Travel

The best way to find cheap flights is to avoid high season travel times. For example, go to Europe in spring or fall but not in summer.

If you must book during peak travel times do book on standard holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. New Year's Day morning flights are often the best deals around!

Shop online and spend some time to find a cheap flight! Use our search engine on the left to compare travel websites.

Sign up for frequent flyer programs and e-mail alerts. Most airlines often send out promotional deals, and some of those tickets are absolute steals like $59 each way on JetBlue.

Use frequent flyer points and transfer points from your credit card to get free or very cheap airline tickets. This takes a bit of planning, but if you are making a big purchase anyway think about putting it on your credit card during one of their points promotions and then transferring those points over to your frequent flyers program.

Look for last-minute deals. Timing and luck are involved in booking last-minute travel. Last-minute travel is fabulous if you have friends and family to stay with at your destination.

Look for great promotional vacation package deals that include airfare, car rental and hotel room. Sometimes bundling can cut your total trip costs by as much as half.

Be flexible so that you can take advantage of overbooked flights. Airlines often overbook flights and need volunteers to give up their seats. Check in with the gate attendant ASAP and tell her you are willing to take this option as long as get a free plane ticket in return!

Look for alternative locations. While surfing the travel websites, look at all the surrounding airports in a region to find cheap flights. For example, fly into Long Beach instead of LAX and fly into Oakland instead of San Francisco.

Book local travel in Europe, Asia and South America separately rather than through your international U.S. carrier. Doing this takes some research and language skills but using regional air and train is usually cheaper and a whole lot more fun. Extra hint: Check baggage restrictions!