#1  Be flexible with your travel dates.

If you insist on traveling on specific dates you'll pay a lot more. If you can leave or return even a day earlier or later you'll often save you a lot of money. Use Travelocity to find airfares for flexible travel dates. (Click "flexible dates".) Kayak and Orbitz also have flexible date finders but they're not quite as, er, flexible.

This is our #1 tip for getting the best airfare! Ignore it at your peril.

Sample fares we just checked¹:

• $444 - Insist on leaving on the 5th and returning on the 7th
• $333 -Willing to leave on the 5th and return on the 8th

For international flights the difference can be even greater.

Here's more on flexible dates.

#2  Book at least two weeks ahead, preferably three.

When you buy early you save. Book at least two weeks before your flight (preferably three), and at least 30 days for international flights.

Sample fares we just checked²:

• $444 - Booked 5 days in advance
• $261 - Booked 19 days in advance
• $192 - Booked 26 days in advance

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#3  Staying over Saturday no longer necessary.

So far as I can tell, the old conventional wisdom of staying over a Saturday night before returning is no longer necessary. I tried numerous searches and the return flight was never any cheaper if I set it for Sunday or later.

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#4  Fly mid-week if you can.

Weekend flights are usually more expensive because that's when most people fly. Flying midweek usually means a cheaper fare.

Sample fares we just checked³:

• $412 - Leave Sunday, return next Sunday
• $337 - Leave Monday, return next Monday
• $337 - Leave Friday, return next Friday
• $314 - Leave Tue/Wed/or Thu, return next Tue/Wed/Thu

#5  Using neighboring airports sometimes gets you cheaper airfares.

Several times we've saved a lot of money by flying into the Newark, NJ airport instead of into a New York airport, even though each was about the same distance from our destination in New York City. Once we saved $200 by flying into Philadelphia instead of Atlantic City, then took a $6 train ride (1.5 hours) to Atlantic City. Kayak, Travelocity and Orbitz can automatically search neighboring airports for you. Kayak is nice by giving you a nice list of the prices for each airport it finds (rather than dumping all the results together.

#6  Always check the round-trip price even if you're flying one-way.

For some bizarre reason, one-ways often cost more than round-trip. We just checked Austin to San Jose, and round trip was $274, while one-way was over $700! On international flights the savings can be even bigger. Tokyo to Las Vegas in 2007: round trip $930, one-way $1720.

U.S. flights

Travelocity or Orbitz, along with the use of our tips

If you need cheap airfares at the last minute

Kayak, Hotwire, or Travelzoo's Net Fares, plus our tips

If your travel dates are super-flexible, try Travelocity or Orbitz.

For semi-flexible or specific-date U.S. flights, use Kayak & Southwest.

For international flights, use.

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For all other domestic flights (within the U.S.)

Kayak and Southwest, along with the use of our tips. Search engines don't include results from Southwest, so it's a good idea to check Southwest separately after checking Kayak.

Everything above is 90% of what you need to know about getting cheap airfare. But below is more information for those who want it:

Search Engines compared

See the differences between Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire, and more.

For flexible travel dates

More info about how being flexible with your travel dates can save you money. Includes how to get Fare Alerts by email.

International airfares

How to get cheap airfare for flights starting or ending outside the U.S.