Where to Find Cheap Flights On the Web - A Breakdown of Sites

Finding the cheapest flight every time you fly should not be a very difficult endeavor--especially with all the airfare websites available online.

But it is the fact that there are so many sites to choose from that offer cheap flights that makes it hard to find the best-priced tickets. Sometimes it's like finding a needle in a haystack.

But it doesn't have to be.

Here is the breakdown of the best places online to find the cheapest flights.

There are the booking engines.

Expedia.com
Travelocity.com
Orbitz.com
Hotwire.com
Priceline.com
Cheaptickets.com

These engine sites check many different websites to find the cheapest flights for your day and time. For this service, they charge a small fee--from $6 to $10. They process the sale on behalf of the airline. Basically it is a referral system. This is helpful to you because they search multiple sites and show you what several airlines have to offer.

There are the aggregator sites.

Kayak.com
Farecast.com
Farechase.com

These sites do a search for cheap flights on multiple sites, like the engine sites, but do not charge a fee for the transaction. Instead, they rely on advertisements and promotional offers like hotel stays and travel packages. One of these sites is a good place to start your search for your cheap flight.

Then there are the major airline sites.

American Airlines
United Airlines
Southwest
Jetblue
etc...

These are the big players--you never know, you may find the cheapest flight on an airline homepage. Southwest and Jetblue are known for providing low airfare (or at least lower airfare), and it's important to remember that these two sites do not provide tickets to the engine or aggregator sites. You can only buy tickets direct from their websites.
It is worth a shot to check the airline homepage--that way you may be able to get the same flight that you found on another site without paying the additional transaction fee.

Getting your cheap flight depends on a lot of factors: the amount of time you have to actually search for a flight, the time of year you are traveling, and how far in advance you start looking for your flight.

Planning in advance is the best way to ensure a cheap flight--but unfortunately, that is not usually how it works out. Good luck finding your flight. Enjoy your trip.