It is quite frustrating, if you think about it. You spend several hours scouring the internet for the lowest airfare only to pay extra for services that were usually offered for free. These services include wireless connection, meals, beverage, booking, baggage and even for air miles redemption.

For example, an underage passenger can be charged by as much as $700 if he traveled with his pet and one of his bags was over the weight limit. Travelers have been quite vocal about the recent fees being charged for checking baggage and could not believe that carrying personal things have become more of a luxury than a necessity.

Unfortunately, there is nothing much that you can do about these fees. The only way you can stick to your budget is by being creative.

For starters, you should learn how to bring just the essentials with you. It would help if you list all these items down and go over them repeatedly so that you can further trim the list down to the basics.

You might also want to check out the many gadgets available for the ultralight travelers, which include folding headphones and stands for your smart phones. There are even clothes that are made from nanofiber which weigh lighter.

Of course, there is also the old-school way of hunting cheap tickets. There are actually a lot of tricks which you can employ to grab discounted airfare. Booking in advance, subscribing to email alerts or RSS feeds and even having flexible travel plans are just a few of the most effective methods of enjoying bargain airfare.

Just remember to double-check the terms and conditions when booking in order to avoid any inconvenience.

Of course, if you know certain tricks to finding cheap airfare, you do not have to worry. Consider the following tips:

1. Choose Major Airports – you might be surprised at how cheaper it is to fly out from a major hub. In fact, you can save as much as $150 if you make an effort to go to the nearest major airport. But you should not forget to include in your calculation the cost of parking and gas.

2. Consider Discount Airlines – although you might prefer flying with your favorite airline, times like this might call for looking at other providers. A lot of discount airlines can offer you cheaper prices but you should not expect to travel non-stop.

3. Check Airline Tweets – getting the latest updates from the airlines’ twitter accounts is a great way to find out about offers of airfare discounts, especially last minute promos.

4. Consider a Vacation Package – most often than not, you will spend so much more on buying airplane tickets than booking a vacation package. Even if you will not use the hotel accommodation and the other extras included in the package, you will still end up with a really good airfare deal.

5. Look for Compassion or Bereavement Fares – you might not know this but majority of the major airline offer discounts for emergency or bereavement. You will only need to provide documentation to establish the emergency and you can enjoy as much as 10 percent off the airfare.

If you think about it, the key to finding cheap airline tickets is only a matter of knowing where to look. When booking flights, just make sure that you have read and understood the terms of agreement in order to avoid any inconvenience.

In the same way as a student, you can also avail of a discount if you are a senior citizen. You can qualify by proving your age using any valid or government-issued ID. Make the most of the privileges and special treatment you can get as an aged person, and this includes plane tickets.

Little Known Insider Tips and Tricks
Even if you are not a student or a senior citizen, you can still get your flight ticket at a bargain price. How about looking through travel websites for remaining seats? Sometimes these websites offer too-good-to-be-true last minute deals. Carefully comb through all the information and surely you will spot an offer that is right for you.

At times, insiders can have the best deals. By buying voluminous flight tickets, airfare suppliers get a big discount airfare. Because of this, they can now offer the individual tickets to passengers at a much lower price.

Other websites offer the same service to prospective travelers. They function as consolidators by buying plane tickets in bulk, then sell these at a cheap price, in the same way as airfare suppliers. Some of these websites refuse to sell these discounted tickets unless you register and join in as a member.

Another way to get a substantial reduction on your plane ticket is by choosing a flight with a layover. Compared to direct and one way flights, a journey with several stops can be much cheaper. If you do not mind dividing your flight and transferring to different airports, you can save a substantial amount of money.

Always remember that a great deal is usually just around the corner. Keep on researching and browsing through websites because another great offer might just be a click away. Keep persevering in your efforts and for sure you will get a flight ticket that is dirt-cheap.

Be Spontaneous!
Bargains abound for adventurous travellers. Try to be flexible with your travel schedule so you can take advantage of the unbelievable last-minute deals offered by airlines. Most booking sites give discounts for remaining untaken seats, so try to book your flight around two weeks before you plan on leaving. However, if your destination is quite popular, or it’s the peak season or the holidays, chances are there would be no empty slots.

