Canadian Finance Blog

Posted: 20 Aug 2011 02:00 AM PDT

There's hundreds of active airlines in the air. This means high competition to attract each personal airline passenger. Looking for the very best travel deal takes time and research, but there are some tips that will help you unscramble your options. There are cheap tickets to be had even with the major airlines, but there are many smaller ones that take away the fluff and offer lower fares.

Best locations to treat as your departure city

If you are anywhere near one of the major cities offering the best deals, you may consider driving part of the way to gain an advantage. These cities include, but are not limited to, Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax. Airfares and travel agencies always use strategies for offering the lowest prices on air fares, hotels and cruises, at least for their economy class. If you decide to follow this tip, be sure to count the present high cost of gas and longer term airport parking.

Take your mobile device with you

No one likes to be stranded at an airport when the weather intervenes. Sometimes you can check online to get the best alternative to getting you where you are going even if it ends up being by a roundabout way. Online access is vital no matter what the situation, even to seeing the airplane inflight toward your location. The best airfare and the best route may be garnered by switching your ticket even if it costs you extra.

Watch Special Events

Cheap tickets are often acquired by flying against the crowd. One year, when the Super Bowl was in Phoenix, Arizona, the fare round trip from Phoenix to Chicago was $120 if a person was flying from Phoenix on the day before the Super Bowl and flying back to Phoenix the day after. Many planes were necessary for several airlines to accommodate the expected crowd waiting at each terminus. The airlines were happy to have some passengers to help support the aircraft returning.

Look for Smaller Airlines and Their Routes

Once you have determined your destination, find out what airlines fly to that destination from your targeted departure city. They are also a website that supports RSS feeds and Twitter. Not only do they offer a plethora of destinations, they specify what airline supports the fare published. Some of the airlines not currently supported on comparison web sites are smaller airlines. You need to become familiar with the list of airlines presently in operation and Google for their web sites. This is part of the research that will pay large dividends.

Research, research, research are the key words to finding the best travel deal online. Plan and take your time making the basic decisions. If you are a free spirit, snapping up last-minute deals is also very thrilling.

Author Bio: This post was written by Bernard Prince, web specialist at travel agency VarVacations.com. You can also find him on their Voyage à Rabais Facebook page.

Finding the Best Travel Deal Online originally appeared on Canadian Finance Blog on August 20, 2011.