When you are planning a trip you naturally want to find the best airfares. The Sky Steward has advice and website resources that will make your search for cheap tickets much easier. Rather than visiting site after site, wouldn’t be great to be able to use a couple of high-tech tools that beat other sites at their own game?  On a recent Jetiquette with The Sky Steward Radio Show, we discussed shortcuts for finding the best fares with one of our ultra-frequent fliers, Dr. Ashok Roy.

When planning a trip, Dr. Roy says he first looks at the published escorted tour itineraries listed on various tour provider sites.  This will allow you to see how long tour companies spend in certain areas, and may give you ideas for adding destinations you might overlook.

Once you know where you want to go, Dr. Roy advises discovering which airlines fly to and from your destination(s). Especially when you are planning flights abroad, checking to see which airlines serve the areas you will be visiting can be an excellent way to find lower cost fares on airlines you might otherwise overlook. By going to www.flightstats.com you can find a wealth of information, not only on which airlines and flights serve the areas you will be visiting, but data on flight availability, on-time performance ratings, flight tracking, airport delays, and even links that show current airline promotions.

Once you know where you want to fly and have an idea of which airlines service those areas, Dr. Roy recommends checking ITA Software, www.itasoftware.com which allows the user to quickly find the lowest air fares. This software checks the many airline computer reservation systems to find the not only the best available fare but also the booking codes so that you can then use that information to contact the airline, your travel agent, or book on an online travel site. ITA Software does not currently offer an option to book through their site, but is still an excellent tool.

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