Take Advantage of Introductory Rates!
New, up-and-coming airlines usually offer introductory rates to passengers. The downside would be that compared to the more established names in the industry, these budget airlines may not be visible on popular booking sites. You need to look for them yourself, so do your research and look around before booking a flight.

Always Look at Alternatives
Keep in mind that getting really cheap flights entails having to do a lot of shopping around. Browse through the different booking sites, and compare the various deals they are offering. Consider also the convenience factor, and hidden booking fees and taxes, so you can determine just exactly how much you’re really paying for your ticket.

More Layovers = More Savings
If you don’t mind a few stops, choose the flights with the most layovers. Passengers usually get a substantial reduction for this minor inconvenience. Usually the more stops your plane has to make, the cheaper your flight would be. So if you have time on your hands, choose a flight with a lot of layovers.

Mid-Week Madness
Make sure that your departure and arrival happens in the middle of the week. There is a greater demand for weekend flights, thus there is a significant price increase for Friday to Monday flights.

Choose an Off-Season Trip
Surely every destination, even places with year-round great weather and hot spots, has a lean season. Find out what the peak season is and try to avoid it, this is usually when prices tend to rise dramatically. Look at clues such as the weather, vacation dates, traveller’s schedules or popular events. Cheap airline tickets are available for those who try to avoid the herd. Head to your destination when it is the least likely to be packed.

Trust the Professionals
Travel agents are usually in on the best deals in the market. If you plan to spend a lot of money for your airfare, they can usually give you huge discounts and additional incentives. Sometimes it may be cheaper to explore your options first with a travel agent.

Flying into secondary airports
All big cities in the world have secondary airports. These are usually far-off from the heart of the city and are smaller. This kind of airport is usually used by budget airlines because of its cheaper operational costs—which means cheaper tickets as well. But do not expect any bonuses on these airlines like food, drinks, or pillows. Even though they are short on service, they make it up in cheaper tickets.

Flying through other routes
Also, you should try being flexible by finding different ways to arrive at your destination. In some cases, it can be more inexpensive to fly to Madrid first before getting a cheap flight towards Rome, than to fly directly to Rome. Direct flights usually cost more so you might want to add several stops into your trip so that the cost of your ticket can go down.

Looking for the foreign website of an airline
Did you know that when you have a powerful currency, you can actually book on the airline page of a weaker currency? Searching for the Canadian counterpart of the website of British Airways can get you cheaper plane tickets to London. A technique like this works great when your currency is performing well, although you can still possibly save money even when the currencies very similar due to taxes and fees.

Use your student discount perks
There are more discounts available for the student like flexible student plane tickets, cheaper train tickets, discount cards, and many more. Just have with you your student identification card. Use the STA Travel to find cheap airline deals because they focus in student travel along with finding amazing deals for students.

Join a rewards program
Another great way to bag free upgrades, free companion tickets, and even free flights is through many airline rewards programs. Non-frequent fliers may take longer to earn points, but frequent fliers must enlist at a rewards program in order to grab freebies. Non-frequent fliers may want to ponder on getting a rewards credit card which they can covert to a free flight.

Subscribe in airline newsletters
Be in the know of the latest flight deals and promotions when you sign up to industry or airline newsletters. Usually it is only through these newsletters that you will hear about these great deals. A few clicks over the airline sites are all you need to do. Also, you can easily delete the newsletters if you are not interested in flying for a certain period in time.

As the economy continues to batter most businesses including airlines, major airlines are looking into cultivating closer relationships with loyal fliers by making their frequent flier programs more attractive.

This week, Continental Airlines joined the Star Alliance and decided to eliminate some of its requirements before travelers can enjoy their reward points. After the transition is completed, Continental customers can already enjoy their travel rewards without making the Saturday night requirement and can already earn elite membership miles on discount airline fares. Fellow Star Alliance members include US Airways and United Airlines.

