How to get the best deals on flights
200 years ago flying was reserved for the big spenders. Nowadays even college students can afford flying across the Atlantic just by waiting a few tables.
Often the best deals are offered directly by airline websites. Try American airlines, Delta, United, Southwest, Northwest, US airways, Singapore Airlines, IcelandAir...
You can also use a travel search engine like kayak.com. Kayak will search hundreds of other travel sites to get you the best deal. It's always best to have some flexibility regarding the date. You can specify under search options to search flights 3 days before and 3 days after the selected date. You might be surprised how much money you can save just by flying a day earlier or later than originally planned.
Now, for the best time to book - generally about 8 weeks before the trip is considered a great time to snatch a deal. Also, Wednesday seems to be the best day to purchase tickets. Mondays and Tuesdays are the busiest days for bookings, so you'll save by searching for flights when no one else is, like very early or very late on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Bing has a great fare prediction tool. You can plug in your dates and destinations, and it'll give you it's best prediction as to whether you should expect a drop or increase in fare prices. Airline emails are also a good source for knowing when a sale will occur, so go ahead and sign up.
Finally, traveling in off-peak months like January and October yields better
fares. If you're planning a trip in the summer, aim for the early or
late summer months instead of the middle of July.