Find the cheapest flight using the top 10 search engines

Most people love to travel. Unfortunately, budgets these days are tight and we don’t have as much to spend on vacations. The good thing is that there are plenty of options for saving money. One of the best and biggest ways to cut travel costs is to save money on flights.  This is where using flight search engines comes in.  These are the top ten search engines and some top tips for using them.

www.Kayak.com

Kayak’s claim to fame is that it allows you to search hundreds of travel sites with one simple search.  Known as an “aggregator,” it saves you from having to go through hundreds of airlines’ websites yourself to find the cheapest fare, as Kayak does it for you. The best part is that some of the airlines Kayak searches are ones you may not even have heard of. Also, because it’s searching airlines directly – and letting you buy straight from them – it’s secure and you won’t get scammed. The downside? Buying direct from the airline means you won’t get the bulk discounts you sometimes find on other sites.

www.Orbitz.com

Orbitz, which also owns Cheapflights.com, is one of the most popular and well-known search engines. Like Kayak, it allows you to search many carriers at once, but because you’re purchasing through Orbitz rather than directly from the carrier, you can sometimes find the special discounts available only to travel agents or bulk purchasers.  Furthermore, you have certainty, knowing exactly when, where, and with whom you will be flying. There are other sites out there that are just as good and function in a similar fashion – such as www.Expedia.com and www.Travelocity.com - which may be worth checking out. As a bonus, Orbitz and Travelocity both include the “flexible dates” option, which lets you search dates other than your specified one for travel to maximize your savings.

www.Priceline.com

Priceline’s uniqueness lies in the fact that you can bid on flights, hotels, and other travel amenities, rather than being constrained to the fares listed by companies.  The bonus is that you can end up with a bigger discount than you would have otherwise, but the downside is that you cannot specify flight times.  If you’re traveling on a budget and don’t mind a protracted journey, the possibility of travel at odd times, multiple flights, or long layovers won’t bother you. However, if you’re a business traveler or time is tight, you may want to pick a different search engine to help you find a bargain that’s more tailor-made.

www.Hotwire.com

Hotwire functions similarly to Priceline, with the most notable difference being that you can immediately see prices, rather than having to bid.  This allows you to find airlines’ lowest fares by searching, even at the very last minute, for their unsold seats.  Unfortunately, Hotwire also has most of the same problems Priceline does: you must be flexible with searches, flight times, airports, and layovers. Also, you must purchase the ticket without knowing an official departure time or airline.  So if you don’t have time to play with or you have particular airline proclivities, this may not be the search engine for you.

www.Yapta.com

Yapta, which stands for “Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant,” is a particularly good search engine for those people who like to plan ahead.  It tracks flights for you even before you buy them and will alert you when a price falls low enough to meet your savings goal.  Once you buy your ticket, it will continue to track your flight’s cost progress and if the price falls lower, it will notify you of any travel credits or refunds to which you are entitled.  While this feature doesn’t do much to help the last-minute traveler, it can save a great deal of money (and, more importantly, time) for someone who has plenty of time left before traveling.