Westjet, Westjet Airlines: Travel for less

In the theme of traveling for less, WestJet is a classic success story. Looking to fill a niche in Western Canada a la Southwest Airlines in the U.S., WestJet took to the skies on February 29, 1996 with a fleet of three aircraft serving five destinations.

Well-managed by four Canadian entrepreneurs, WestJet continued to grow and have financial success in the following years by offering low-cost quality service to an expanding number of Western Canadian cities. Canadian fliers obviously love Westjet, as in 2003 WestJet received the Most Respected Corporation title for Innovative Practices in the third annual survey of Alberta's Most Respected Corporations presented by Alberta Venture magazine. They ranked #1 in High Quality Service and #1 in Customer sevice.

WestJet continues to win awards and forge ahead by giving excellent service at low prices, and in the fall of 2004 ventured into the U.S., adding to its destinations the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa Bay, Orlando, and New York. Service to Palm Springs, Maui, Honolulu and Fort Myers (seasonally) began in January 2005.

Now in 2007, WestJet continues to expand and improve. They boast having the newest fleet of any large commercial airline in North America, with the average age of their aircraft being 2.0 years. And if you like comfort, they feature state-of-the-art Boeing Next-Generation aircraft that are equipped with more legroom, leather seats and live seatback television on the majority of the fleet.

The internet has become the best way to instantly find the best deals on discount airfare. For starters, many airlines have internet-only specials on their sites. In fact, you can subscribe to their newsletter and get alerted to special rates that are often well below the norm. Southwest for one is great for this - I have cashed in on their email specials several times.

There are sites like priceline.com, expedia, travelocity, cheaptickets.com, hotwire and others who constantly check the major airlines for bargains. And even sites that many people aren't aware of like Qixo that checks all available sites for the best rates.

There are also ways to save large amounts of money on airline flights if you're willing to do a little work on your own. Many major airlines have a program where you can go down to the airport and sign up as a standby passenger. If they have a seat left after everyone is in, you get on the plane for a greatly reduced rate. This is particularly useful for students wanting to travel cheaply abroad on their summer vacations. I've seen this work many times. The other little-known way to save on travel is by signing up as a courier. Courier Travel can get you a flight for almost nothing and sometimes even free! The International Association of Air Travel Couriers can get you signed up for this.

Another way to get free flights or free first class upgrades is to get bumped on purpose. There is an art to this - learn more here.

Here's a good link if you want to know how the online discount airfare companies work.

Click Here to See Hotwire's Hottest New Deals on Travel!

Airfare.com Get cheap airfare - super easy interface to quickly search for the best rates on airfare.