Not just any plane ticket, but a reasonably priced one!
Having made the trip three times now, I'm not necessarily saying I'm like a travel professional, BUT I will say I've done enough slaving over internet sites looking at plane tickets and stressing over my bank account to know a thing or two.
Now, I've generally never spent more than $1400 on a plane ticket to Chile (flying out of Memphis is just expensive.. If you're a lucky person living in Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, or Miami areas, you probably think I'm being scammed on that price.. The truth is, that price is a scam, but it's an industry-wide scam, so what are any of us going to do, stay home?), but I have always gotten the tickets ranging from $1200-$1400 for trips to Chile during their definite low season or else right after the end of their high season.
I have yet to buy a ticket so close to their high-season, and let me tell you, I've come close to peeing myself, like, twice.
There is a specific week that I can see where things in November just go crazy and tickets begin going up from one day to the next by $600. By the middle of December, I could expect to pay over $2000, if I could still find a seat. It seems to stay that way basically through the end of February.
So, having picked a general date to arrive (early, before any of my "obligations" officially begin), I started my search. As usual, the search begins between 3-4 months out. Buying an international ticket too far in advance or too close to the travel time can tack on hundreds of dollars that you wouldn't have originally paid if you had just been more patient/planned better.
There are several things I do when I'm looking for cheap airfare. One of the first things I do is to check the airline sites directly. Sometimes you really don't need all these travel site go-betweens, you just need to stop feeling like the airlines are directly trying to rip you off. I mean, they are, but it's not just them. Priceline and Expedia will do it, too, they aren't as innocent or helpful on international travel as their commercials or William Shatner might have you believe.
Most of the time I can find the exact prices on the airline sites that I can find on travel sites, and sometimes I Can find them cheaper. There is one exception to this rule, and it's the greatest exception ever:
www.studentuniverse.com is amazing. I use them all the time. The trick, sorry for some of you, is to be a student. When you want to first join, they'll ask you what university you go to and they'll verify your enrollment at that institution. Then, you'll have access to the airfare deals they have for students-- some are great, some are just as good as the actual airline sites themselves, so worst case scenario, it doesn't hurt to look. Of course, you can find the deals without signing up and proving your enrollment, but in order to purchase the tickets at the listed price, you will need to sign up. Student Universe also offers a service to find hotels and hostels abroad, if you're just looking into travel and not a full-on move.
Generally, I buy my tickets through Student Universe, although the last time I bought a ticket (for a trip during March 2012), I found the exact same deal on the actual American Airlines website. So just saying, if you have to look around a few hours, for several days, it's worth it if you're broke and saving $300 means something to you.
Another tip, for anyone who hasn't taken an international trip before, is that if you will have flight that you know must connect somewhere (for instance, Memphis International Airport doesn't fly direct to Santiago, Chile, so I have to connect at another U.S. airport first), don't look for a bundle that sells you two flights at once (I.E., I have bought, via Delta and American Airlines, tickets from MEM-MIA, and then MIA-SCL, and then the same way to return). I mean obviously it is helpful, and maybe sometimes a reasonable price,
but when you are willing to mix airlines (saving $300 means something to some people, remember?) and buy your tickets separately, sometimes you'll get a great deal. This time, I'm buying a ticket from Miami to Santiago on the Chilean airline LAN, and my ticket from Memphis to Miami prior to that will be via wherever I find the best deal. I've found that doing it this way will potentially save me almost $1000. Soooo just saying.. do your homework and look things up.
This is especially an important thing to do if you're looking up one way tickets, as my next ticket will be. The reason I say this is because looking up packaged tickets for a one-way trip to Santiago was costing the same amount as a round trip, and somehow that didn't seem fair. By splitting up the trip into two separately purchased tickets, I'll be saving a ton of money and almost cutting the plane ticket price in half.
I don't know about everyone else, maybe it's just because I'm a broke student on a serious budget, but airline ticket shopping is the most stressful part of planning my trip/move. Once I've got the ticket purchased, I always feel like the most terrifying and expensive part is out of the way and the rest of the planning is fun, or at least smooth sailing.
I hope some of these tips help you if you're looking into international travel from a place with a crappy airport any time soon. I sure wish someone would've told me some of these things!
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