Cheapest times of the year to fly to SoCal...

[quadaunt]

For those of you who fly into any of the airports in and around Orange County, what times of the year do you find the best airfare? I prefer to fly into John Wayne / Santa Ana as it is closest to Huntington Beach where I stay; however, I would consider other airports in the area if the price is right.

 

[clb79]

It seems like these days is less about a specific time of year as it is when the airlines have really low sales and start fare wars to try to fill their available seats...

Southwest had a sale just last week for 3 days where there fare was based on the mileage between your originating airport and destination starting at 25.00 up to 100.00 each way. It wasn't even 24hrs into their sale that a bunch of the other carriers started matching fares.

Long story short we got round trip tickets from SLC to SNA for 149.00. This week fares are between 200-300.00 for the same dates.

The dates on that sale were through the beginning of Feb with Thanksgiving Christmas and New Years blocked.

Other sales have had similar date ranges so I am assuming that January is a good time to get a deal. Feb and March shouldnt be too bad, then you get into the Spring Break period then summer isnt too far after.

Sept and Oct and the beginning of Nov seem to be other good times to get a decent fair...

If you sign up for priceline or orbitz and sites like that they will notify you of fare sales from your home airport etc, and you can probably find a steal just about any time of the year if it doesn't bother you to keep checking...

 

[clb79]

I forgot to mention Long Beach (LGB) usually has really competitive fares (usually priced between the fares at LAX (being cheapest) and SNA (being the highest).

The airport is really small and is easy to get in and out of. Its only a few miles further from Disneyland than SNA. I know Delta and Jetblue fly in and out of there, not sure who else does.

When we fly we usually compare the fares between LGB and SNA and go for whoever has the cheapest fare.

Ground transportation at SNA is a little more extensive, but LGB does have rental car agencies on site and at comparable rates to SNA sometimes cheaper (literally out the front door of the airport) and they have the shuttle services or you can get a taxi for a flat rate of 45.00 to the DLR area.

 

[Wendi2000]

I just booked the $25 Southwest flights for our trip in December... doesn't get much better than that!!!

 

[jenseib]

I just booked the $25 Southwest flights for our trip in December... doesn't get much better than that!!!

Thats great. I can NEVER find deals on Southwest. I'm sure I just don;t know how to work the site.

 

[pigletforever]

cheapest i can find from Sacramento is 54.00 each way.

 

[Wendi2000]

Thats great. I can NEVER find deals on Southwest. I'm sure I just don;t know how to work the site.

You should download their Ding! program, and also subscribe to their emails or other travel company emails. You will get notified of all kinds of sales as soon as they come out. They only offered this deal for a few days and it's already over...

 

[jenseib]

I used to have Ding, but I couldn;t for the life of me figure it out. LOL!