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Sign up for travelzoo's weekly newsletter if your dates are flexible. Every so often I'll get emails that one way tickets to LAX or SFO are $120. If you're nailed into your dates though or want to fly to a smaller airport, it's tough. I just paid $400/each to fly to Santa Barbara for president's day weekend, and considered that a great deal after what Christmas tickets were going to cost.
I've heard of folks getting cheaper tickets flying out of BWI so be sure to check all 3 area airports. When I was out in Fairfax county had a roommate who flew out of BWI all the time which made no sense to me considering we were 20 minutes from Dulles. Two hour drive in rush hour to save a few bucks? No thanks.
1. Book when it's cheap. Fares vary wildly and sometimes will go on unannounced sales, so sign up for airfare alert emails (Priceline and Farecompare, for instance) and maybe for sale alerts from your favorite carriers (JetBlue and Southwest often do one-day sales).
2. Book at least 2-3 weeks in advance, but not more than 8-12 weeks in advance. That's usually the window in which fares are put on sale.
3. Where you book doesn't matter quite as much as when. Most of the meta-booking sites draw information from the same sources, so they'll all have roughly the same fares. Kayak is probably the most comprehensive, but not by much.
4. Be flexible about where you fly from. BWI is usually cheaper than IAD/DCA, but not always. You might even look as far afield as PHL or RIC.
Virgin America is offering all types of sales these days...definitely worth looking into!
They offer service to the following cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, Dallas/Ft. Worth, JFK, Boston, Dulles, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Cabo San Lucas, and Cancun. Starting May 25, service to Chicago is available, and seats are already on sale for that city.
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IAD and BWI
