Travel Deal of the Day (Jan. 25, 2007)

How do you find the lowest airfare? The answer to that question is complex, but the answer often stems from broadening your airfare search to include all itinerary possibilities. One way to broaden your airfare search is to include all the area airports in your search.

The Deal:
Always include in your airfare search alternative airports to ensure that you search for all available airfares. Often airlines will have fares from one area airport that may not apply to other area airports.

How:
1) When searching for airfares, include all area airports in your search. Usually, travel search websites will have a box entitled “check all area airports” which allows you to include airports within a 50 or 100 mile radius of your origin or destination city.

2) When running airfare searches, use the code for the metropolitan area that you are leaving from or going to (rather than the code for a specific airport). For instance, in the New York City area, run searches using “NYC” rather than “LGA,” “JFK,” or “EWR.” (You can also use “CHI” for Chicago and “WAS” for Washington, D.C.)

3) In cases where a code for the metropolitan area does not exist, investigate what are the other airports that are convenient, especially if that neighboring airport has a low cost carrier – use the codes for each of the individual airports when running airfare searches.

The Inside Scoop:
One good example of the importance of searching area airports occurs when searching for airfares to and from Cleveland, Ohio. When searching for airfares out of Cleveland, it is important to also search for airfares to/from Akron since Akron has service from Airtran, a low-fare air carrier that does not serve Cleveland. Sometimes Cleveland will have cheaper airfares, sometimes Akron will have cheaper airfares – but if you only search for Cleveland, you will not know about the Akron airfares and may miss out on Airtran’s frequent sales (such the sale ending 1/25/07 offering fares as low as $29 each way) that would not apply at an airport not served by Airtran. Similar situations occur in San Francisco/Oakland, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Boston/Providence, as well as many other areas.