Flights are a fundamental part of your trip planning. While getting from here to there is faster and easier than ever, it is also a lot more complicated. So how do you plan a trip without breaking the bank or losing your mind?

Once you have a few tricks under your hat, finding flights that are both affordable and timely becomes a lot easier. To demonstrate, I’d like to walk you through my process.

Mind you, this is what works for me, your mileage may vary. However, even if you decide to throw in the towel and let a travel agent book your flights for you, having a little knowledge about how the process works could save you some money.

Let’s Start at the Very Beginning

It’s a very good place to start! After you decide where you want to go, finding your flights to get there is generally the next step. I like to start with an on-line travel agency. These are sites like Expedia, Travelocity, etc.

They are a lot like the corner travel agency used to be, a place to book flights, hotels and cars. These sites offer a variety of options for your flights, but they generally don’t offer all the options that are out there.

Some sites will actually buy up seats at a certain fare and then re-sell them to you. These are called ‘wholesalers.” Other sites work much like a traditional agency, interacting directly with the airlines inventory of flights and selling them to you.

Finally, some sites are aggregators – they crawl the wholesaler and agency sites and return a number of options from both. Aggregators will generally send you back to the original site where the flights ‘live’ and you will purchase there. I tend to avoid the aggregators; they just seem like an unnecessary extra step.

Flights of Fancy

So let’s look at the travel agency sites. Plug in the city pairs for your trip and watch as the screen populates magically with lots and lots of flights for you to choose from. This is when sticker shock generally sets in.

Don’t be put off by prices just yet, because we are far from finished!

First off, sometimes you have to think outside the box when it comes to booking flights. There is almost always more than one way to get from where you are to where you want to be.

Getting from Here to There

Let me give you an example. I am planning a trip to the Alsace region of France. The major city is Strasbourg, second home to the EU parliament. However, a flight from Portland, OR to Strasbourg, France starts at over $2,000.00. It would be tempting to give up based on that alone.

Rather than give up, the next option is to go to Google Maps. I use this to find a major city that is nearby, say within a three-hour train ride. In this case, I have several options.

Paris, Frankfurt and Zürich all are within a 2 and a half hour train ride from Strasbourg. So now I just need to look at flights to each of those from Portland. I can also look at flights from Seattle to these destinations since it is fast and inexpensive for me to get to Seattle.

Query Me This

In this case a quick query of flights from to each of those destinations tells me that I am best off leaving from Portland. Additionally Frankfurt it is my best bet by about $300. So Frankfurt it is.

Just to recap – over $2,000 for a flight from Portland to Strasbourg, whereas a flight to Frankfurt (with fewer stops!) is currently $1,067. I just saved myself close to $1,000!

Sounds great, yes? It is tempting to stop here, book these flights and pat myself on the back for a job well done. However, I still need to factor in the cost of a round trip train ticket from Frankfurt to Strasbourg.

It makes no sense to save a grand in airfare if getting a train between the two completely eats that savings. In this case, a return ticket is just over $100, I am good to go!

Think Outside the Box, while Staying Close to the Box

When you are searching for bargains, think about variables other than the cost of the flights. As mentioned above, a train ticket or other ground transportation can quickly eat your savings.

But there are other factors, such as time. A gentleman I used to work with proudly told me how he had saved several hundred dollars on a flight I had booked for him. When I looked at his itinerary, he had failed to notice that he had a 16 hour layover in London. His bargain flight ate up 14 hours of his time compared to what I had booked.

I have fallen prey to this myself. I was thrilled to find a great price on a flight on my second trip abroad. Rather than fly into Brussels, Belgium, I saved about $500 dollars by flying to London. I would take a train to Brussels!

The problem was that my train ticket was close to $400 for a round trip. Eurostar can be expensive! Not only that, I burned almost two full days of vacation due to the timing of my flights and trains.

Back to the Flights…

Once I have found the flights that work, and have a good idea of the price, I go directly to the airline website. That probably sounds a little odd.

Let me explain. The airlines often offer incentives to get you to their website. Sometimes you can find “web only” fares on the airline sites that aren’t on the agency sites. Not always, but it is worth checking. It may be as small as $10, but I have also seen differences of over $100. Anything that might translate into a hotel night or perhaps an extra dinner out is worth the effort for me!

Warnings!

No matter where you book your flights, always pay attention to ALL the small print when purchasing your reservation. Sites can be sneaky, and not in a good way. Some online travel agencies will require you “opt out” of things like flight insurance. In other words, if you don’t uncheck the box, you may find an extra charge. Quite often they will not reimburse you after the fact.

Make sure you read and understand the fare rules. If a flight is non-refundable and you cancel, you won’t be able to get your money back. Sometimes you can use the fare as credit on a future flight, but not always. If a flight is ‘changeable’ make a note of what that change fee is. In my experience, most change fees are in the neighborhood of $200, but they can go higher.

Changeable fares also mean that if the fare on the flight you change to is higher, you are paying both the change fee and whatever the difference is between the original fare and the higher one.

Flight or Fright

I know this is all a little daunting. The last section alone might have you running for the safety of your bed! Don’t panic, it really is a lot easier than writing it all sounds.

Let’s do a quick recap:

1. Check with online travel agencies like Expedia or Travelocity.
2. If the fare seems really high, look at alternative airports that are in easy (and inexpensive) train or bus distance of your destination.
3. Keep in mind that time is also a cost – check those connection times!
4. Zip over to the website for the airline with the best options and see if you can a little discount by purchasing from them
5. Read everything before you finalize your flights. Make sure you aren’t paying for unwanted extras and that you understand what the change rules are on your flights.
6. Fly! Be Free!

Above all else – remember the flights you purchase are literally the ticket to your vacation. You are going to have an amazing trip, and next time you will be an old hand.

Have any other questions about booking flights? Have any tips that work for you? Leave them in the comments.