Cheap flights - How do you find them?

I am a poorly-traveled person looking to go to Europe in spring/early summer 08.  I'm freaking out because it seems as though flights in early June are about 600-800 each way for the absolute cheapest.

Do any of you seasoned travelers have any tips for flying the cheapest?  I'm talking less than $1000 round trip, and I'm departing from Chicago.  I'm flexible on the month, day of the week and time of day, also flexible on which country to fly in and out of, but looking to see Germany, France, some countries around there.

orbitz.com or STA travel.  you'll do better if you travel in april or early may...prices in june tend to be higher.  also, look for flights going through iceland on iceland air...they usually have cheaper flights.  finally, you'll probably be able to get a cheaper flight if you fly out of NYC...can you get a decent flight from Chicago to New York?

i've flown from DC to europe 3 times in the last three years (twice to paris and once to dublin) and i never paid more than $750 roundtrip for a ticket. 

 

good luck! and have fun on your trip 

This probably won't help you much.
But my dad is the regional manager for Japan Airlines so he gets free tickets and we get discounted airfare. xD

I know flights start getting more expensive around the summer time due to people getting out of school and such.  I'd suggest going in the spring.

Gadzooks - unless you want my address to send free tickets, not helpful.  LOL just kidding.

Yes, spring is when we'll be going.  Maybe May would be better than June.

I've had good results with travelocity.com and expedia.com.  I hope you find what you're looking for!

I usually google.

All those sites mentioned above are pretty good. If you really want to go during June, you can try to get the last min deals but they tend to make your schedule crazy..

And if you take ones with pit stop, they are usually cheaper.

-Lemon Jello

www.kayak.com

Use the travelocity, orbitz, and cheap tickets sites as a "search engine".  Find the lowest fare on those sites and then go directly to the airlines site.  90% of the time it will be a few dollars cheaper...since the search site isn't getting their cut.

I don't know where you live, but skybus is offering 10-70 dollars a ticket if you fly to certain places!

So far Kayak and 1800FlyEurope have had the cheapest options and even with zero layovers.  This is great, thanks guys!  I have even found round-trip to London for less than $700 including taxes.

crazienko - I hadn't heard of skybus before - they are only domestic within the US but I will definitely be checking them out for domestic flights.  Thanks!

flying cheap is great - just remember you get what you pay for, so with discount tickets you might not be able to change dates etc if something has to change. You also may not get frequent flier points etc. Therefore if you are booking so far in advance you should make sure you also get travel insurance in case you have to cancel because you are sick or something. If you find tickets cheap on one of the portal bookers like orbitz or whatever, you can still often get the tickets by going directly to the websites of the airline. (just read that rdgatewood said this too!!) You might also just be trying to book TOO early. Usually it is difficult to book more than 6 months in advance.

a great site is www.whichbudget.com i don't konw about interconntinental flights, but in europe it is really useful as it has both destinations and depature city options then says which budget airlines fly there. Unless you are able to get student/youth railpasses trains in europe are pretty expensive unless you book well in advance. especailly in germany.

have fun planing your trip

www.cheapair.com

also, I second that you get what you pay for! :)