Cheap deals abound on the Web

In the current travel climate, travelers have to do everything they can to keep expenses down. The airlines are downsizing, which is leading to fewer seats. More demand for those seats is leading to higher fares.

An easy way to scout for low fares is to let your computer do the work for you. Southwest’s Ding program gives you desktop notices of sales that are available only to customers who download the program.

American’s DealFinder desktop program allows users to enter a chosen itinerary and an ideal price. The program will notify you if your price is met, but it also tells you the cheapest available price on the route.

Checking alternate airports can be another way to save. Some travel Web sites allow you to select nearby alternate cities when searching for a fare.

Many sites also allow you to choose a range of dates for travel. If you don’t think you can be flexible with your dates, you still may want to test the option because you may be swayed if the fare difference is great enough.

It will be tough to find deals to popular spots like Hawaii or Europe this year. Both ATA and Aloha have shut down, and that has limited the competition to Hawaii. When competition goes down, prices go up.

While we expect that airfares to Europe will go down for the slower fall and winter seasons, surcharges and fees are high.

When we recently checked round-trip fares for mid-October travel from Dallas to London, the cheapest base fare was $385, but the fuel surcharge alone was $426 round-trip, and taxes and landing fees were an additional $174. That comes to $985.

The range of fees tacked on to European destinations varies by airline and by city.