Vacationers have learned that these days online booking is the most convenient way to buy an airline ticket or book a hotel for any destination in the world. And many companies have responded to the increasing demand of thousands of intrepid travelers.

Online booking is the way to go indeed. Aside from convenience, this method is also the cheapest way to go on vacation. Airlines and hotel chains offer many programs online with discount offers. If you want to buy airline tickets and get the best deal in the process, then here are five very practical tips that you can follow.

#1: Check fares online every day

Contrary to popular belief, airfares are subject to change. As a matter of fact, they could change many times during the day. Most of the time, airlines would update their prices at least thrice a day, and this is true for fares to international destinations as well, though they update it less often. Some airlines have a stable fare rate and have lowest fare offers for a certain number of seats only. The availability of these seats would differ at different times of day. It pays to check every so often to find out how many discount seats are available and what the flight schedules are.

#2: Book months in advance

Going on vacation to go somewhere else to relax? And your budget is not unlimited? Then, you had better plan everything in advance and book an airline ticket at least one month in advance. It’s better if you book many months in advance to avail of award fares. There are not that big a percentage of award travel fares to take advantage of and the sooner you decide where you’re going and when the less costly it would be.

#3: Get free alerts when you can

It would certainly be an advantage if you are informed of a price-drop refund in advance. You can sign up for e-mail alerts online and choose to be notified when lowest fares are made available. There are also sites that provide this and related services. You can even choose to sign up for specific routes so that you’ll be the first to know when promos are available to you.

#4: Use airline websites rather than booking agents’ sites

Both booking agents and websites offer lowest fares, but when you choose a booking agent you would still have to pay a service fee. Whereas, airlines would not usually require extra fees just as long as you don’t book over the phone. If every dollar counts, then you would do well to get every possible savings that you can from the transactions you would have to make.

#5: Get hotel plus airline packages

Package offers are the pick of many vacationers for the primary reason that it affords them a lot of savings. Companies that offer these promotional stints go as much as half price

from regular rates for both hotel and airfare. There are websites online that devote their services to providing travelers last minute package offers that are so unbelievably cheap. The only hurdle to availing these offers is that they have a very short half-life and so it would be better if you are subscribed to the site and receive first announcements of what they have to offer.