By Beth Klemick
As a traveler, I have no patience for packing or spending hours trying to find the best airfare. For those of you who prefer to shop around, here are some general tips. To begin your research and get an idea of fares to your destination, hit all the big travel website: Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire or Priceline to name a few. Once you find the airline(s) flying to your particular destination check out the airline's website. Best to search and book online if you decide to go with airline directly as you will likely find better rates or discounts online verse speaking with an agent. Check back to websites frequently as rates may change daily, even hourly. And please READ the fine print, some websites for online bookings charge extra fees and have hidden costs that in essence make the "deal" you found not so hot. If at all possible, be flexible, most often the best deals are ones with multiple connections and/or and atypical flight times/hours. Remember this is just some simple advice, I wish there was a science to finding great deals, but mostly it is hit or miss. So, take a deep breath, get comfortable, dive right in and happy airfare hunting.