Cheap Ticket Links
How to find a cheaper flight, and what to do when the flight goes wrong.
Fares change every hour, so this site does not chase them. It covers the parts of buying a plane ticket that hold still: how to search, which booking sites are genuinely different from each other, how miles work, and what an airline owes you when the flight is cancelled.
Finding a cheaper fare
- Tips for finding lower fares
The things that actually move the price of a plane ticket: flexible dates, nearby airports, splitting the booking, and knowing when to stop looking.
- Which flight search site should you use?
There are fewer flight search companies than there are flight search websites. Here is who owns what, which ones show you the real price, and how to use two of them together.
- Airports, delays, and what you are owed
What airlines legally owe you when a flight is cancelled, delayed or oversold, on both sides of the Atlantic, and how to get it without a fight.
Which site should you use?
Frequent flyer miles
- How frequent flyer programs work now
Airline loyalty stopped rewarding distance and started rewarding spending. What changed, what it means for how you earn, and whether chasing status is worth it.
- Airline miles programs and the three alliances
Which programs are worth joining, how the three global alliances change what your miles can book, and why you probably need fewer accounts than you have.
- How to redeem airline miles
Where miles are actually worth something, where they are quietly worth half a cent, and how to search for award seats without wasting an afternoon.
- Should you buy airline miles?
Airlines sell miles for roughly double what they are worth. The narrow case where buying them still makes sense, and how to check before you spend.
Site by site
- How to search Kayak for flights
What Kayak does that Google Flights does not, how to read a Hacker Fare, and when its extra results are worth the extra clutter.
- How to search Expedia for flights
Expedia sells the ticket rather than pointing at it. What that changes, what the bundle discount actually is, and when it is the right place to buy.
- How to search Priceline for flights
Priceline is a conventional flight agency now. Where the opaque deals survive, where they do not, and how it compares to its sibling Kayak.
- How to search Orbitz for flights
Orbitz runs on the same inventory as Expedia. The one thing that makes it worth a look, and the reason it should not be your second search.
- How to search Travelocity for flights
Another Expedia Group brand on shared inventory. What survives of the old Travelocity, and how to use it without fooling yourself.
- How to search Hotwire for flights
Hotwire built its name on hiding which hotel you were booking. What that means for flights today, and whether the discount is worth the loss of control.
- How to search CheapTickets for flights
The name promises the cheapest tickets. The ownership says otherwise. What CheapTickets actually is and when to use it.
- How to search Cheapflights for airline tickets
Cheapflights searches and does not sell. How it differs from its siblings Kayak and Momondo, and whether it earns a separate search.
- How to search FareCompare for flights
FareCompare is about price history rather than booking. What that is good for, and the one question it answers better than a search engine.
- How to search Tripadvisor for flights
Tripadvisor's flight search sits on top of its reviews. Where that combination helps, and where the reviews are beside the point.
- How to use Airfarewatchdog
Airfarewatchdog is not a search engine. It is a list of fares somebody checked by hand, which makes it good at exactly one thing.