These sites have several services that slice and dice your flight inquiries in any number of ways. And they can bake a cherry pie. They can do it all. They typically also offer services to alert you to when low fares for desired routes become available or to examine baseline fares offered by airlines throughout the year. 13 airlines, in case you want to choose your seat too. Many trip planning sites also have hotel room finders and car rental options. Fare Aware option that shows what other passengers paid for a certain trip at the same time last year. One other great thing about these Internet sites is that you can often find sweet deals at the last minute.

If you want to fly on a whim for the weekend, this is really the best route to go. It also advertises the latest travel bargains and ongoing airline sales. Auction sites These fall into two categories: the typical auction and reverse auctions. At reverse auctions, individuals specify the price they will pay for a seat and the airlines either agree to the price or not. These sites are fantastic because you can choose your own price, and you might get the ticket. But if youre looking for cheap and youre flexible, this is a great way to go.

While you cant punch in your destination of choice, the sellers may have tickets to the very Caribbean island you have been dreaming about all winter. Airline sites Finally, one way to use the Internet to check for prices is to go to the airline sites directly.

So dont overlook them when searching for fares. But let us warn you that the best deal usually come from auction sites, or consolidators, or special deals. Going to the airline itself should be a last resort. 500 at a variety of times and airlines.

And were sure that if we surfed for a couple more hours, we could have found a lower rate. The moral of the story: the more time you spend researching, the lower the rate youll get. There are some drawbacks to using the Internet. One is that most sites want you to register with them, which means filling out a registration form and thinking up a password that you wont forget.

If you can, use the same name and password for all the sites so that you dont forget. Another hassle is entering your pertinent information. There are zillions of boxes to be filled out, so be prepared for some busy work. For market orders the order is executed immeidately, but you may push the price up too.