Opinions

How to Find the Best Airfare
Genia Collins - June 7, 2002

I thought I'd share my process of finding decent airfare. I've never paid more than $100 to fly to Orlando form Atlanta and no more than $200 to fly to the California...so it works fairly well.

• 1. go to Hotwire.com and price out the cost of the ticket. This is the MAX you want to pay.
• 2. go to Orbitz.com and see if there are any prices that come close to Hotwire. The advantage of getting tickets at non-auction sites is that you'll be able to control the depart/arrival times. If you find a comparable price, go to the individual airline website cause you can usually get 5-10% off there.
• 3. also before you buy visit Expedia.com, Travelocity.com & CheapTickets.com. I've never found better prices, but you never know.

IF you haven't found any comparable price to Hotwire, go to Priceline.com and bid 3/4 to 1/2 the price of the Hotwire flight. You can usually get cheaper airfare from Priceline and on either Hotwire or Priceline you don't know the carrier or times of travel so go with the cheapest.

The same technique works with rental car agencies as well.