How to Book Cheap Tickets in 2014

The era of cheap flight tickets is slowly on its way out and flights fares have been steadily increasing over the years. Finding that sneaky cheap flight deal is now as important as finding the right hotel, the right travel company and the right travel accessories.

The primary entities responsible for the scarcity of cheap flight tickets is rising fuel costs, airport taxes and personnel costs. Bankruptcy is common in the airline industry and all carriers are under increased pressure to be profitable. This has translated to lesser fare reduction and slashing of routes and capacity to ensure a full plane.

Trying to land a cheap flight ticket is a constant battle, but there are ways to avoid being the guy who paid the highest fare on a flight. Here are a few tips that can help you nail that elusive cheap flight.

Flexible Destination

Kayak's explore tool is your best bet at finding destinations with cheap flight tickets. It allows you key in your airport and see which routes have the cheapest fare. Google Flights is another great tool to check the cheapest fare to a specific airport. Being flexible about your destination is easily the easiest way to score a cheap fare and also a great way to open up to an exciting adventure. Other sites with similar tool are Skyscanner and Whichbudget.com.

Set a Price in Your Mind

Most people who are trying to get the cheapest fare, end up waiting far too long and end up paying too much. To counter this, try and arrive on an amount you will be comfortable paying for the route. This way, you won't be forever waiting for the right price – rather you wait till the fare reaches your right price. Try to be realistic with your price. If the lowest fare for a route is $2000 and if the average fare is $2500, don't wait for the flight ticket to hit $1900. The best part about booking a flight at a price you are comfortable with is that you will never have buyer's remorse.

Search as many sites as possible

Most travellers make the mistake of restricting their fare research to a couple of popular websites. The trouble is that certain major online travel portals are owned by or work with the airlines and therefore will not offer an unbiased fare. Moreover, several sites will push the budget carriers to the bottom of the search results as they tend to offer lesser margins for the site. There are no perfect flight search engine for all routes, so make sure you do your research on which travel portal to choose to obtain the cheapest fare for your route.

Try Alternative Routes

Several budget carriers offer special deals on certain routes;take advantage of these deals and you could be halving your travel budget. For example, flying to Paris from New York would come to around $900, however, if you can fly to Dublin for $600 and take a budget carrier from Dublin to Paris for just $60. Use sites like Skyscanner and Kayak to determine which are the cheapest airports to fly to.