A Brilliant Airfare Tip From Rick Seaney of FareCompare

This appeared yesterday in USAToday and it's such a pearl, I had to direct your attention to it.

In short, Seaney notes that airfares can rise when you buy more than one at a time. Why? Because reservations that include multiple seats will always have the same price. If the airline is releasing, say, 2 seats at a lower price, and you're booking 5, you'll only get the higher price for all your seats.

His method of searching for group fares involves first looking for the number of fares in your group (say 5), getting a price and then clicking away. DON'T BUY at this stage. You then do another search for just one ticket, and if it comes out at a lower price, you add passengers until the price jumps up again. Then you buy some of the seats at the lower rate and some at the higher. Overall, your group saves. Pretty nifty eh? According to Seaney, it also works with groups as small as two.

To read Rick's original piece, click on the link above.