Flexible dates flights search International

All about flexible travel date airfare searches

When the staff of Airfarewatchdog.com is researching airfares, we always start with a flexible travel date search.

Travelers can often save money if they adjust their travel dates to take advantage of the lowest possible fare between any two cities. Oddly, however, statistics show that most airfare buyers ignore flexible searches. That's probably because the majority of travelers, such as those going on a cruise or attending a meeting or wedding, need to travel on set dates. But we believe that it's also because many airfare buyers simply aren't aware that flexible search options exist, or don't appreciate the savings that can be achieved by being flexible. You can save hundreds of dollars simply by going a day or two earlier or later than you originally planned, or by postponing your trip for a month or two (Aunt Freda probably will be just as happy to see you in March as in May).

Here are your options when performing a flexible fare search:

For now, Cheapair is the only game in town when it comes to searching up to 330 days ahead. However, it only returns fares on routes within North America, not international ones. In order to comply with D.O.T. rules, the site currently adds "estimated" taxes and fees to all fares. It's an interesting workaround but not entirely accurate (it tends to overstate the final fare you'll pay) but it's still very useful.

Update: Travelocity used to have a very useful 330-day flexible travel date search. As of late January, 2012, however, in order to comply with U.S. Department of Transportation rules concerning tax-included airfare advertising, Travelocity disabled this function. They do still offer a plus or minus 1 to 3 day flexible search option. Rumor has it that they're working on redesigning their flexible search options. Stay tuned.

Soon after the new D.O.T. rules were put into effect, Orbitz began hiding its 30-day flexible search function to some users. Soon after, they went the way of Travelocity and disabled their flexible search, leaving behind only a plus or minus 3 day flexible search option.