NEW YORK -- If you're on a budget but you'd like to fly somewhere for your next vacation, there's good news.
"Domestic fares are down 9 percent over a year ago and summer fares to Europe are down 19 percent," said Mike Fridgen, product manger for Farecast.com.
"Bargains are out there," agreed George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.com.
Examples: JFK to Paris, for less than $500 roundtrip; Southwest's $49 one-way tickets, and once-in-a-lifetime dream fares from Newark to Hawaii, in the mid-$400s, including taxes and fees.
These and many other deals are easy to find online. But there are some strategies you can use to make sure you get the lowest possible airfares. Here are some tips from the experts.
Do your homework
Research: "The most important thing is to do your homework," said Michele Perry, spokeswoman for TripAdvisor.com, which just launched a new flight search aggregator.
To do your research right, you'll need to compare fares from many different sources. "Too many people
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"There's not one Web site out there that has the cheapest fare," agreed John E. DiScala, founder of JohnnyJet.com.
Sign up for newsletters and e-mail alerts from airlines that serve the routes you're shopping for, and from sites like AirfareWatchdog, JohnnyJet, Farecast and others, including FareCompare, Kayak, Orbitz and Travelocity. Many airlines post their best fares only on their own Web sites, including Southwest, Allegiant Air, SAS, Aloha, Aer Lingus, Qantas, Alaska, Air New Zealand, and JetBlue, Hobica said.
Absurdly cheap fares, like a recent $14 flight on JetBlue from New York to San Francisco, don't show up on booking sites because the sites can't earn a commission on them. But that fare was mentioned in an alert from AirfareWatchdog, in JetBlue's e-mail stream and on Twitter, Hobica said.
"They Twittered to death that $14 fare, but it was not on Kayak, Travelocity or Expedia," Hobica said.
check message boards
Airlines also might make deals with some sites and not others, so you might find fares differ for the same flight on different Web sites.
Another source for news about cheap fares, DiScala said, is the message boards of Webflyer.com.
And, don't overlook promotional codes. "If you sign up for an airline's frequent flyer program or the airline newsletter, some airlines will generate a promotional code that you can use to get a discount when you book," Hobica said. Often these codes are generated individually and can only be used once, so you won't find them on Web sites.
Finally, as crazy as it sounds, check out package deals. Sometimes it's cheaper to book a hotel and airfare package even if you don't need lodging.
DiScala said he recently saw an airfare on United for $590, but on Travelocity, the same airfare was $480 including four nights in a hotel.
That's because hotels and tourism agencies sometimes subsidize airfares to bring people in.
Now or later: You'd need a crystal ball to know for sure whether fares will keep going down or if they're stabilizing.
TripAdvisor's Perry says "there's anticipation that we're fairly close to rock bottom,"
But Hobica says the news on the economy just keeps getting worse, and "the airlines are panicking again. Spring fares softened and they're softening more. I expect to see summer fares soften, too."
He added that "we're seeing a lot more low fares with no advance purchase, or just three days' advance, because the airlines realize that people are afraid to plan way ahead in this uncertain economy."
vouchers for future
If you book now and the fare goes down later, some airlines, including JetBlue, Southwest and Alaska, give a voucher good for future travel for the difference, said Hobica. Others will refund the difference but charge a fee of $150 or more.
Watch the hype: Sometimes a fare is so low it seems too good to be true. And it just might be.
First, a lot of really cheap deals are one-way, and the return fare might be more, depending on when you want to come back.
Second, look for those pesky little asterisks next to the price. On international flights, taxes and surcharges could add up to several hundred dollars.
"You've got to be careful about the hype around the deals," Perry said.
For example, she recently checked out one of Southwest's famous $49 fares, "but when I priced it, it wasn't the cheapest option with taxes and fees, plus it's only one-way."
TripAdvisor's new Flights finder has a "Fees Estimator" function that can also help you keep track of little things -- charges for food, checking baggage, even headphones.
