Top 5 Airfare Travel Agency Websites

Saving money on airfares is much easier thanks to the world wide web. Travel agency websites have sprung up everywhere, bidding for business. With the competitive nature of the industry, each website offers different options to hopefully gain your business. Use these options to your advantage to save money on airfares.

Search several sites at once with Kayak.com

Searching multiple websites for the best airfare is easy with Kayak.com. Enter your itinerary and Kayak will not only search its database for the top airfares, but it will also open new windows with the same itinerary filled in for other top sites such as Expedia, Priceline, and Travelocity. Recently, I was able to find a one way ticket from Philadelphia International Airport to a major European city for $114, not including taxes and fees. This fare was cheaper than the closest alternative, yet more expensive fare which involved taking a train with a small child and many bags to New York City.

Need to visit multiple cities? Kayak also allows for multiple stops on its searches and if you consistently travel to a particular airport, sign up for their fare alerts to your favorite city.

The biggest drawback with Kayak is their search function makes it difficult to specify if any travelers are children.

AirfareWatchdog.com lists low prices daily

While AirfareWatchdog.com does have a search feature allowing for flexible search, its real advantage is the daily list of low fares from US domestic airports nationwide. Add your favorite airport to your RSS feed and you will see low flight prices daily to cities across the country.

For even more fun, check out the Top 50 Fares or the Fare of the Day. The Top 50 Fares usually has at least one fare per major airport and the Fare of the Day can have too hard to pass up deals. A sample fare of the day is a recent airfare from Chicago to Costa Rica for $237 round trip including taxes.

Round the world travel - build the vacation of your dreams

If you have a few months and several thousand dollars to blow or if you just like dreaming, check out Airtreks.com's round the world flight builder. Start at your destination city and then add various interesting cities until you arrive back where you started. Airtreks.com will calculate an approximate airfare for this trip. It also suggests itineraries to stretch your dollars or add a few cities for small amounts.

After building your round the world trip, call the Airtreks.com agents to book the flights. The agents are knowledgeable and can also suggest routes if your destinations are not set in stone.

Travelocity - the old faithful of airline travel

Booking airfare with Travelocity is rather simple and straightforward. Either enter an exact itinerary and get a price or enter a general travel time frame and pick around until you find a cheap fare. Travelocity also can compare prices with nearby airports. A fantastic feature for travelers on the east coast where airports are built close together, it is not so useful for customers in Seattle.

Looking for a last minute adventure? Travelocity also books flight and either hotel or car reservations for the upcoming weekends. Search by price or by activity.

Bidding for flights on Priceline.com

Priceline.com allows customers to bid for airline travel using a name your price feature. Simply enter the price you want to pay for your airline ticket before taxes and fees and Priceline will try to match that price. Although you may specify the travel dates, Priceline rules allow for the trip to start any time between 6 AM and 10 PM and conclude before 12:30 AM the next day. When naming your price, be sure to name a price not including taxes and fees. The second page where you commit to buying the airfare ticket for a particular price will state the total price including taxes and fees but not including baggage fees.

Pros to Priceline

Save up to 40% off your airfare
Maximum of 1 stop or connection per flight

Cons to Priceline

Non-refundable or changeable
Baggage fees are not included and these can vary widely between carriers
Must be flexible with your flight schedule
Priceline tickets do not allow for accrual of frequent flier miles

Tip: BetterBidding.com has tips for bidding for airfare and hotel rooms on Priceline.

It is easy to get overwhelmed with all the options for finding low airfares on the internet. These five websites however have some interesting features that allow travelers to search a little easier and a little smarter. Have a fun trip!