Budget Travel Blog 2: Airfares

Ok, time for more SMELLS LIKE ... A DEAL:  REUNIONS TRAVELS TIPS FOR THE RECESSION-WEARY.

There are only 80 days until our 15th reunion, so no better time than now to start planning, pricing, and purchasing your trip to the Garden State.

Let's start with airfares, shall we?   

After several years of purchasing airline tix via OTA's (online travel agencies) such as Expedia or Priceline, I have personally made the switch to Kayak.com, an aggregator (or meta-search site) that is easy to use, doesn't charge fees, and has killer controls for users to manipulate their search results in real time.

As an aggregator site, Kayak doesn't actually sell tickets, it simply searches all the airline sites + several of the OTA's to find and display the lowest fares available.  Its other value-add is the ease with which you can filter and further narrow the results dynamically (e.g. takeoff time, layover time, type of aircraft, etc.).  Once you've found what you want, Kayak clicks you through to the actual site (e.g. AA.com, cheaptickets.com, etc.) to make the purchase.  Kayak also offers email alerts and airfare history data to help ensure you are finding the best deal.  Oh - and also - their prices include all airline taxes and fees, unlike other sites which 'surprise' you later on.

If you're unfamiliar with Kayak.com, check out this How-To article that walks you through the process:

http://www.cheapticketlinks.org/how-to-search-kayak/

Meantime, because we are here to help ... your friendly budget travel blogger has signed up for several daily email alerts to track airfares to Newark from the cities listed below.  Watch this blog for updates on prices:

• LA (lowest fare currently $290)
• SF (lowest fare currently $299)
• Chicago (lowest fare currently $257)
• Houston (lowest fare currently $304)
• Seattle (lowest fare currently $299)
• London (lowest fare currently $347)
• Boston (lowest fare currently $159)
• DC (lowest fare currently $119)
• Atlanta (lowest fare currently $209) 

(Above fares are to/from Newark for travel 5/28-5/31. We will also periodically check Philly and NYC airports as well as alternate travel dates.)  

Stay tuned for our next post coming soon ... meantime, don't forget to share your own travel savings tips with classmates by commenting on this blog.