When it comes to getting a great deal on a flight time is certainly money.  I have quickly stumbled into deals on flights, but that is rare.  Most of the time I get a great deal there is time invested to get that deal.  Does that time invested payoff?  I think so.   A better airfare is right around the corner.

I recently employed my usual search techniques to buy tickets for a european trip.  This trip was more restricted than usual for me.  I need to deal with a tight time window,  limited routings, and little flexibility.  My first look was not good, about $2100 per ticket.  This did not sit well with this cheapskate, tightwad, value oriented traveler.  Time to go to work.

Before we get started a word about your browser.  Make sure you are in a incognito or private browser mode.  The websites do track your activities and I have seen better fare results going incognito.

1. My first look usually starts with kayak.com.  This is a good starting point.  Kayak offers the option to use flexible dates.  While Kayak does not cover all the airlines it is a good first look.  Maybe you are not ready to buy yet. Kayak offers email alerts to track prices for your travels. These provide timely email notifications as prices change.  I have been happy with these email alerts.
2. My next step is to fill in the blanks by searching other airlines directly.  For U.S. airlines, Kayak shows Southwest Airline but does not show prices.  For routes covered by Southwest I check southwest.com to make sure I’m getting a complete picture.
3. Next I look at a couple other sites to look for anything I might have missed. Two I check are skyscanner.com and hipmunk.com.  Skyscanner is good at finding hidden bargains.  Hipmunk provides graphical results which are very useful to see how much of an adventure you are signing up for.   Another site worth a look at this point is Google Flights.  This offers yet another look that sometimes yields hidden gems.
4. Time for a decision.  If i am on a short (approx. 6 hour or less) flight I am normally price driven.  Of course that price decision is a complete one including bag fees, add ons, etc.  On some carriers such as Spirit, Allegiant, and Ryanair these can really add up quickly.  If prices are close I will default to a carrier that has a frequent flier program I use.
5. Now for a little more detail.  As the flight gets longer I look at comfort and quality of travel where possible. The Hipmunk graphical display is a good place to start looking at how much of an adventure you are signing up for.  Long travel times are not a problem for me on a longer trip.  When I am making a shorter trip the long travel times can really start to eat into my time at my destination. 
6. Another thing to look for is the long connection time.  On a long trip I don’t mind them. They are a good chance to break up the trip with a walk around the airport, a short airport hotel stay, or even a stopover to quickly explore a city.  Keep in mind and research the quality of the layover airport.  Look at the airport hotels for both convenience and price if your layover will include a hotel stay.  This can run up a ticket cost as well.
7. Finally, as the trip length gets longer consider the quality of the airline experience.  No matter what  the class your ticket, some airlines provide much better passenger experience than others.  Reviews abound online.  Search out video reviews as well.  Make sure you are looking at reviews which apply to your class of travel.  Consider a step up from economy to premium economy if it is a good value for your trip.  Keep in mind what you are signing up for.  I have seen price differences of $200 between carriers on the same route yet I choose the more expensive option.  When the airline offers much better experience over the course of two 15 hour flights that $200 now looks to me like less than $10/hour towards a better experience.

So how did this all work for me for this european trip?  I started with an American Airlines flight at approximately $2100 per ticket.  I ended up with tickers on Finnair at $890 per ticket, a worthwhile savings.  My search led me to booking the Finnair tickets through a 3rd party site which was a good experience.  The icing on the cake?  My tickets are for the exact same American flights I would have purchased for $2100. 

Will every search yield the same results?  Of course not but catching a few good savings makes it all worthwhile.  The other big victory is finding a fare that makes a trip which is too expensive, now affordable.

Now go dig up those bargains.