# Any tips on finding plane tickets that won't break the bank?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-on-finding-plane-tickets-that-wont-break-the-bank/678800>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 14, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-on-finding-plane-tickets-that-wont-break-the-bank/678800 "2014-01-14T19:01:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-on-finding-plane-tickets-that-wont-break-the-bank/678800/21 "2014-01-16T03:58:03Z")

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Thanks for the sites, **burunduk34**. I’ll be checking those in the morning.

I’d love to be flexible but we’re flying in for a convention and my husband can only get the days off which correspond to the convention. (ALA, if your’e curious.) I’d love for him to get a couple of extra days off but he’s missed quite a bit of work since his hospitalization back in October.

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**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-on-finding-plane-tickets-that-wont-break-the-bank/678800/22 "2014-01-16T05:16:39Z")

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I have heard you should clear your cookies if you are going to re-check prices on an airline’s website

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**Author:** ![VeroTrem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/73ab20/32.png) [@VeroTrem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VeroTrem)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-tips-on-finding-plane-tickets-that-wont-break-the-bank/678800/23 "2014-01-16T07:57:58Z")

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You Americans are a lot luckier with airfares. Here in Canada, the flights from Toronto-Montreal (think Boston-DC) are about $250-$375 and flying across the country is at least $500. A lot of people here actually just cross the border to an American airport to save a few hundred bucks if they’re flying to another US city. Anyways, I usually fly international but here are some of the things that I’ve found helpful:

1. Search early and regularly to get a general idea of the price and then buy if you find a really good deal. I saved a few hundred dollars this way! Toronto-Bangkok is usually at least $1,300+ but I found a United Airlines deal for only $950 and it only lasted for about a week.

2. Searching for alternative airports close by can sometimes pay off. You can save well over $100 by flying from Newark to San Francisco instead of to Sacramento. However, you then need to make the 80 mile journey just to save $50 or so each way.

3. Use points if you have enough or if you have a premium credit card. My Visa lets you exchange 120 points for every $1 cash, 100 points for every $1 on a hotel, and a special rate for flights. I can get a $1,200 flight for about 60,000 points, which would only get me $600 in hotels or $500 cash.

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