Tips to score an airfare bargain

Is it still possible to find cheap airfares? With prices rising and airlines raising fees on everything from ticket changes to checked bags, it's no wonder that a lot of travelers are talking about staying home this summer. But it's still possible to score cheap airline tickets.

Here are some strategies to help keep your costs down.

Book directly with the airline: Taking a page from the hotel industry, airlines have begun to guarantee equal or better prices to travelers who book with them directly. This helps save on commission expenses they would otherwise pay to third-party booking sites such as Orbitz or Expedia.

Moreover, some airlines -- including Delta, American, United and Continental -- offer compensations such as a $50 or $100 voucher for a future flight if passengers find an online fare lower than the one the airline offers on its own site for that flight.

Sign up for private price cuts: Not unlike clothing chains that dole out "family and friends" discounts to employees and repeat customers, airlines quietly offer coupon codes to travelers who sign up for their weekly newsletters or frequent flier programs.

Airfarewatchdog.com, which monitors such deals and posts the codes on its Web site, notes a recent increase in deals, including new promotion codes in Alaska Airlines newsletters every few weeks with savings typically of 20 percent.

"The downside to this strategy is you'll get a lot of extra e-mails," said George Hobica, the founder of Airfarewatchdog.com. But given the savings, he added, "it's worth it."

Buy one ticket at a time: Every flight normally has a range of price levels. Often, there are only a couple of coach seats offered at the lowest prices. When you shop for multiple tickets and there aren't enough seats available at the lowest ticket price, the reservation system automatically kicks bookings up to the next price level.

Make your computer do the work: If you don't have time to sift through dozens of airline newsletters for deals, sign up for fare alerts. Nearly every online travel site, including Travelocity.com, Kayak.com, Orbitz.com and Expedia.com, offers its own version. Some airlines, including American, Southwest and Canada's WestJet offer deal alert software, which must be downloaded onto your desktop.

There is also a new Web site, Compete4yourseat.com, that encourages travel agents, who often negotiate contracts with airlines, to find you a low fare. Travelers fill out a Trip Request form on the home page and click Go. Once your request is bid on by a travel agent, you receive an e-mail message and can log in to view the deal.

Buy a package deal: Travelers can often get a better deal with a vacation package instead of buying their airfare and hotel separately. That's because airlines and hotels are often more willing to offer deeper discounts when airfare prices are wrapped into a package. That way, their competitors can't see how much they're slashing rates.

"Certain hotels allow me to provide greater discounts if creating a package," said Jay Rein, president of Travelworm.com, an online travel agency that specializes in casino, resort and other leisure destinations.

"It's sort of like when you go to Best Buy. You can buy individual stereo components or a big box with the receiver and speakers for one low price."

Orbitz estimates that travelers can save an average of $228 by booking a five-night air-and-hotel package instead of buying those components separately.

Search for flights at alternative airports: Depending on the distance from your home to the airport, using smaller, regional airports can sometimes mean savings. A recent Orbitz search for a flight from Midway Airport in Chicago to Orlando, Fla., turned up a ticket on AirTran Airways for $223 round trip for a June weekend getaway. The lowest price for the same trip from O'Hare International Airport was $321 on United.

Be flexible: You can often save by adjusting your travel dates by a day or two. Travelocity, Zuji.com and other sites offer flexible date searches that show the lowest airfare for your route as much as four months out.

Timing is everything: To help evaluate prices, Kayak.com offers a trend chart (after a search), which shows whether prices for a particular flight have been going up or down or holding steady. Farecompare.com displays the lowest published fare over the next 11 months for flights to more than 200,000 destinations.

If the prices are bouncing around by $100 or more a few times a month, make sure you buy on a downswing.

Farecompare.com shows a 30-day history bar chart so you can quickly check volatility. Another site, Farecast.com, predicts whether prices will go up or down in the next week.

Don't wait if you see a deal: "If you see an airfare and it looks good to you, don't shop -- buy," said Rein of Travelworm.com.

"It's like wandering around the shopping mall. You can walk to the next store looking for a deal, and the next, and by the time you walk back it might be gone."

By Michelle Higgins