how do you find cheap flights?

I'm very fortunate that my DH works for a budget airline so we get cheaper flights, the best being standby though of course there's risks to this. So my tip is to marry/get friendly with an employee!! Haha!

check out wizzair com

For long haul I always use Trailfinders. They saved me approx £700 (yes seven hundred!!) recently on a long haul business class flight. I booked in September for travel in January. Always going to the same place to visit family I also sign up for the frequent flier scheme. By next year I shall have enough points for a really cheap flight. The only downside is that I will have to book through the airline which is always more expensive than Trailfinders.

For long haul, the best deals seem to be around the 5 month before travel, time. But that might only be for certain long distance countries?

Some people I know, keep an eye on flight prices almost daily, and then act quickly! It saves them £100's.

That's a good tip, Grannaby, thank you. I wish I'd known this before I'd started looking for the flights I need to go to a wedding. There are bargains all around the dates I want, but my dates stand out as the dearest going! Perhaps I'll get one of my DC to check for me.

A tip I was given recently was to turn on "private browsing" (on a mac, not sure what it's called in windows) when you want to search for a cheap flight. This turns off the cookies (I think - I'm not very techy) so that the website doesn't remember you and jump up the price when you go back to look a second time. You then have to remember to turn off private browsing afterwards otherwise sites like Gransnet and Facebook won't remember you and will ask you to sign in each time. I must admit I haven't tried this myself yet.

thanks for all the tips so far. I hadn't even thought of signing up for alerts - duh! I'm always quite flexible on dates, so that helps, and will be going on a mixture of short and long haul flights over the next year

off to sign up for all the alerts I can find

Veru easily if our dates are flexible. Usually just via Expedia or Skyscanner, always checking with the airline/airport to see that it's the bargain it seems to be. I find it very frustrating though if tied down to a particular date - in fact I believe that the online price stays pretty high once the system picks up that you're searching for something specific.

It all depends on how far you want to travel.
If it isn't that far, as Lillie mentioned Ryanair does have an alert of offers.
But when going further I think that Dial A Flight are great, they will answer your questions and are very helpful. When my late husband was alive, while on our way to NZ, we enjoyed a few nights break in Bangkok at a hotel that they sorted out for us, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Oops ... month in advance
Not sure what happened there?

This is my hobby justonemore, but it doesn't appear to be an exact science, more a case of luck. I've signed up for alerts from the likes of flybe and Ryanair, so I'm ready to jump in when they announce offers. I normally book a minrh ir do in advance, but keep an eye on the dauly fluctuations. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy two singles. Be careful to opt out of all the hiddens extras - insurance, luggage, seat allocation, priority boarding etc.