How do you get the best airfare?

[Auroraborealis18]

This is what helped me find our fares so close to the trip. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/#search:

 

[baildrk]

Cheapest way we get airfare, me and the wife have 1 credit card each for strictly paying bills. She has 1 airline and I have 1 general card that offers points for what you purchase. We pay bills then immediately pay the card off getting our points. Bonus for my card if I use mine for travel the points get a 25% boost. We recently booked a flight for the 2 of us to Vegas spent $200 dollars round trip(normally would be around $1000 or so) for both of us first class both ways, and we only did the $200 because we used the wife's airline card to get more points because we get a huge bonus for using it to book flights for that airline plus free bags even if we go coach(which we normally do).
It works for us, we always have points since we will always have bills. We have enough points to for our hopeful trip out to Florida this fall if my work situation goes as planned. Last point, even the times when we didn't have a lot of points most airlines these days if you have a mileage card will let you use the points to knock down the price as well, most of the time we get a better deal doing that and getting free bags, then searching hundreds of site to find one that has a slightly lower fare. just my two cents

 

[kathy884]

The nice thing about Southwest is that there are no penalties for rebooking if fares go down and travel funds can be used on another trip within a year. That works great for us because we do a few flying trips a year. If you don't fly Southwest regularly, though, that might not be that great. But given that we fly SW regularly we can book as soon as there is an OK price we are willing to pay and periodically check to see if flight prices come down and build up credits for price decreases to use toward future flights within a year of first booking. We have a Southwest credit card too, so points build up for free travel.

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

we have been flying phila to Orlando (5 times in the last 6 years) and I am positively stocker shocked at this year’s prices.

I know SW releases their airfares for the next batch of calendar dates on May 30.

Should I try to book the moment it is released? Wait a few days? Any tips?

Last year I noticed the price was higher when it was first released and then dropped a few days later.

So confused.

Thanks!!

I live in south jersey and fly to Disney several times a year. While we have a SW CC that we pay anything we possibly can with, we rarely fly SW to Orlando anymore. We save our points to fly to the islands instead.

We've found Frontier to be MUCH cheaper. Now, we are frugal flyers. We do not pay to pick seats or check a bag or bring a carry-on. We make everything fit in our personal items. We usually pay less than $100 round trip on Frontier. And our flights are almost always late. We just plan to never be on time. For us, a family of 5, it's worth the hassle and the uncomfortable seats to save over $1,000.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

I live in south jersey and fly to Disney several times a year. While we have a SW CC that we pay anything we possibly can with, we rarely fly SW to Orlando anymore. We save our points to fly to the islands instead.

We've found Frontier to be MUCH cheaper. Now, we are frugal flyers. We do not pay to pick seats or check a bag or bring a carry-on. We make everything fit in our personal items. We usually pay less than $100 round trip on Frontier. And our flights are almost always late. We just plan to never be on time. For us, a family of 5, it's worth the hassle and the uncomfortable seats to save over $1,000.

Do you fly frontier from Philly or Trenton?

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

Do you fly frontier from Philly or Trenton?

Philly.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I live in south jersey and fly to Disney several times a year. While we have a SW CC that we pay anything we possibly can with, we rarely fly SW to Orlando anymore. We save our points to fly to the islands instead.

We've found Frontier to be MUCH cheaper. Now, we are frugal flyers. We do not pay to pick seats or check a bag or bring a carry-on. We make everything fit in our personal items. We usually pay less than $100 round trip on Frontier. And our flights are almost always late. We just plan to never be on time. For us, a family of 5, it's worth the hassle and the uncomfortable seats to save over $1,000.

I'm waiting for them to release November. I did SW going to Orlando but I need to book my return flight home. I have lots of friends and family that fly Frontier out of Philly and have never had a problem. Hoping I can get a good deal myself out of Philly.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Google flights, then compare with Southwest.
We look at 3 airports-Lexington(20 mins away, hardly ever cheap), Cincinnati (55 mins away, has been cheap lately), and Louisville (1:05 away, mixed results).

In Feb, we flew to Vegas out of Cincinnati on Delta.
In 3 weeks, we are flying to Tampa out of Louisville on Southwest(much cheaper than MCO).
We are flying United out of Cincinnati for an overseas trip in August.

As for timing, I've never found flights very close to the date to be cheaper. We usually buy 3-4 months out. We have the SW, United, and Delta credit cards. American will be next. We don't use Allegiant/Frontier and have no others as options at the 3 airports.

 

[disorganizedchaos]

I search travelocity/Expedia and compare to southwest. For us, Southwest is almost always cheapest especially when we fly as a family. I need that free luggage! I typically start looking at flights 90 days ahead of our trip, checking how the fares seem to be x amount of weeks ahead. What I like with southwest is the ability to check their calendar and see how expensive flights are. I’ve never paid more than $100 each way per person from CT (Bradley) to Orlando. For this upcoming trip I paid $89 pp for the flight down and $94 pp for the flight back. Both are nonstop and both are the flights I wanted. Obviously if you’re more flexible with dates/times you can look for a better deal.

 

[Mrs~Incredible]

I search travelocity/Expedia and compare to southwest. For us, Southwest is almost always cheapest especially when we fly as a family. I need that free luggage! I typically start looking at flights 90 days ahead of our trip, checking how the fares seem to be x amount of weeks ahead. What I like with southwest is the ability to check their calendar and see how expensive flights are. I’ve never paid more than $100 each way per person from CT (Bradley) to Orlando. For this upcoming trip I paid $89 pp for the flight down and $94 pp for the flight back. Both are nonstop and both are the flights I wanted. Obviously if you’re more flexible with dates/times you can look for a better deal.

That’s what sw prices used to be for me, but now 200-300 one way. Yowza. I know it varies like crazy depending on dates and city as well as timing of when you purchase (and their availability)- I’m just trying to arm myself with all the tricks in the book.

Last 2 trips we flew American, about 400 pp round trip. Now American wants 550 pp round trip. For a 2 hour flight.

Homey don’t play that.

 

[disorganizedchaos]

That’s what sw prices used to be for me, but now 200-300 one way. Yowza. I know it varies like crazy depending on dates and city as well as timing of when you purchase (and their availability)- I’m just trying to arm myself with all the tricks in the book.

Last 2 trips we flew American, about 400 pp round trip. Now American wants 550 pp round trip. For a 2 hour flight.

Homey don’t play that.

Holy frogs that's a lot of money! Yuck. If you use Swagbucks you can cash in points for airline gcs. I was able to rack up $125 in Southwest gcs (before I found this board and all their nifty tricks) so while the flights weren't free they were deeply discounted.