Best Online Sites for Booking Cheap or Discounted Airline Tickets

The internet is awash in websites that offer to help travelers book the lowest fares. We take a look at some of the airfare trackers and apps that can track the cost of airline tickets and alert you to some of the cheapest deals available.

01 of 08

Hipmunk

Founded in 2010 and based in San Francisco, Hipmunk -- an About.com partner -- offers customers the fastest, easiest way to plan travel. The site and mobile apps quickly compares top travel sites, using a unique display that makes it easy to visually compare results and choose the best rates. Hipmunk covers travel options ranging from commercial flights to trains to charter flights.

02 of 08

Yapata

Yapta uses price tracking technology for personal travel, where it can track airfare price drops and also advises on getting a refund on the difference of the fare if prices drop. The company, launched in 2007 as the travel industry’s first airfare price tracking and refund alert service, says it has delivered more than $550 million in airfare savings alerts to consumers.

03 of 08

Kayak

Kayak’s website and mobile app enable travelers to compare hundreds of travel sites with one search. Once fares are found, users can choose where to book. Kayak has local websites in more than 30 countries and 18 languages. Each year the website processes more than one billion queries for travel information, and its free mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times. Kayak also has the Explore feature, which allows users to check airfares from their home airport to anywhere in the world.

04 of 08

Airfarewatchdog

Courtesy of Airfarewatchdog

This website offers travelers to receive fare alerts by email when there are price changes based on city-to-city, departure city and arrival city. It also offers fares to the top 50 U.S. cities, a search and compare function and flexible date searches. It also has an iPhone app that handles all these functions.

Continue to 5 of 8 below.

05 of 08

Cheapflights

The real strength of Cheapflights is that it has individual sites for a huge host of different countries. It lists deals, and gives you an idea of what kind of good airfares are out there. They are also pretty good at alerting you to airfare specials. The company partners with a variety of airlines and travel providers to offer cheap airline tickets to travelers’ favorite destinations. Users can browse flights by date, or by destination to find the cheapest time to travel. It will also deliver exclusive deals via email.

06 of 08

Momondo

This global travel search site that makes it easy for travelers to compare the prices on flights and travel deals via searches across leading providers and travel sites offering the best flight prices. The website shows the cheapest departure and arrival dates, the best balance between price and flight time, and reveals how factors such as days to departure and seasonality affect fare prices. Once a fare is ready to be booked, Momondo directs the buyer to the relevant company.

07 of 08

FareCompare

FareCompare updates its fares constantly, using the raw fare data directly from the airlines. The company is able to process it several hours before it is available on the online travel agencies and many times the airline sites themselves. Its system contains more than 30 million airfares and it processes millions of fare changes throughout the day. And users can sign up for track airfares, where FareCompare tracks millions of airfare changes every day and delivers price-drop notifications the instant prices change.

08 of 08

Student Universe

The website offers discounted rates on flights,hotels, tours, groups and more for students and youth. The company gets special low rates negotiated through contracts with dozens of world-class partners and more than 70 airlines. It also has launched an iPhone app that offers a full inventory of student and youth airfares available on the website. Users can use flexible date search options, seeing when cheaper options are available; filtering options by time, price, airline or by student and youth deals; and trip details in-application, including for previously booked itineraries.