Farecast and Kayak - BKM (Best Known Methods) of booking travel online

It's been a while since I blogged about my travel. I've been swamped with some life transitions... for the better I hope.

Recently, I've been helping with several friends and relatives with their travel hunt. I thought I share the rules of thumb and steps to follow here:

1. Don't keep querying the same dates and flights. Familiar with Priceline.com? Yes, all your activities are tracked and these airlines form alliances (i.e. Star Alliance) to not only give you benefit program but they share data.
   
2. Use Farecast.com to get an idea on whether you should book your travel now or you can wait it out.
   
3. Use a meta travel search engine like Kayak.com, to get multiple price quotes at one instant. Remember, don't do it one by one, your activities are being watched and shared. There are many meta travel sites but I just love the usability in Kayak.com

Another thing I've been asked is to do parallel search. Meaning this is your way out if you have already searched for the same route, and similar dates too many times and travel industry is determined to get you (or your IP).

What this means is get your friend to do the searches for you, and 8/10 times your friend will get a lower rate. You can then just ask him to help you book the itinerary.

Hope this helps!