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In the Flights Category, you'll find reviews of several sites for Booking Flights, pointers on how to use Airfare Discount Sites such as Priceline, tips on getting better seats in Flight Resources, links to airlines so that you can check-in online in Online Check-in, and many other resources.

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In addition to the Airlines, there are many websites that will send you email alerts of special fares or if a fare has dropped. Some companies, such as Orbitz, are starting to use RSS feeds to send out alerts of specials fares.

Airfarewatchdog.com has an email newsletter with fares from your choice of departure airports.

Orbitz RSS feed sends deals on flights, hotels, vacation packages, cars and cruises.

Travelocity FareWatcher tracks changes in airfare. You choose the departure and arrival cities that you would like to track. Then, FareWatcher sends you an email when the airfare changes. You can track up to five city pairs.

There are several online publications that publish current airfare specials. Each one is a little different. On Airfarewatchdog.com, you need enter only your departure city, and you'll get a list of destinations with discounts and terms described. On Cheapflights, you enter your departure and arrival cities, and you get a list of published fares. With these sites, it takes a little bit of time to see if any of the specials apply to you, but they are good resources if budget is an issue and your travel dates or destinations are flexible.

Airfarewatchdog.com is a website that tracks airfares of major airlines as well as Southwest, Allegiant, SkyBus, and others. Once you enter your departure city, you'll see a list of discount airfares to international and domestic destinations. This is a good list to use if you have no destination in mind and are looking for possible destinations within your budget. Once a destination is chosen, the Airfare Details page provides links to sites that offer the discounted fare. Since these are published fares and not actual fares, the fare may or may not be available for your chosen dates. We conducted a test search for a round-trip flight between San Francisco and Honolulu using Cheapair as the booking site. Initial attempts returned fare not available for chosen date. But, after entering a few more dates, we were able to obtain the published rate. In short: Good place to find bargains if you don't have a specific destination in mind.

You enter departure and arrival cities, and the site will give you a list of published fares, starting from the least expensive. The date restrictions are also listed. You are then provided with links to other sites to purchase your ticket. Since this is a published sale and not actual fares, the fare may or may not be available for your chosen dates.

Smarter Travel publishes online travel news and advice written by their staff editors. Many of the articles discuss current airline deals. One of the current articles is titled "Europe winter sale fares from $307 R/T." Since this is a published sale and not an actual fare, once you select your dates, the fares may be different. We entered a set of test dates and got a fare of $350, instead of $307. The total was $486 with taxes and charges. The same route was $580 on Orbitz, although on a different airline. There's an email newsletter that you can subscribe to.

Travel Zoo publishes travel deals from various advertisers.

On SkyAuction and Priceline, you can bid for plane tickets, hotels, and other travel packages. On Priceline, you place a bid to see if Priceline will accept your bid while on SkyAuction, you bid against others. Hotwire is another discount site that may offer discounts on last minute travel.

BiddingForTravel is a message board about Hotwire and Priceline where users post their successful bids. The posts on bidding for flights on Priceline seems to have dwindled in the past few years.

Bidon Travel offers tips on bidding for air, hotels, car, and vacations on Priceline. For Hotwire, the site lists the airlines and the hotels that Hotwire uses so that you'll get an idea of the quality of the airlines.

On tests conducted by our staff, it seems that regular fares on Hotwire.com are generally comparable to other sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. Occasionlly, on last-minute flights, Hotwire may offer clearance fares that can offer a substantial discount. On these clearance fares, you don't find out the airline and the flight times until after you book. On a test search for round-trip flights between Dallas and DC 4 days from the day of search, we found a fare of $304 on Hotwire. The same route was $489 on Orbitz. However, the fare for the same flights to Baltimore instead of DC (45 miles apart) was only $317 on Orbitz. On a separate test for flights between San Francisco and Puerto Vallarta over 1 month from the search date, the clearance fare on Hotwire was $20 less than on Expedia. But again, the name of the airline and the departure time was not available. In short: Maybe a good choice for last minute flights if fares on other sites are substantially higher.

