Comparison shop. Your best bet is to search as many online travel sites as possible. Luckily, we have found a few sites that automatically search hundreds of travel sites for you and display the lowest cost. All you do is enter the dates and places of your travel itinerary, and they request prices at over one-hundred different travel sites (including various airlines’ official sites).

• Mobissimo - our favorite because they provide unbiased prices and control. We are very impressed by a new site on the Internet, mobissimo. The site compares flight reservation data from 80 different sites, and provides you with the best fare. They simply redirect you to the cheapest site, so you do not have to search various sites to find the lowest fare. We have consistently found the lowest fares on this site. From our experience, mobissimo generally you directly to a specific airline’s website.
• Yahoo! Farechase - one of our favorites because it is quick.

Other tips when using travel comparison shopping travel sites.

• Determine the complete cost of the trip in dollars, including all service charges, taxes, processing fees, etc. Some sites offer cheap fares on comparison websites as bait, and then at then just before checkout, add on extra processing fees. Beware of unreasonably cheap prices or free trips from shady websites - you usually get what you pay for!

In addition, you can visit the homepage of the airline of your choice. This is crucial if you fly carriers like SouthWest Airlines, and JetBlue because they do not list their fares in sites similar to Orbitz or Travelocity.