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Air travel is expensive. But I’m not telling you something you don’t already know. There are many ways to save money on air travel - some of them will save you a little, some will save you a lot. Before you book your next trip, see if any of these money savings tips are options for you.

• Consider flying out of another airport. Sometimes the nearest airport does not have the best rates. Checking the rates at one or two of the next nearest airportsmay yield better airfare rates than the airport that is closest to you. It may be worth it to travel an extra hour to the airport to save hundreds of dollars.

• If you have a trip planned for the future, butyou aren’t ready to order your tickets yet, sign up for e-mail alerts from all of the airlines that fly from the airport(s) near you to your destination. You never know when an airline may be running a special to your exact destination.

• If you are ready to order your tickets, order them as far in advance as possible. The cheapest airfares sell out quickly. The closer to the flight you buy your tickets; the more expensive the tickets are likely to be. This is especially true around the holidays.

• If you are booking travel during the holidays, consider flying on the holiday itself. The days prior to a holiday, airfares can be the highest they are all year. If you can fly on the day of the holiday, you can get some of the lowest airfares of the year. If you do decide to book on the holiday, try to book as early in the day as possible in case there are any delays so you don’t miss the holiday festivities once you get to your destination.

• If you are phoning the airline directly for your tickets, ask for the cheapest fare, not just the fare for coach. There may be a cheaper fare in a better seat, but you’ll never know if you don’t ask.

• Fly on the off days. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and sometimes Saturday are considered the off days (unless it’s around a holiday). If you can fly to and from your destination on those days, you are much more likely to get cheaper flights.

• Check out the fares on red-eye flights. Those flights don’t sell out as quickly as other flights and therefore may have less expensive fares. Sure, if money were no object, the red-eye probably wouldn’t be your first choice, but then again you may sleep your way through the whole flight. That’s always a good way to spend a flight. And if you combine flying on the off days with flying a red-eye on an off day, you may get a real deal.

• Do your homework by comparing rates on the different websites. Travelocity, Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, Cheap Tickets and many other websites have discounted airline tickets as well as discounts on hotels, car rentals, and other things related to travel. Take the time to check out the rates for each website each time you book your travel.

• While you are doing your homework, don’t forget to check out the airline’s websites. Sometimes the airline’s websites have even better deals than the discount sites. All this homework takes some time, but it will pay off in the end with big savings.

• Go outside your comfort zone. You may be used to always flying the same big airline, but if you consider one of the newer smaller airlines, you may be surprised at the savings you can grab.

• Before you book your tickets, make sure that the price you have includes all fees and taxes. If you’re not getting the full price of the tickets including fees and taxes, you may not actually be booking the least expensive airfare.

Now that you’ve saved money on your airfare, there are some things that you can do to help save money in other areas of your flight.

• Find out what the maximum luggage weight is for the airline you are traveling, and make sure you don’t exceed it. If you check in luggage that is over the weight limit, the airline can charge you a fee for each bag that is over the limit.

• If you are driving to the airport, plan to leave early enough so that you can park at one of the off site parking facilities that are close to the airport.

• Ifyou’ve got a college age niece or nephew, next door neighbor or someone in that age range who lives nearby ask them to drive you to and from the airport. You can pay them $25 each way and save a bundle on airport parking, and get door to door service to the airport.

• Take your own snacks. If your airline does serve food, they may charge for it, and chances are it won’t be very good. You also won’t be tempted to pay the high price for the snacks you buy at the concessions after security because you’ll already have what you’ll need on the plane.

• Same goes for your reading materials. Bring your own that you already have at home instead of buying them from the airport stores. A flight is the perfect time to read that book you’ve been meaning to read.

This article on holiday travel has bee brought to you by daily travel air.

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Well some are relieved that the fuel prices have come down a bit, I am one of them. However I remember when I was complaining about $1.35 for Diesel Fuel. Then shocked to find it cost me, something like $2.35 in California about two weeks ago. I hear now it is back down under $2.00 and everyone is happy now? Come again you are happy about $2.00 per gallon, ouch. Well I have been reading a bit and trucking tonnage is down 1% in the last month. That is a lot, very significant, it will be interesting how they brush that figure under the; “Oh the economy is fine, fuel prices do not matter, there is no inflation carpet;” I say baloney.

Any time you raise fuel prices it effects industries. Look at Delta Airlines, they are in dire straights but luckily got a slight reprieve today from GE Capital on their aircraft. They have burned thru all the credit they borrowed which was suppose to the get them out of this turbulence and into the clear September-October skies. Looks like that 600 million is gone in a hurry. Then we see the America West Merger with US Air just in the nick of time; there are issues. Meanwhile the heavies; United, American, Continental are looking to cut costs more than Lorenzo ever dreamed of, of course he wanted to do it to put it in his pocket and raid the pension funds. But really the way things are going in corporate America the Fortune 500 is going to renege on all those pensions anyway. People are scrambling for long-term health care insurance, social security ponzy scheme is a joke and no one is going to be able to retire on the golf course like before.

Back to the issue of fuel, when you wait in line at a gas station and the guy in the Suburban is crying after putting $97.00 in his tank and shaking his head and his kids are saying; ” Dad, what’s wrong?” Well that is about the time that you say; “Houston, we have problem.” It appears that surely we can deal with it and we are dealing with it, but when the tonnage drops a whole percent in trucking in one month and the airline industry cannot get out of its sector rotation tail slide and is looking at a flat spin, that is when you have start discussing sustainability of the business cycle. Oh and by the way, here in China, these folks are doing a lot more driving than you think and they are buying cars and learning a new Chinese word for traffic jam. So, we need to think about things in the US and how we go about our business. We need to focus on efficiency, distribution and the cost of refined fuel. Think on this, because it is not one of those quick fix, get the ball in the center and pull back on the yoke deals.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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