Airline pricing is opaque on purpose. MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, EaseMyTrip and Goibibo show you a sliver of reality, all paid to. Here are the techniques travel-deal pros actually use, with no affiliate links anywhere.
The five tactics that actually move the needle
- Use ITA Matrix (matrix.itasoftware.com), Google's airline-pricing engine, free, shows fare construction and lets you search 'one of these airports' for both departures and arrivals.
- Use Google Flights for the price-graph and price-tracking. Skyscanner for 'everywhere' broad searches.
- Search Tuesday afternoons; fly Tuesday/Wednesday/Saturday, historically cheapest days for IndiGo, Air India and Vistara routes.
- Book international 49-90 days out, domestic 35-50 days out. Beyond those windows, prices flatten then rise.
- Subscribe to SecretFlying and Premier Traveller (free email lists) for error-fare alerts. One or two great deals a year pays back the time.
On IRCTC for trains
IRCTC's tatkal, premium tatkal and dynamic-fare quirks deserve their own article. Short version: dynamic-fare AC tiers can be 2-3x the base fare for premier routes, book 60 days out (the standard ARP), and always check the alternate routes via the 'similar trains' tab. Confirmtkt and ixigo give you better waitlist predictions than IRCTC itself does.
