Are you tired of overpaying for airfare?
It’s tough to know exactly when airfare costs will dip, so most people either spend days searching, or they just click “purchase” as soon as they see a halfway decent rate. If that sounds familiar to you – Today I’m going to introduce you to a tool that will help you get the best fare possible with the least amount of hassle.
Kayak Alerts
Kayak alerts lets you set fare alerts for the dates and destination you're looking for. You can choose travel dates to destinations of your choice and the alerts can be scheduled as daily, weekly or monthly emails.
Often times I’ll set a price alert 2-3 months before I travel so I can monitor price increases and decreases on the route I’m looking to take and take advantage when a price dip comes along.
As you track the price shifts, you'll get an idea of what a good price is for the route enabling you to buy a ticket on one of the price dips, and celebrate when it dawns on you that you've saved hundreds of dollars.
Here's how to set it up…
Step One
Visit Kayak.com and enter your origin city, destination city and the dates you’re interested in flying. Hit search.
Step 2: Set Alert
You’ll see a number of search results returned to you with the criteria you selected in the last step. These are the flights and prices that are available Today.
Next in the top left-hand corner you want to select “Create a price alert”.
Step 3: Create an account or login
Before creating a price alert, you’ll be prompted to create a Kayak account or login to an existing one so you can save your alert.
Step 4: Save Alert
Now that you’re logged into your account you can save your alert and customize your preferences.
Step 5: Customize Your Preferences
Kayak will email you directly either daily or weekly notifying you of any changes that occur for the dates and destination you have set the alert on.
I suggest you set up daily alerts as price changes can happen quickly and don’t often last long.
You'll start getting regular emails showing you the price on the route for the exact dates you've selected, or if you're very flexible, the cheapest fare for the month you've selected.
As you get the daily price alert emails, you'll see that the price of the airfare changes rapidly.
Airfare prices swing like crazy. In general, the cheapest time to buy is three to six weeks out, and to fly on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday. If you know where and when you want to travel six months in advance, go ahead and set the price alert. The more time you have to watch it, the better.
Once you book your ticket, make sure to cancel those daily alerts so you don't get depressed if the price goes down again. Who needs that? You’re going on a trip!
About Scott Grimmer:
This blog post was created from an Interview with Scott Grimmer, an airline miles expert and avid traveler who has been featured on Forbes and Huffington Post. Scott has just released his first digital course Fly Free in First which shows you how to collect, redeem miles and book your first flight for free in the next 60 days.