Early this month, Delta SkyMiles was formed by Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines to merge their frequent flier accounts, with Delta launching a new elite program for travelers flying at least 25,000 miles yearly.

Basili Alukos, a Morningstar analyst who monitors airline stocks, said that frequent flier programs benefit loyal fliers through discount airline ticket prices, but these programs also benefit airlines in big ways, such as borrowing money from business partners and fliers and obtaining crucial travel and consumer information for free.

For instance, according to Alukos, American Express purchased last year $1 billion worth of SkyMiles through its credit card venture with Delta and pledged to buy another $1 billion over the next year.

Southwest Airlines, meanwhile, is finalizing a new scheme to earn revenues from its Rapid Rewards frequent flier program.

Alukos added frequent flier programs greatly benefit airlines, so they are doing their best to entice travelers to become loyal members. With these programs, airlines can sell future travel and can estimate travel demand.

Airlines have started making reward travel redemption more easily, according to Randy Petersen of InsideFlyer.com. He said that United will soon remove its fee of $75 to $100 for booking reward tickets within 3 weeks of the travel date.

In addition, airlines have also been making it easier for fliers to reach the elite status so they are encouraged to fly more often. Holders of co-branded can use spending on their cards to increase reward points.

Last May, American Airlines launched one-way reward tickets for travel at least 12,500 miles. This year, Delta and United have also started offering mileage discounts on award tickets, essentially offering discount airline ticket prices.

As an example, Seaney cited fares for non-stop round-trip flights from Newark in New Jersey to Chicago in Illinois for Thanksgiving. He said that round-trip fares offered on the web site of Continental Airlines start at $378 for those returning on Sunday, but start at $251 for those who can wait and return on Monday.

Melanie Nayer of CheapFlights.com added that based on past online airline ticketing for the Thanksgiving travel, fliers who can take the risk and who can wait until the last hour can get the cheapest rates. She said that fares drop dramatically on web-based travel sites the day preceding Thanksgiving.

Seaney is also advising travelers to keep current with fare promotions and subscribe to alerts that provide updates on fares in real-time. FareCompare.com is one that provides real-time updates on fares, with its use of software systems able to make fare searches for various flight origins and destinations. It tracks 500 airlines that serve over 270,000 travel markets around the world.

One example of a fare promotion this week is the 72-hour fourth-quarter sale of Southwest Airlines. If you are reading this before October 29, you can still buy bargain airline tickets at amounts starting at $25 for one-way trips and just $100 for one-way trips more than 1,000 miles. These are tickets for trips from December 2 to December 16 and for parts of January and February.

If this promotion has expired, the information is still useful for you. This means that if you travel a lot, there are a lot of fare promotions that you can take advantage of if you just check reputable online air travel sites from time to time.

According to George Hobica, founder of airfarewatchdog.com, said that airline fares can change as often as 3 times in a 24-hour period for some routes, so signing up for alerts can result in a lot of savings for frequent travelers.

Nayer is also advising travelers to check their frequent flier benefits, as some airlines offer free baggage fees for members who have reached certain points.

All in all, buying bargain airline tickets entails a combination of flexibility and patience in keeping updated with promos and price changes.

The peak travel dates being targeted by airlines for imposing a surcharge of $10 are November 29th, the Sunday after Thanksgiving Day, and the second and third days of January.

Based on air travel history, the day after Thanksgiving and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving are the busiest days for air travel in the U.S., with the second and third days of January following in the ranking.

Among the airlines imposing premiums on these peak air travel days are American Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways Delta/Northwest, Continental and Southwest. Southwest Airlines though has been announcing that it will not be raising its advertised fun fares. Continental also has reduced the $10 other airlines are charging to $6 and $4 in certain routes.

According to airfare analysts, if the $10 hike is imposed by airlines on airfare tickets for other days, the hike would be the second increase imposed by the airline industry in two weeks and the fifth increase imposed this year.

Analysts also said that low-cost airlines such as Southwest and AirTran typically do not announce airfare hikes to match fare hikes by their bigger airline counterparts immediately, but it is possible they are also considering imposing surcharges.

