post cheap flights in online discussion boards. Two of the better discussion boards are: www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/ and milepoint.com/forums/forums/mileage-runs-mattress-runs-travel -hacking.6/ .

CHASE THE FARE, NOT THE DESTINATION

Want to know the cheapest fares from a departure city to anywhere? Check out Kayak's explore tool (kayak.com/explore). It allows travellers to search multiple airlines at once this way: A map pops up with all the destinations under a set budget point.

Searches can be done for a particular month or for all of summer. The query can be narrowed by activity -- beach, golf, gambling, skiing -- or by continent.

Porter Airlines offers frequent deep discounts on many destinations, and advertises online.

FLEXIBLE DATES

Looking to go to Paris for a week but don't care when in the next few months? Both Expedia.ca and ITA Software's airfare search (matrix.itasoftware.com) provide a calendar of the lowest fares. Just enter the departure and destination -- nearby airports can even be added -- and then how many nights to spend there. It will find the cheapest prices for a month out from a given date. The length of the trip can even be a range, say five to seven days.

ODD CONNECTIONS

Fares to Hawaii might be steep. But connecting though another city with a sale to Hawaii could save a lot of money. Use AirfareWatchdog's "fares to a city search" (airfarewatchdog.com/cheap-flights/to-a-city) to see if there are any less expensive indirect routes to your destination. Instead of flying from, say, Boston to Honolulu, it could be a lot cheaper to book two separate tickets -- the first between Boston and Houston and the second from there to Hawaii.

"If you can save $1,000 per couple and get two cities for less than the price of one, it's a no-brainer," says Georgia Hobica of AirfareWatchdog.

--The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 9, 2012 0