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<\/span>The hardest part of international travel on a budget is getting there.\u00a0 Finding cheap flights can be daunting, especially if you have a job or other obligations to work around and can’t be as flexible on dates.\u00a0 I was faced with this very predicament this summer when invited to London<\/a> at the most expensive time of year.\u00a0 I only had 6 days to spare and the usual <\/span>Expedia<\/a><\/span> and Priceline searches were turning up flights at around $1300 RT.\u00a0 YIKES!<\/p>\n That was a bit steep for 6 days, so it was time to get creative.\u00a0 Here’s what I did.\u00a0 I’ll let you know, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but this ended up saving me over $500 on flights.<\/p>\n <\/span>1- Check Large Discount Travel Websites<\/strong>–<\/p>\n <\/span>Skyscanner<\/a><\/span>, Travelocity, Hotwire, Priceline (though even naming my own price was pretty unhelpful for this particular flight), and <\/span>Expedia<\/a> are good jumping off points.\u00a0 You never know what you may find.<\/p>\n <\/span>2- Check The Airline Directly<\/strong><\/p>\n After doing a preliminary check on the discount websites, find the cheapest flight and compare it with the airlines own website. Often times, the airline website will offer a better deal than the discount websites.<\/p>\n *If you’ve already satisfied with the airfare you’ve found, you can go through cash back sites like <\/span>Ebates<\/a> to save even more.\u00a0 Almost all major airlines work with them. If you want to save even more, read on.<\/p>\n <\/span>3-CHECK SMALLER REGIONAL AIRPORTS<\/strong>–<\/p>\n Normally flights in and out of smaller regional airports are much more expensive than their bigger counterparts, but it never hurts to try. This is actually where my search got interesting.\u00a0 I checked the Sanford\/Orlando airport and found out about several UK and European carriers that I’d not heard of before.<\/p>\n <\/span>4-<\/span>CHECK THE WEBSITES FOR AIRLINES THAT FLY INTO YOUR REGIONAL AIRPORT-<\/strong><\/p>\n This is where I discovered Condor<\/a>, Thomas Cook<\/a>, Monarch<\/a>, and Thomson<\/a>.\u00a0 Monarch and Thomson only fly round trip out of the U.K. to the U.S. so they are more helpful once you’re already abroad.\u00a0 They also offer very cheap flights to the rest of Europe from the U.K.\u00a0 If you play around with the dates a bit, sometimes the round trip tickets are cheaper than a one way return ticket and worth getting and just not using one leg.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Condor<\/a> and Thomas Cook were really the most helpful.\u00a0 Neither of those sites will let you book a round trip ticket originating in the states, but if you book two separate one way tickets it works.<\/p>\n