Auction or discount sites— If you've got a little wiggle room on when you need to be there, and don't mind dabbling in a bit of the unknown, consider using an airline auction or discount site. Priceline.com and Travelocity.com offer airline tickets at deeply discounted prices, with a couple of catches. You can't select your flight times and you won't know your airline until after you buy your ticket. Here's how they work:

Travelocity.com allows you to enter your destination and travel dates. Travelocity then returns the best fare it finds for that route. You will have option for searching like flight only, flight + hotel, flight+hotel+car. If you purchase a ticket from Travelocity, you will be flying on one of major airlines: Aer Lingus | Air France | American Airlines | Austrian Airlines | BahamasAir | British Airways | Continental Airlines | Czech Airlines | Delta Air Lines | Emirates | Iberia | Icelandair | JetBlue | LAN | LOT Polish Airlines | Mexicana | Northwest Airlines | Qantas | SAS | United and Lufthansa | Virgin. Travelocity also offers both vaccation packages and last minute packages.

Priceline.com works a bit differently. You tell Priceline when and where you want to go, and what price you are willing to pay. Usually within 15 minutes, it will tell you whether an airline has accepted your price. But beware: if your price is accepted your credit card will automatically be charged. Like Travelocity, Priceline guarantees your ticket will be on a major U.S. carrier.

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