Believe it or not, there is no hard and fast rule for airfares. On any given day fares can go up or down for no apparent reason and without regard to how many stops the flight makes. It's much more dependent on which specific airlines have big sales in progress. For example, when Continental is running a sale, flying from Cleveland is great because it's a Continental hub. Otherwise it might be cheaper to fly another airline or even from another airport because the Cleveland's hub status gives Continental a monopoly on many routes. Another story: when I was researching fares for my September Disney trip, the numbers were hovering around $220 RT for a couple of weeks. Suddenly USAirways dropped to $140 with a layover in Pittsburgh. I printed all the various flight options and showed them to my wife that night. She picked the flights she liked best and I tried to book them the next morning. By then the price was back up to $220. A few days later Continental was offering non-stop flights at $177 RT. I went through the whole approval process with the wife again, and by the following morning Continental had raised the fare to OVER $700 for non-stops! A few days later, they went back down to $177 and I booked the fare only to see it drop even further at a later date. The moral of the story is that you should monitor the fares for a few weeks to get a general feel for the intricacies of pricing for your particular route. Best bet is to try several combinations of airports until you find a reasonable fare with an itinerary you can live with.
