Make no mistake, preparing for an inexpensive vacation is seriously hard work. As you go to work, consider your savings as your well-deserved wages for your yeoman’s labor.

The experts agree, by the time you find the least expensive airfare to your resort destination, you will need some serious rest and relaxation. Booking inexpensive airline travel is not quite as complicated as coordinating a Space Shuttle mission, but it runs a very close second, because it demands some proficiency with multi-variable equations and a great deal of good luck. Therefore, start your shopping early and continue shopping until you feel perfectly satisfied you have found the greatest value. Keep in mind that “value” is not synonymous with the very lowest rock-bottom, mega-discount, carry-your-own-baggage and help-fly-the-plane price. Instead, you find value when you strike the perfect balance between low price and decent service. You see why balancing the equation requires some delicate calculations. The experts and veterans strongly recommend…

Seriously, aggressively work the web… and make it work for you. Start at Kayak.com, because the mega-site gives you a head-start on comparison and contrast among carriers—their departure and arrival times, layovers, fares, and fees. Make sure you read all the caveats and quid pro quos as you search, and keep an open mind, because kayak.com quotations set the baseline for more comparisons. After you look at kayak.com, go to travelocity.com and expedia.com, carefully clicking on their “hidden” discounts and other promotional gadgets. When you have found the best value on all the big sites, you have reached the first benchmark in your process.

Next, go right to the sources. Several major carriers do not work with the travel sites, most notably Southwest Airlines, which generally has the lowest fares to the most desirable destinations. Financially troubled Alaska and American Airlines also are offering major promotions on their own websites, and these deals do not appear on the mega-sites. If you see promising possibilities on the airlines’ own websites, do not hesitate to call and begin negotiating with their agents. If you have a reasonably large family or you are traveling with friends, you may qualify for a group rate. If you have found a good offer on one of their competitors, challenge the agent to beat it. Finally, for the sake of making sure you have left no possibility unexplored, drill-down on the discounters. JetBlue, Spirit and AirTran will not make you feel like royalty, but you may feel willing to forfeit a pillow and blanket in exchange for a deep-discounted price.

Know when to buy. Although the advice may go against your intuition, the authorities say you should shop early and shop late. In travel-world logic, this advice makes perfect sense. Given their desire to fill their planes, airlines offer incentives to early birds. Check fares up to six weeks before your planned departure. If you see no great bargains, check again a month before departure. If you still see no discounts, look again two weeks before take-off. You are taking a calculated risk, so you must have a rule of thumb to guide your decisions. If you see a discount of 50% or more, you probably should claim it; if the airline does not impose staggering change fees, you may keep spinning the wheel. Check again at the very last minute, because the carriers' desire to fill odd-ball seats drives airlines to sell them at amazingly low prices. The more aggressively you play this angle, the more you must remain flexible, because the best last-minute fares always pop-up on “red-eyes” and very early morning departures.

Membership does have its privileges. Of course, you should cash-in your credit card rewards when they work for you; but extolling the virtues of membership, the experts are talking about your membership in big professional and special-interest groups. The American Automobile Association and AARP should come immediately to mind, and you may discover the benefit of joining “Triple-A” simply for the sake of travel discounts. Some large labor unions and some huge pension plans also have travel discounts for their members. At this stage of your search, you have explored all the most obvious places, so you must start scouting the unexpected ones.

Coupons count. If you are traveling to a resort destination during its “off season,” search the major hotel chains for coupons giving big discounts on travel packages—airfare plus accommodations and car rental. Of course, now that you have become a certified discount travel researcher, just type “travel coupons” into your search engine and prepare for a dazzling array of enticing offers. How can you resist a site named “cheapoair.com”? For better or worse, the site does live-up to its name. Also search by city, because cities that rely on tourism often coordinate special promotions with prominent local hoteliers and their airline partners.

Shopping for deep-discounted airfares, you will get tired and discouraged. However, when motivation flags, remember that every few dollars you save on airfares and accommodations become dollars in your pocket for refreshing beverages, tasty snacks, and souvenir t-shirts.

Photo credit: AIR FRANCE by amadeus fotografi/flickr

Author Thomas Hathaway is an avid traveler as well as afinancial consultant and content contributor to paydayloans.org.uk, a site providing information and advances when you may need an advance to your regular paycheck.