This past year, if you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve probably seen me post something about an absolutely incredible airfare to some exotic place. Want to know how I find these incredible airfares?

First, here are some of the deals I have scored just in the past year:

• $450 from Toronto to Hong Kong on Delta
• $500 from Toronto to Seoul on Delta
• $450 from Vancouver to Seoul on Delta
• $400 from Chicago to Dublin…thrice on American and U.S. Airways
• $350 from Chicago to Cairo on Ethiad

In addition to what I’ve actually booked, I’ve seen several other incredible airfares, including one for $200 from New York City to Mumbai. (This airfare came up just yesterday, but while I was sleeping.)

Where do I find these incredible airfares?

Generally, I find these airfares posted to one of three places:

• FlyerTalk – Mileage Run Deals Forum. This is my go-to stop for extremely cheap fares. FlyerTalkers manage to dig up some incredible deals and you can reap the benefits by taking an occasional peek in this forum.
• The Flight Deal. A curated travel deal site covering New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, and Washington D.C.
• Fare Deal Alert. This is another curated travel deal site covering Atlanta, Charlotte, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Orlando, and San Diego.

In addition to the three places above, I follow @TheFlightDeal and @FareDealAlert on Twitter and subscribe to mobile notifications for each. Twitter’s mobile notifications send a text message to my mobile every time either of these accounts sends out a tweet.

That’s great, but how do I get to Toronto… or Vancouver… or Seattle?

Because I’m always traveling for work, I am generally able to fly to most cities using my employer’s flexible trip benefit. This gives me many options when it comes to booking these incredible airfares. If you’re also a consultant or travel for work, see what your employer’s flexible trip policy is; you may be able to tack a leisure trip onto the end of a business trip. If you don’t travel for work, don’t worry; if you live near one of the large cities covered by either The Flight Deal or Fare Deal Alert, you can watch their web pages and subscribe to their twitter feeds and you’ll certainly see something interesting soon.

Readers, do you have other sources for finding incredibly cheap airfares? Post them in the comments. Also, if you like this post, click the link on the top right-hand side of this page to subscribe to this blog!