By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Everyone thinks they have the secret to getting cheap flights, but the truth is that there is no single flight search engine or website that is always going to show you the cheapest price. Your best bet is to have a few go-to sites that you use to compare flights. One of them will usually have that cheap price you’re looking for, or you’ll quickly realize that they all currently have the same pricing available at that particular time.

Below we offer our list of the 10 best sites to search for cheap flights, whether you are searching for exact dates and times or you have some flexibility and want to keep your eyes open for good deals to a desired destination. (Honestly you could probably just use the first three and be satisfied.) IMPORTANT: Not all airlines show up on all search engines (Southwest in particular), so you may want to check directly with the airlines as well to compare the prices you see on any search engine.

#1. Momondo – Momondo is a “meta” search site, which means you find your travel deal here but book your travel directly with travel providers. This matters little to you as the end user, but sometimes it feels like Momondo finds prices you don’t see elsewhere, and that “meta” search aspect may be why.

A couple features to like in particular:

• “Cheapest” and “Best” and “Quickest” flight options are offered at the top of the search page, with prices and length of flight displayed. This is a nice way to see in a glance your options — for example, if the Cheapest flight is only $20 less than the Best flight but it would take you an additional 6 hours to arrive at your destination, you can quickly take that into account.
• “Flight Insights” give you a nice visual way to see how much you might save if you were flexible with your travel instead of being committed to exact travel dates. (Some other sites actually display the alternate travel dates right in the main search results, which DRIVES ME BANANAS — if I enter exact dates, I don’t mind you suggesting other dates in the way Momondo does, but I don’t want them in my main results, because then I might think I’ve found a great deal only to realize it’s for dates I can’t travel!)