Have you ever wondered how to get free airplane tickets? The airline industry is notorious for offering airplane tickets are ridiculously high prices. Yet smart travelers know how to fly on the cheap and at little to no cost. With the rising costs of fuel, the airline industry is taking a beating. Airlines are struggling to make razor-thin profit margins while competing to keep airfares as low as possible. But it is getting more and more difficult to find reasonably priced airfare in this day and age, as airlines raise their prices.

Airfares have increased significantly over the years. But did you know that there are ways to fly for free? For example:

• Give up your tickets on standby.
• Rack up airline miles using your credit cards.
• Redeem points for rental car, hotel, and previous airline flights.
• Sign up for subscriptions or make a purchase in which airline tickets are offered for free.
• Sign up for a timeshare tour. Yes you will need to spend part of your time with the people that are providing the sales pitch, but then you will have the rest of your time to vacation or do other things.
• Sign up for an airfare discount program. You may have to pay a monthly membership fee but you will get offers from time to time for extremely low-cost, if not free, airplane ticket vouchers.
• Bid for low-cost airplane tickets on auction websites or online classifieds.

This list is by no means exhaustive.

What's the Catch?

Flying for free is not easy. If it was easy for just anyone to claim free airplane tickets anytime they want, then everybody would be doing it and the airlines would be out of business.

On the contrary, getting free airline tickets requires deliberate planning, shopping around, and research. It may be coupled with the purchases of other items. Also, more than likely you may not get to fly on the flight of your choice. You may have to take connecting flights with stop-overs.

But at the end of the day, the effort is worth the cost savings in airfare alone!