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With volatile flight prices the bane of any sane travelers' existence, clever web developers are creating new algorithms and piecing together the mysterious information that results in price fluctuation to bring consumers new ways to track airfare. Websites and mobile applications offering fare alerts and tracking fare price changes are popping up all over the web, leaving consumers many ways to monitor tracking trends.

Step 1

Begin your search anywhere from three to six months in advance to allow you plenty of time to track fares. Prices usually jump and continue to climb during the three weeks before departure, so book before you hit the three-week mark.

Step 2

Visit a travel booking website that specializes in tracking fares. Most of the big Internet travel sites do not allow customers to sign up for fare tracking, but Priceline and Bing Travel are the notable exceptions. FareCompare and Yapta search other websites for their data and focus more specifically on tracking fares instead of on booking them.

Step 3

Type your departure and destination information and your dates of travel into the search engine.

Step 4

Enter your email address when prompted if you want to receive email updates when the price fluctuates.

Track prices for several weeks, or even months if you are booking an international flight. While these web resources will give you an indication of when to purchase, Yapta also will track the fare after you have purchased, giving you the opportunity to ask the airline for a refund if prices drop after you purchased your ticket.