Shopping for air travel tends to be a hectic and confusing endeavour. When you’re planning a trip, the last thing you want to be spending the bulk of your trip’s budget on is the airline ticket. Airline tickets seem to fluctuate in price with an unpredictable manner. Be wary, airlines always want to get you pay the most for a ticket that you are willing to pay so search for the best deals. Nobody wants to spend hours on the computer desperately hunting for discounted airline tickets. However, sometimes it’s good to periodically keep an eye out for some random discounted deals.

There are a million posts out their offering advice on how to find the best deal on your flights but yet there are still so many people end up paying over the odds for their tickets. Here are some general tips for finding the best and cheapest times to fly.

Book 4-6 Weeks In Advance

Although airlines release random airline ticket deals throughout the day, it is a wise idea to try to book ticket 4-6 weeks in advance. Valuable deals are made available at all times. Booking tickets six weeks in advance usually garners a price slightly lower than the average fare. Looking for tickets at the last minute is a bad idea and usually guarantees that you’ll be paying higher prices. Also remember, shopping too early can also have an adverse effect. Airlines don’t begin releasing discount tickets until 3-4months before the date of departure. As an average, those who book 6 weeks in advance pay almost 6% cheaper than average fare price.

Also, staying on the lookout for tickets in advance gives you more opportunities to spot a rare discounted ticket.

Let’s take a look at some other strategies to help save you some money. Once you have booked your ticket, utilize the 24-hour rule as last minute cancellation can occur and the airline will try to fill up the seats. Consequently, the ticket can be a lot cheaper then when you originally purchased it. If your airfare has dropped, then call the airline and cancel your flight. Next, re-book your flight and now you just saved yourself some money for your trip.

Fly On Wednesday

Another way to save on airfare is to fly on a Wednesday. A huge number of seats go unused mid week and the airlines are desperate to fill these, and therefore the price is often be discounted.

Fly With Two Different Airlines

Yet another great money saver is to fly with two different airlines. This means flights can be cheaper for the return trip or the outbound flights.

Let someone else do the hard work for you

Sites such as momondo.com provide a great tool to help find the best travel times, months and days at the cheapest prices. It’s all easily selectable to suit each couple, individual or family’s needs.

Don’t Forget Rewards Cards

Having a frequent flier card can be a great benefit. Most (if not all) credit card companies provide frequent-flier miles when using the card. These points will add up and can save you some money for your next trip.

Overall, it’s not that difficult to find cheap airfare, you just have to be smart about it. These are just some of the way’s to find cheap airfare and help save you some money leaving you top have more to spend on your actual holiday!

Author Bio: David Bell is a freelance writer and blogs about travel, interior design, online marketing, telecoms and small business solutions. Follow him on Twitter @DavidBellWriter