Post: #1

For someone moving around taking 2-8 flights per year, saving money on flights can be very good for one's budget. From what I know (which admittedly isn't the most on the topic), the most inexpensive way is to find extremely discounted flights on blogs or other forums for flights. Most of these flights will not be going to the destination you are looking for exactly but will generally be going to major international hubs such as London, São Paulo, and Hong Kong (One site I have found that lists such flights is secretflying.com).

After flying into this destination, the next step would be to book a more local airline for an inexpensive ticket. The best major search engine that I know for that is kayak.com. Right now that is the least expensive way I know to book a flight. I have read about getting credit cards for the purpose of getting tickets (but a good cash back card seems to be a better deal from what I know), skiplagged.com, and other promotions. The blogs and forums get much better deals than what I generally see (Round-trip $500-$600 to Europe vs $900 I can get myself). This could be a good thread if others who know of a better way to get cheaper flights add to this post.

Post: #2

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Post: #3

Make good friends with stewardesses. Normally, airline crew will get access to discounted tickets where you only pay 10% of the full price. Not all airlines are equally generous. Some will only allow immediate family, or it will be very seniority dependent. If you're in Europe, I could probably give you a hint or two, but for long distance out of the US, I have no idea.

The other good thing about flight attendants is that they're busy people and generally independent, so the clinginess isn't a problem very often. I wouldn't necessarily recommend one for an LTR though, as they will spend many days in bikinis on beaches together with a lonely crew.

Post: #4

Props on the Secretflying.com link.. I found it useful.

Post: #5

Kayak really isn't the best way to find the cheap local tickets. The best way I've found is to look up the airport on Wikipedia and see what airlines fly out of it and to where and then go to that the airlines home page. I've done this a couple times and was surprised how many flights were not on kayak.

Post: #6

(04-01-2016 06:53 AM)aSimpNamedBrokeback Wrote:  Kayak really isn't the best way to find the cheap local tickets. The best way I've found is to look up the airport on Wikipedia and see what airlines fly out of it and to where and then go to that the airlines home page. I've done this a couple times and was surprised how many flights were not on kayak.

For finding flights with Low Cost Carriers, you should try http://skyscanner.com

Post: #7

(04-01-2016 08:40 AM)Ray Carlton Wrote:  For finding flights with Low Cost Carriers, you should try http://skyscanner.com

I think what he was asking was how to find the deals once you have already used Kayak and Skyscanner to get to the major cities.

One quick example of with using wiki is Olaya Herrera Airport (the smaller airport) in Medellin. For example if you search Kayak for flight between Medellin and Pereira, they only list Avianca and LAN, but if you look on wiki there's also a direct flight on Areolina de Antioquia which looks to be $30 less. The problem with this is the wiki page is not always up to date.