In a media event conducted by Southwest Airlines, its chief executive Gary Kelly said that Southwest have record loads in October and ticket sales for travel in November and December are strong, but he reiterated that the rise in oil prices this week to $80 per barrel is a great concern.

Southwest though said it has been imposing modest increases to offset higher costs, and it is not planning on increasing fares just for certain travel days.

It was American Airlines which started the airfare hikes, when it imposed up to $16 for some roundtrip tickets. The other legacy airlines followed quickly, including Continental, United, US Airways and Delta/Northwest.

According to airfare processing system operators, most airfare hikes happen during the last days of the week and most sales and discounting occur at the start of the week. They also observed that airfare tickets have peak travel surcharges not only for travels for Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, but also for spring break, Memorial Day and Christmas.

In the past, many air travel consultants were recommending travelers to book their cheap flights directly on the websites of airlines to save the fees charged by online travel agencies for booking, which add around $5 to the airfare.

But now that the large OTAs such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz have eliminated the fees to be more competitive with other OTAs and with the airline websites, you now see a level playing field between these two types of booking sites.

And since you can get cheap airline tickets from both these sites, your basis now of deciding where to book your flight shifts from the fare price to other factors such as your loyalty to the airline website, additional benefits provided by OTAs, the crediting of frequent flier miles and discounts provided by OTAs for associated services such as hotels and car bookings.

The advantages of using OTAs over airline websites include your ability to search the cheapest airline tickets across airlines, whether legacy airlines or low-cost carriers, and your ability to get the conveniences of one-stop shopping. OTAs provide various car rentals, hotels and destinations, in addition to keeping you updated with airfare deals that keep changing by the minute.

Many travelers however prefer airline websites because they feel some kind of affinity to the airline websites and they can get bonuses on their frequent flier miles. They also explain that it is easier for them to work out solutions with the airlines if problems arise since they booked with the airline websites. Oftentimes, if there are errors in the tickets and travelers call the OTAs, they are referred back to the airlines.

Many others, meanwhile, get the best of both worlds. They surf the OTAs for the best deals and then book with the websites of the airlines offering the best deals, or if they see that the OTAs do not charge for booking changes within the day for their flights, they book with the OTAs to take advantage of possible airfare discounts within the day.

All in all, the one factor that will help you get the cheapest airline tickets is your access to information on the best airfare deals. So search both OTA web sites and airline websites and then compare fares and benefits.

According to a study, about 10 trillion frequent-flier miles worth $165 billion have not been used, and about 20 percent of these will never be used because they have expired or they have been canceled because of changes in rules.

Among the things that you can do to preserve your frequent flier mileage while you are not traveling is to use your affiliated credit cards that add equivalent points to your miles whenever you shop. Another is to subscribe to online services that remind you expiration dates.

When the frequent flier programs started in the 1980s, there were no expiration dates and other restrictive usage rules, but now airlines have lots of rules that have become confusing.

If you are a customer of American Airlines, US Airways and United Airlines and your account does not record any activity such as redemption or travel for 18 straight months, your entire account is canceled and you lose an opportunity to get a free or cheap flight. Alaska Air and Delta Air Lines give an allowance of two years before they cancel accounts while Continental Airlines has rules of canceling accounts that are inactive for 18 months.

Continental however said it has not yet implemented its 18-month rule. JetBlue Airways meanwhile is stricter – it cancels accounts that lack activity for just 12 straight months. Southwest Airlines said it issues free tickets for qualified customers but the tickets expire after 12 months.

For people that have some inactive months or have stopped flying as frequently as before, use your affiliated credit cards for your hotel stays, car rentals and partner merchants so you still earn points and reset your expiration dates.

Redemptions can also reset accounts, so if your program offers newspaper or magazine subscriptions as rewards, you can sacrifice some of your miles for subscriptions just to protect the bigger portion of your account.

From time to time, check the email and email addresses in your airline accounts to see if they are correct. Check also your email spam lists as sometimes important notices are diverted to these lists. See to it also that rewards miles from partner airlines are credited to programs you need to keep current so you can soon get your free or cheap airline ticket.