Best Ways To Purchase Cheap Airline Tickets

If you walk down the aisle of any commercial airlines flight, you're likely to find that your fellow passengers paid significantly different amounts for the same types of seats, depending on when and how they purchased them.

We decided to put some of these methods to the test. Here's what we learned about the best ways to purchase cheap airline tickets.

Where to Look

Online, of course – and there are three options: online travel agencies (OTAs), metasearch sites and directly from the airline itself. Each source has advantages and disadvantages.

– Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). These sites have largely, though not completely, replaced brick-and-mortar travel agencies. Here you can not only search an extensive database of flights and competitive rates, but also book additional travel needs, such as hotel rooms and rental cars.

OTAs commonly offer discounts for flights packaged with rooms and other items that you couldn’t find elsewhere. However, OTAs will not always have the cheapest fares since some airlines, such as Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV ) and Allegiant Travel Co. (ALGT ), choose not to sell tickets on third-party sites. If these airlines go where you're headed, it's worth taking time to check them individually.

Notable examples: Expedia (EXPE ), Orbitz (OWW ), Priceline (PCLN ), Travelocity.

– Metasearch travel sites. Metasearch travel sites conduct specialized searches across major travel sites (OTAs and airlines included) to offer the traveler a wider range of choices.

A majority of the biggest metasearch travel sites use ITA, a special software owned and operated by Google. that finds and curates an exhaustive list of flight options. However, you would still have to book through an OTA to get special packages.

Notable examples: Kayak.com, CheapOair, momondo.

– Airlines. It may be advantageous to book flights directly with an airline for two reasons: First, you’ll get a more accurate picture of the actual price of travel since airlines are generally transparent and upfront with fees. Second, airlines usually pay commissions to sites such as OTAs that bring them customers. With no middleman, you may get a lower price.

The major downsides are, of course, the lack of carrier comparison and the absence of hotel/car packages.

Notable examples: Any airline.

Comparing the Options

To illustrate how prices may vary among platforms, we ran a few hypothetical round-trip flights through the industry’s leading sites: Chicago, U.S. to Milan, Italy; Johannesburg, South Africa, to Osaka, Japan; and Tampa, U.S. to Lima, Peru (each was for May 1 – May 8, 2015; one adult; economy class; lowest ticket price shown as of January 26, 2015). Please note, these prices do not include taxes or fees. The cheapest price in each category, and its airline, is in boldface type.