Most people know only about "regular" full fares or the "cheap" fares they see advertised in the newspapers. Many other discount fares go undiscovered by average travelers who are under the misconception that the heavily discounted fares they see advertised in the newspaper will not apply to them. They are concerned about being required to fly at inconvenient times, making many stopovers, or other complications and difficulties.

While it is true that the many fares, requirements, and restrictions make it confusing, difficult, and time-consuming to plan an economical trip, in this section we will show you how to remove these roadblocks.

Several kinds of discount fares are available that provide savings off the non-restricted coach/economy fare for a regularly scheduled flight published by an airline. The restrictions usually require:

- Purchase of your ticket in advance.

-Stay a minimum number of days including a weekend night.

-A cancellation penalty.

-A nonrefundable restriction (partial or completely non-refundable).

-A connection or one or more stops.

If you can't meet all the restrictions, see which ones you do meet. Often there are special fares available for each separate requirement. For example, you may be willing to make one or two extra stops to save money instead of time. Also, keep checking the availability of the excursion/Apex fares as your flight date nears. The flight may be only partially booked, and either more cheap seats will become available (if they were sold out earlier) or the airline may waive the restrictions for new purchases at the lower fare. Since airlines can lower the fare to whatever it takes to get passengers to fly, they will always make more of a profit on a filled seat sold at a discount than on an empty seat not sold at all.

For the same reason, we have always been able to change our "nonchangeable" restricted reservation to an earlier flight that is either more convenient to us or may be a better flight. This is done by presenting our ticket to the agent at the gate, who places us on a "stand-by" basis. This allows us a seat on any flight that is not completely booked 10 minutes prior to departure.