How to find a cheap plane ticket

Some travels questions take a long time to answer, others are quick. Once upon a time, the question above would have involved a complex answer detailing the differences between travel offices and bucket agents, or rating expedia.com versus travelocity.com. Today, however, a traveler searching for plane tickets need only make one stop:



www.kayak.com is a godsend to budget travelers. Its inventors should be awarded the Nobel Peace prize for keeping me away from frustrating travel agents. If you're not familiar, kayak searches the databases of other websites, dozens of them, and returns a comprehensive list of all the fares available. After having used them for the last year, I've never seen their prices be beaten. Only two comments bear mention. First, if it's relevant, check southwest.com for fares as well; for some reason kayak does not report them. Second, once kayak returns fare options they direct you to one of several links where you can purchase the fare. www.cheaptickets.com often comes up and should be avoided. I'll detail my experience with them in another post, but their poor customer service nearly cost me $1000 once.

Anyway, for now, go to kayak. Create an account. Take their tutorial and learn their filters.

After all, what are you waiting for?

-paul