Paying for a flight forms a significant portion of trip budget, especially on long weekends or during holiday season. Here are some helpful tips for saving on domestic air tickets.

Time of Booking: Honestly, there is no single answer for this question. I know people who would book 8 months in advance (if they want to redeem miles in holiday season) to those who would wait till the day before for a last minute deal. Typically, booking around 2 months ahead should give you enough options. If you are not traveling around holidays, even 3 weeks ahead of time may be enough. However, in holiday season, you should book tickets as soon as your plans are finalized for getting best available times.

Fees: In addition to the fares, different search engines would charge booking fees as well. Most restricted economy fares carry heavy cancellation/date change fees and usually no refunds. The more flexible tickets have higher fares but more options for date change etc.

Southwest gives the option of using the ticket at a later date (subject to availability) but does not give refunds.

Where to look: There are plenty of airfare search engines for this. The most prominent websites with current offers can be found here - Useful sites and offers for reserving a hotel.

One-way: No frill airlines offer attractive one-way fares. The most notable one is Southwest Airlines (www.iflyswa.com). Notice that Southwest fares don’t show up on most search engines. So make sure to check it on their website.

The sites given above can give good deals for multi-city trips as well.

Mileage Programs: Do enroll in the mileage program of the airlines you travel with the most. Some airlines like Southwest have their own reward programs while others like United are part of a bigger alliance (Star Alliance). You can travel on a member of Star Alliance and get miles on another as well.

Southwest claims to give free round trips faster than others as it does not depend on the miles you travel but the number of round trips. Here is a quote from Southwest website “Fly just eight (8) roundtrips in 24 consecutive months and we’ll give you a roundtrip Award valid to any of more than 63 destinations Southwest serves”.

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