Booking your own air can save you a lot of money. We’re working on bringing you our deep reviews of the best booking sites to use. In the meantime, here are our top 10 tips to save the most you can on airfare.

1. Timing. Airline systems run on algorithms that continually measure supply and demand, so this is not an exact science. But you should always look at the prices on Tuesdays and Wednesdays versus other days if you’re booking far ahead in the US. If closer in, then check Sunday prices
2. Departure city. Check the flights from all your nearby airports. It may be worth driving further to a secondary airport.
3. Look at buying one-way tickets. The conventional wisdom that it’s cheaper to buy a round trip no longer holds. There may be a cheap one way on one airline and a cheaper return on another airline. What do you care, unless your mileage points are really valuable to you?
4. Budget airlines. Spirit, Southwest, Frontier in the US usually have lower fares than their major counterparts. To Europe and within Europe, you really want to look at Jet Airways, Wow Airways, Ryanair and other budget options. By defaulting to the old standby big brand national airlines, you could be spending a lot more and not necessarily be getting better service, and often getting older planes.
5. Look for hidden costs. Extra charges for baggage, drinks, seats etc can really add up. We really try to fly Southwest in the US whenever we can because of their no charges for bags (not mention no cancellation fees.)
6. Airline consolidators and booking sites. We like Momondo and Skyscanner for deep searching. Google Flights is a really useful tool to see where airlines fly into and out of.
7. Unusual ticketing. There was a time when round the world tickets were cheap and a great way to go on a long trip. They were removed after 9/11, but they back. They’re not easy to find but can be a huge saving to go lots of places.
8. In-country passes. Search for passes for foreign visitors to fly a lot for a fixed price. Like a Eurail pass, these give a fixed period to travel, but you just go ahead on a space available basis for the number of sectors or days you have purchased. These are best booked through alliance partners, and there’s USA/Canada or Africa Airpass from Start Alliance, for example.
9. Airline miles. Look at all your credit cards. You may have a point program you don’t even know about that is earning you points towards a free flight.
10. Open jaw trips. This is an industry term for when you fly into an area to one destination and leave from another. For example, buy a one-way ticket to Paris, drive around Europe and fly back from Berlin. Pick your in and out points based on the airfare, and get a train or rental car in between.

We’ll have more detail on this soon, plus deals from our partners, so please sign up for our newsletter so we can alert you to what’s new!