Getting The Best Airfare Deals...

The "Holy Grail" of traveling.

I use a bunch of sites. Got Scott's Cheap Flights and love it so far (paid the $39 subscription as it's worth it in terms of seeing more available options.). It helps you identify fare drops and deals. May not always be when you want to go, but it gives you a great start. Then suggests sites like Google Flights and Momondo to verify. At that point, they direct you to "consolidators". I was skeptical at first, but after doing the research, found out most of the higher rated ones are very reputable and been in business for a long time.

My favorites have been Justfly.com and Onetravel.com. These are great if you want to do your own research and book directly. (ALWAYS be fully aware of the differences these days between "Basic Economy", "Main Cabin", "Premium Economy" etc. Nowadays, compared to when I used to fly a lot, it can make a BIG difference.) Also be aware of flight times. Sometimes the cheapest listed flights require long layovers. Is is it worth the savings?? Gotta decide.)

Another great tool is Hopper. They have a great app for your phone and it's based on a lot of predictive modeling and analytics on flight trends. You can set your locations and it will give you probabilities of flight price trends and send alerts to you when it sees something. Amazing technology.

IF, however, you want someone to do some of the leg work for you, I would HIGHLY recommend AlphaFlightGuru.com. When you go to their site you can't see what they have available and need to talk to someone. The agent we used was about one of the most friendly, professional people I've ever dealt with. We'd searched and searched for an upcoming trip to some European destinations and he was able to find tickets at a price we'd never seen. Why? These consolidators either buy tickets from the airlines and resell, or have the ability to see fares you might not ever see. Sometimes if a fare has lapsed, but they quoted it, they will call the airlines and see if they'll still honor it or close.

Anyway, we all look for good deals and this has been our experience.