By YOUNG MONEY Staff
10 February 2011

Buying a ticket to fly somewhere is a painful, annoying and frustrating process. Rates vary among different airlines, some carriers don't list their fares on travel aggregators like Expedia and just when you're ready to buy the ticket it often seems like fares suddenly surged. How are you supposed to get the best deal possible?

The Economist recently tried to tackle the problem and found that there a few ways to ensure you're not getting ripped off when you go to book that ticket to visit your best friend from college in San Francisco or your cousin's wedding in Akron, Ohio.

First, always obey the "eight week rule," when buying tickets: According to Makoto Watanabe, the cheapest time to book a flight is about eight weeks prior to your departure. Moreover, Scott McCartney from The Wall Street Journal recommends buying tickets midweek - Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday - because ticket prices are often much cheaper then.

McCartney has taken the art of buying a plane ticket and turned it into a science; he affirms ticket prices usually fluctuate, with many sales launched Monday nights offering 15 percent to 25 percent discounts on seats. "When airlines want to push through a fare increase, marking up their basic prices across the board usually by $5 or $10, they often do that on Thursday night," he says.

Additionally, airlines tend to have a more lackadaisical approach to inventory control on weekends, "so if cheap seats sell on some flights, prices automatically jump higher" until Monday when fare analysts can decide whether they want to offer more discounted seats. Ultimately, the same ticket that can cost you $199 one day could shoot up to $499 other days, experts say.