PLANNING - Europe On a Budget - page 26

their planes. These days, last-minute tickets generally cost twice as much as tickets purchased
a month before departure.
The sweet spot for booking a flight to Europe seems to be about four to five months before
departure. I'd recommend starting your search six months from when you want to leave and
continue to monitor fares. You probably don't want to purchase tickets earlier than six months
in advance because airlines generally charge full-fare for these tickets.
Sign up for email alerts and social media. A good way to find deals is through email alerts
from various booking sites. They do start to clog up your inbox pretty quickly, though. I re-
commend opening up a new email account just for these emails—just don't forget to check
them every few days. Many airlines also post short-term sales via Twitter so that is another
options.
Look at the foreign version of booking site. I discovered this trick accidentally when I was
trying to book a ticket from Paris to the United States. I was using Kayak.com but it auto-
matically redirected me to the French Kayak site when I was in France. So I did a search and
I found out that the same ticket was $130 cheaper when I booked through the French ver-
sion. However, you'll have to do everything in the foreign language (which isn't hard with
your browser's translator tools). The only potential problem is that you'll have to contact the
foreign country's customer service if you have a problem down the road. I tried to call US
customer support but they couldn't look up my reservation so I had to do it in French.
Cheap fares are often nonrefundable. If you need to cancel your ticket, you might have to
eat the cost, so purchase travel insurance if you're worried. Additionally, some cheap tickets
will allow you to change your travel dates but the ticket-change fee can be well over $200 for
an international flight. Most travelers don't have a problem, but you should be aware of your
ticket's terms.
Willingness to take undesirable flights. Pay attention to your flight itinerary because
some discount fares will have super long layovers. It might be worth paying a little extra to
not be stuck in an airport for twelve hours.
Look at all fees. Some booking websites will show you the price before taxes and other fees.
This is deceptive because all those extra fees will easily add a few hundred dollars to the total
price of the ticket. Read all the fine print before you get excited for a super low fare you see
online. Also look at the baggage fees because airlines seem to charge more every year.
OUR FAVORITE AIRFARE BOOKING WEBSITES AND RESOURCES
Kayak.com and Skyscanner.com are my two favorite airfare search engines, so I always check
these two first. Both sites let you search multiple dates and destinations. I've booked 90% of
my flights through one of these two sites.