Priceline is an auction site where you place a bid to see if it will be accepted by Priceline. But, you don't find out the name of the airline or the flight times until after you have purchased the tickets. You can read about how to bid on Priceline and successful bids at Biddingfortravel and Bidon Travel. Priceline charges a service fee so be sure that with the service charge, your bid is still lower than offered on other sites. You are also not permitted to submit another bid for 7 days, unless you change your criteria (dates of travel, airport, red-eye, ... etc.). For further details on the bidding process, Priceline's FAQ is a good resource.

Priceline.com Airfare - save up to 40%

Skyauction is also a bidding site, but unlike Priceline, you are bidding against others. The bidding process is similar to eBay. You can find tutorials and FAQs under the Customer Care section.

There are travel search engines that will search many airlines and multiple travel site for the best fare. The ones mentioned here appear to search CheapTickets and Orbitz but not Travelocity or Expedia. The searches take a little longer on these sites and you book with different companies each time, depending on the search results. In some cases, the fare may be lower, especially on expensive international flights.

Farecast is a site that predicts whether airfare will rise or drop in the next 30 days so that you can decide whether you should purchase your tickets now or wait until later. Farecast is available for 75 cities in the US. The search must be for a trip that is 2-8 days long and within 90 days from the day of search. The site will also let you know how confident it is in its predictions. Farecast also offers a Fare Guard service ($10) when it predicts that the fare will stay the same or drop. If within the next 7 days, the fare goes up, contrary to Farecast's predictions, you get paid the difference when you purchase your ticket. The Flexible Travel Map Search is an interesting feature: you determine the length of your travel and how much you would like to spend, and the feature will give you a list of cities that match your criteria.

Kayak is a travel search engine similar to SideStep that searches multiple sites that include CheapTickets, Orbitz, and the airlines. Kayak also lists flights from your departure airport to popular destinations, along with the best fares found – an useful feature if you are flexible with your destination.

SideStep is a search engines that searches multiple sites, such as airlines and booking sites. The site has the option of searching for surrounding airports. Out of the booking sites, it appears to search Orbitz, Cheaptickets, and 1800cheatseats.com, but it doesn't appear to search Travelocity and Expedia. Since it's a search engine and not a booking site, you don't purchase your tickets from SideStep. Rather, SideStep directs you to the site that is offering the flights that you chose. The upside of Sidestep is that it searches the airlines directly. The downside is that because it searches so many sites, the search is relatively slow compared to the general booking sites. On several fare tests performed by our staff, the most inexpensive flights on SideStep were cheaper than Expedia and Travelocity on some instances and more expensive on others. In short: Good if you are going on an expensive international trip and wants to get the best fare possible.

Yahoo! Farechase Travel is a search engines that searches airlines, Orbitz, and CheapTickets. One noteworthy feature is that if there is a cheaper fare combination on nearby dates, Yahoo! FareChase will display the fare on the top right hand corner. Yahoo! FareChase searches the major airlines as well as JetBlue, AirTran, Frontier, and others. In short: Automatically gives you cheaper fare on nearby dates, if available.

Many airlines have periodic airfare sales. You can find the deals on their websites or sign up for email alerts. Here are links to several airlines where you can sign up for deal alerts.

Email subscriptions with information on NetSAAver fares, deals, news, Aadvantage partners, and Aadvantage eSummary.

Weekly emails with Continental Airlines Specials.

Emails with fare sales, partner offers, and SkyMiles promotions and program updates.

Deals & Offers

Fare Alerts

Northwest Airlines RSS Feed will alert you when new fare promotions, travel offers, partner offers, vacation packages, or routes have been added.

Click 'n Save E-mail Updates

Red Light Specials

Emails with information on United E-Fares. E-Fares are special United fares. Domestic E-Fares are for last minute weekend getaways.

Emails with information on latest news, special offers and promotions from US Airways.

