Very Cheap International Flights

These Days, They're More the Rule Than the Exception

Who says very cheap international flights are hard to find?

These days, they're everywhere.

I still remember nearly keeling over when quoted $900 for a trip of under two hours from Geneva to Rome not that many years ago. Today, that trip can cost as little as $50 - low-cost airlines have come a long way.

The world of discount airline tickets covers several sectors: internal or domestic routes (like WestJet Airlines in Canada or Southwest Airlines in the US, of particular interest to travelers from outside North America), regional routes (those that tend to cover a single region, like EasyJet or Ryanair for cheap flights within Europe), international routes (with longer haul airlines like Virgin or LTU) that carry you from one region to another, say from North America to Europe or Asia, and round-the-world tickets, which group several airlines together to give you a great deal with a single ticket.

Then there are the scheduled airlines - the non-discount regular airlines that are feeling the pinch of competition and that as a result, occasionally manage to undercut even those discount airlines offering the cheapest student fares.

The beauty of all these carriers is that they can be combined to help you visit a single country, or travel around the world.

Very cheap international flights - finding your way through the maze

It's not as hard as it seems.

You can do the legwork yourself, or you can let others do it for you.

If you do it yourself, you'll have to investigate each individual discount airline - cheap flights are the norm there. A good place to start would be with a list of low-cost airlines. You'll have to check through each airline individually, which can be a lot of work. The advantage? You might find even cheaper flights by playing around with the times and dates a bit.

If you'd rather go to a single booking engine that scours cheap plane flights worldwide and does all the footwork for you, there are plenty around, like flylc.com or AirNinja.

Another way of finding very cheap international flights is to use one of the new wave search engines that are making it so much easier to find all-airline cheap flights. One engine that bills itself as covering nearly 25,000 different routes is WhichBudget, which lists every budget airline flying out of or to your chosen destination. I like this one because it makes me dream - I just click on my home city, and see where I can fly.

If you're happier flying with major scheduled airlines but still want to watch your money, the user-friendly search engine at Kayak scours the web for cheap flights.

There's also BootsNAll Travel, a topnotch resource for backpackers. You could try Vayama, BudgetLongHaul or cFares. These sites specialize in digging out obscure or new airlines that you've probably never heard of... Air Sarah? Flyglobespan? Air Berlin? Yet these and many other low-cost carriers may tie together two cities that major airlines wouldn't dream of servicing because there's simply not enough traffic.

If what you really want are very cheap international flights, why not bid for them? Priceline will take your bids and try to match your price with a flight.

Too confusing?

Some ticket sites allow you to search a number of booking sites at the same time, like BootsNAll's Airfare Comparison Tool.

There are some distinct advantages to using discount airlines over scheduled airlines, the main one being f-r-e-e-d-o-m! That's right. If you like to decide where you're going on the spur of the moment, this is the way to go - you can book one leg at a time, even on the same day. Unless you've planned it well, though, this won't be the cheapest way to travel since you won't know how much you'll be spending for your flights, since you won't have your destinations and dates ahead of time.

If you have a set amount of travel time - three months at the very least, and up to a year - and know where you want to go, you'll probably be better off with a round-the-world ticket, known as an 'RTW'. This is usually purchased through scheduled rather than discount airlines, but may nevertheless be a better buy. Not only will one of these provide very cheap international flights, but you'll pay for your tickets up front: what money is left will yours to spend. Remember though, these tickets are usually valid only for one year so if you plan on being on the road longer, this one is not for you.

Very cheap international flights: do's and don'ts

Getting the most out of cheap airline tickets and budget airlines means following a few simple rules of thumb:

• Do your research ahead of time. Certain times and days are cheaper, like early Sunday morning, mid-day weekdays or flights in the middle of the night.
• Book early. On many discount airlines, the first few tickets sold for a flight are much cheaper than the last few. You could pay $40 for a flight booked a few weeks in advance, and $400 for the same flight booked on the same day.
• Consider overland segments. Remember, you don't have to fly everywhere, so comparison shop - there are other cheap ways to travel . One of my favorites is rail, especially in Europe, where cheap train travel is still within the realm of the possible. And there are plenty more - buses, boats, bycicles...
• Plan as much of your itinerary as you can, because changing your RTW ticket will cost you money.
• Read up. Airlines often have special offers or web-only promotions. Stay on top of airfare news and be the first to grab that discount ticket!

A final caveat

Air travel is not the cleanest way to travel, and cheap air travel means more of us travel further than ever. I'm not suggesting anyone should stop flying, but I do believe we should be aware of our carbon footprint - and do something to offset it.