If you are thinking about taking a trip to this beautiful island in the Caribbean, there are many sites online travel booking sites that offer cheap flights to Jamaica. But, before you begin your journey in finding the cheapest airfare for your trip, you should set a baseline in landing that great deal. In this post, I will lay out three effective steps that you need to take to find the cheapest airfare to Jamaica.

Step 1: Research, Research, Research

The first step you need to take in finding the cheapest flights to Jamaica online is to research what a good price is. If you plan out your trip in detail and conduct thorough due diligence initially, then you will be very glad that you did later. Here are some recommended actions to take:

1. Check to see what the peak travel months are for Jamaica. Peak travel months are mid-December through mid-April and when air flights are the most expensive. Off season months are mid-April through mid-December and when airfares are cut by 20 to 60 percent. A good resource for peak and travel months are the Lonely Planet Travel Guide books.
2. Use sites like Airfare Watchdog to monitor flight deals being offered for this island destination. Another similar site is Smarter Travel.
   These two are used as examples, but if you do a search on the Internet you will find that there are many more airfare comparison sites and travel sites that can help you tremendously in planning your vacation and conducting price watching.

Before you go looking for cheap flights to Jamaica, it helps to know what a good price is. With this baseline information, you will be able to utilize it in conducting a thorough research for your vacation to this paradise getaway. Five minutes of research will give you a solid starting point in your quest for the best airfare deals and vacation packages.

Step 2: Compare Airfare Online

A recommended airfare comparison site is Kayak, which searches and compares over 140 airlines and airfare sites.

1. Go to Kayak, www.Kayak.com.
   
2. Type in your departure airport and the destination airport (i.e. KIN for Norman Manley Airport, Kingston, Jamaica or MBJ for Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, Jamaica).
   
3. Checking the "Include Nearby Airports" boxes under the "From" and "To" fields can increase your chances of getting a cheap airfare.
4. Enter your departure and return dates.
5. Select the number of travelers flying to Jamaica.
   
6. After clicking the Search button, a new page will display the airfare results.

What separates Kayak from other airfare comparison sites are that it displays the cheapest airfares compared to other airfare comparison sites, the comprehensive search filters on the right hand of the page, and the "Get an alert by email" feature, which allows you to receive email alerts when there's a new airfare to Jamaica is found.

Instead of visiting and manually researching through 10-15 individual sites, take advantage of airfare comparison sites like Kayak to find cheap airfare to Kingston or Montego Bay.

After using airfare comparison websites to find cheap flights to Jamaica, another technique is to note the airlines that offer the cheapest or most attractive prices from those sites and go directly to those airlines' websites. Most of the time, the airfare on the individual airline's website is cheaper than those found on the airfare comparison sites. A reason for the price difference is that the fare comparison sites tack on a small 'processing/commission' fee, in return for their partnerships with the individual airlines.

Step 3: Direct Research

1. Go directly to the website of airlines that fly to Jamaica, such as Air Jamaica, US Airways, Delta.
2. Take your time and perform due diligence when searching for the cheapest airfare. Go through the website at least a few times a day, since the airlines will not make any special announcement before selling their tickets. A trick to getting the cheapest airfare, not well-known to many travelers whom end up spending lots of money on airfares, is to search for airfare at midnight when airlines often update their websites.
3. If you travel to Jamaica frequently, or plan to, or even if this is your first time flying to Jamaica, join the airlines' frequent flyer clubs. Airlines have frequent flyer programs that entitle you to benefits. Once you rack up enough points, you can enjoy such benefits as discounts on airfare, priority booking, access to the airline's VIP lounge, seat upgrades, and many other perks that are beneficial to a traveler. Also, enrolling in the programs is free and costs nothing to you.

If you put in a few minutes along with patience and determination, it is simple to travel cheap to Jamaica. By spending enough time researching the various options out there and selecting the best deal for your destination, you won't have to spend a lot of money before you enjoy your vacation. Take advantage of the Internet and use the tips and ideas from this blog on getting cheap airfare to your favorite Jamaican destinations.

Using the combination of your initial research of cheap airfare to Jamaica, airfare comparison sites (such as Kayak), and visiting the airline's website directly, you will be on your way to finding cheap flights to Jamaica.