Many Airlines will send flight status alerts to your email account, cell phone, or other device. The alerts will notify you of delays and cancellations. You can also have alerts sent to you a few hours prior to your scheduled departure as a reminder to get ready for the flight. Or, the alerts can be sent to a friend or family who will pick you up from the airport to let them know that the flight is on time or has been delayed.

After registration, AA will notify you of flight departure/arrival and gate information. You can have notification voice/text messages sent to any 10 digit number to your phone, cell phone, pager, PDA, or email.

After registration, Continental Trip Alerts will send an alert to your inbox, mobile device and/or phone to inform you of your flight’s status. You can also choose to send alerts to a friend or family.

After registration, Delta will send you updates on all your flights, cancellations, delays, and scheduled changes. Medallion members get notified when complimentary medallion upgrade requests clear. You can receive notification by email, voice, or text message alerts.

After registration, Southwest will notify you of flight departure or arrival status via text messages on your cell phone, pager, PDA or email account.

After registration, UA will notify you of flight departures and arrivals, delays, cancellations, seat upgrades, and more. You can receive notification by phone, email, text message, pager, or fax.

Many airlines have periodic airfare sales. You can find them on their websites or sign up for email alerts. Here are links to several airlines' websites where you can view the specials.

NetSAAver & Special Offers

Special Offers

Deals & Offers

Travel Deals

Current Promotions

Click 'n Save Special Offers

Specials

Special deals

Specials

Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity are popular sites for booking flights. These three sites generally have comparable fares. Expedia has probably the easiest interface, Orbitz has the most thorough nearby airport searches, and Travelocity makes it very easy to shop for flights within plus or minus 1-3 days for flights within the US and Canada.

Expedia has an easy to use interface and allows you to search surrounding airports, although the functionality doesn't provide as many combinations as on Orbitz. It also allows for flexible date searches on popular US routes so you can find cheaper days to fly. This easy to use feature enables you to look through airfares for a month at a time. Generally, airfare on Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity are comparable. A fare test performed for a round-trip between San Francisco and Paris, leaving in less than 3 weeks from the date of search, returned a fare of $1053. Travelocity was $5 more. Expedia, like other travel booking sites, do not search some airlines. They include Southwest Airlines, Ryanair, and Syrian Arab Airlines. One nice feature on Expedia is the drop-down menu that allows you to choose your desired airline. You can read Expedia's FAQ for more information. In short: Best if your dates are completely flexible and you are flying on popular US routes or if an easy to use interface is important to you.

Like Travelocity and Expedia, Orbitz also allows you to search surrounding airports. In fact, Orbitz has the best surrounding airport search out of the 3 booking sites. If your travel dates are flexible as well, you can select the "flexible dates" option located at the bottom of the search area, although this feature is not as easy to use as on Expedia and Travelocity. Orbitz searches the major airlines as well as smaller airlines such as Air Tran and Frontier. The fares on Orbitz are generally comparable to the fares on Travelocity and Orbitz, although on a test performed for round-trip flights between San Francisco and Paris, the fare was $300 more on Orbitz than on Travelocity and Expedia. It should be noted, however, that a fare comparable to the fare on Expedia and Travelocity appeared one hour later. Due to glitches like this, it's probably best to compare two or more sites before your purchase. On another test for round-trip flights between San Francisco and DC, due to its surrounding airports feature, Orbitz had the cheapest fare, beating Expedia by $47, Travelocity by $35, and Sidestep by $8. For booking policies and details, see Orbitz FAQ. In short: Best if you are flexible on surrounding airports.

If your travel dates are flexible and you are traveling within US and Canada, Travelocity is a good place to find bargains. If you live in an area with multiple airports, you might want to select the "compare surrounding airports" option. After the you find the combination of airports with the cheapest fare, you can then select the "flexible dates" option for the most inexpensive date combination. Another nice feature about Travelocity is that you select departure and arrival flights separately so it's easier to find a flight time that works for you. The downside of Travelocity is that the "flexible dates" and "surrounding airports" options only works for flights within the US and Canada. For booking details and policies, see theTravelocity's FAQ. In short: Best if your dates are flexible within plus or minus 1-3 days and you are flying within US and Canada.

