Travel

#3 secrets to getting the lowest airfare online

Whether you're headed on a trip for pleasure or business, there's a good chance you're going to be flying. Despite the rigmarole with checking baggage, parking your car and going through security, it's still faster and more convenient for long distances than any other type of transportation.

Making the wrong choices while you shop for your vacation can cost you big time. You might find two seats on the same plane that vary up to hundreds of dollars in price. No one wants to overpay for a flight. I'm sure you'd much rather have the spare cash for your business or to go on a top-tier tour on your vacation.

No matter if you're traveling in the U.S. or internationally, I'm sharing my three top secrets for getting the best airline deals. What day of the week is best? Should you use a travel site or the airline's site? Is it better to buy last minute or plan ahead?

Ready? Set? Save!

Follow these tips and you'll never overspend on airfare again. Oh, if you buy a "non-refundable" ticket, I'll tell you how you can get a refund anyway.

1. Use the right sites

If you're just looking at prices on an airline's site, you're missing the bigger picture. You might save more flying a different date, and most sites don't make it easy to compare. Or you might save more with another airline entirely.

Instead of a narrow window of possibilities, try Google Flights. You can search for tickets on multiple departure and arrival days to see what day has the best deal. Or you can just see a calendar of the lowest fares around a certain date. Naturally, Flights pulls from multiple airlines for easier comparison.

Before you buy, though, you should also fire up a site like Airfare Watchdog. This scours airline sites for deals and pulls them into one easy-to-find place. You might spot a deal you wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Reality check: Saving money is good, but sometimes the savings just aren't worth the extra agony. Check out the site Hipmunk to find flights with the best balance of cost and convenience.

2. Buy on the right day

I'm sure you've heard that the day of the week and time of day you buy tickets can make a difference. Well, you heard right.

Of course, no one can seem to agree on the day or time. That's why I wrote an entire tip untangling the mystery. Click here to read it before you even think of pressing the "Check Out" button .

You can also head over to Kayak. When you run a search for tickets, you'll see a Price Trend box in the left-hand column. It tells you whether to buy or wait and Kayak's confidence level. If you want more information about how it made its decision, you can click the box with the lowercase "i."

Just because you got a low ticket price doesn't mean it won't go lower. The good news is many airlines will refund you the difference if the price drops a certain amount after you buy.

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But who has time to look up ticket prices every day? That's where Yapta can help. It keeps an eye on your tickets and alerts you when the price drops.

Yapta claims annual savings of $334 per user, which means you can put that money toward a better hotel, a few nice dinners or just put it back in your bank account for life after your trip.

3. Flexibility can pay big

While seats usually get more expensive the later you book, the deals only get better. If you're self-employed, retired or have a really understanding boss, then you can get some amazing rates if you cruise enough deal sites.

Last-minute deals are usually advertised through third parties and built entirely to fill the seats that might lose the airline money.

Today, for example, I see roundtrip airfare to London from Boston for just over $800 on DealNews, an all-purpose bargain website. That's much cheaper than my trip to Europe over the summer ended up costing, but because of my radio show duties I have to preschedule my trips far in advance.

If one of you folks happens to have that sort of flexibility, well, say hi to Big Ben for me.

Bonus: Get a refund on a non-refundable flight

When you're shopping around, you might notice that the tickets with the lowest prices are usually "non-refundable." While you want the savings, maybe you're a little unsure about locking yourself in. After all, plans change, and maybe you could find a lower ticket price.

Before you pass, there are a few caveats to the "non-refundable" label. The biggest one is that the tickets are refundable within 24 hours of purchase. So, if you find a cheaper ticket within that window, it's no big deal.

Of course, you can also get a refund if the flight ends up delayed, canceled or altered after you book. It's a good idea to have an app like Flight Aware so you know where your flight is before you hit the airport.