Armed with these basic guidelines you can now start using the best travel sites to find the best fares. First try searching the best aggregator sites which are search engines that search multiple travel websites at the same time. The best aggregators for airfares as of now are Kayak.com, Mobissimo.com and Momondo.com.
After you have found a great fare with an aggregator you should also check directly with the airline's website to see if you can get it even cheaper there. And you could also do a search on Google for 'promotion codes' along with the name of the airline. Sometimes you can find a special running for the itinerary that you want, and you can only use this code on the airline's website.
Now it is time to check to see if the aggregator sites missed a budget airline due to the fact that many budget airlines do not allow themselves to be searched by the aggregators. Southwest Airlines is a prime example. You can do this by using Whichbudget.com. If you discover that a budget airline that wasn't covered by the aggregator sites flies the route you need, then go to that airline's website and get a price. Sometimes it will be lower than anything that you found in your other searches.
If you follow these simple steps and use the recommended best travel sites you can easily save yourself a lot of money booking your own airline tickets. And in these difficult economic times, who doesn't want to save money whenever they can? Good luck!