Another popular site for purchasing plane tickets.

In addition to bidding for plane tickets, you can also purchase tickets on Priceline without going through the bidding process.

Round-Trip Flights Under $150!

Discount Airlines are not always included in the search results of the major booking sites like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz and can offer substantial savings, especially for flights within Europe or Asia. A list of Discount Airlines is located at the bottom of this page.

Various sites can help make your flights more comfortable. Skytrax and Airline Quality Ratings rank the airlines, and SeatGuru ranks seats on different types of planes. If you have a long layover or if you want to find out about transportation options, you can find links to airports on AirlineAndAirportLinks.com.

Airline Quality Ratings was developed in 1991 as an objective method of assessing airline quality. The study uses such criteria as denied boarding, mishandled baggage, customer complaints, ... etc. The 2006 Ratings rank Hawaiian as #1, and United, American, and Delta as #8, #10, and #12 respectively.

Airport websites often have useful information such as parking, public transportation, and directions. You can find links to airport websites here.

Airlines Reviewed has forums on Ryanair, Easyjet and Southwest Airlines. It also has forums on London Stansted, Heathrow, and NY JFK airports. The forums are not very active, but old messages are still posted on the site.

Orbitz TLC Alerts send you updates about your travel plans to your cell phone, PDA or e-mail. The updates include information such as flight delays and cancellation, weather delays, hotel maintenance, . . . etc. The alerts can be sent to up to 6 other people.

SeatGuru is a site that has helpful information on choosing seats on an airplane. Different types of planes are listed on the site, with information pointing out the good seats and the not so great seats. Generally, the site points out space issues such as whether the seats have limited incline (in front of exit row or at the very back) or have extra leg room (exit row). The Comparison Charts are particularly useful. The Comparison Chart for Domestic Economy, for example, has a nice summary of seat width, video type, laptop power, and other information for different airlines and types of planes.

Skytrax Airline Ranking ranks the airlines according to 5 levels. United, American, Continental, and Delta all got a rating of 3/5.

The Passenger Opinions section on Skytrax provides user reviews on airlines, airports, and airline seats.

Airline websites are a wealth of information. Not only are you able to purchase tickets and view the latest airfare specials, you can also manage your frequent flyer mile account and sign up for flight status alerts. More importantly, many airlines allow you to check-in online within 24 hours of your flight, which can save you time and possibly get you a better seat. A list of Major Airlines is located at the bottom of this page.

Many airlines now allow you to print your boarding passes at home within 24 hours of your flight. If you print your boarding pass at home, you don't have to wait in line at the check-in counters unless you have baggage to check. You can also select your seats from your computer. For Southwest, you are likely to be in the earlier zones that will be allowed to board first.

Flight Check-in

Check-in is permitted between 60 minutes and 24 hours before scheduled departure.

Check in 24 hours or less before you fly.

You can check-in online as well as change your seats.

Northwest E-Ticket customers may check in for their flight on nwa.com between 24 hours and 60 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time.  Asia and Mexico - Minimum check in time for flight departures from Asia or Mexico is 3 hours.

Check in beginning 24 hours prior to your scheduled departure. Check in at least one hour prior to your scheduled departure.

Advance seat assignments are available on spiritair.com for reservations booked on spiritair.com and through the Spirit Airlines Reservation Center from 90 days and up to 1 hour(s) prior to each flight’s departure. After your seats have been assigned, you may check-in to print your boarding passes within 24 hour(s) before each flight’s departure and no later than 1 hour(s) before each flight departs.

EasyCheck-in Online is available 1-24 hours before domestic flights and 2-24 hours before international flights.

Check-in for your flight as early as 24 hours and up to 90 minutes prior to your scheduled departure time.