Give yourself enought time to research - 6 months for international trip, at least 4 weeks for domestic trip - and check EVERYDAY!
C.J. and I spent our last winter holidays in Korea. For the trip, we started searching for airplane tickets late May and booked tickets in June. When people were paying $1200-$1300 per person for a two-stop flights, we paid $980 per person for a flight that made only one stop at San Francisco.
I just booked a round trip to Newark, NJ to visit my friend, Gao Jing in NY. I've been checking American Airline website and Priceline.com almost everyday for the past four weeks. This morning, for the exact same flights, AA.com was selling them at $329.20 while Priceline.com was selling them at $188.20 which includes tax and all the fees. Not what I expected to find on a Monday!
The secret of finding good deals? Tenaciousness.
