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What websites do you use, with the best deals for air travel?
Last minute deals?
Is it true that you can get cheaper flights on certain days
of the week, if so which ones?
How long should you stay to also get the best deal available?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Airfarewatchdog.com
but for US routes I can't beat SWA (Iflyswa.com)
friendly competent staff
FREE BAGS
Fast seating (No 10 zillion carry-ons to stash, and no boZo's looking for their exact seat - take a seat and let's get going )
FREE changes / travel credits if you don't use your flight. I often buy tickets that I 'Hope' to use (when on sale), then if something changes, you have a YEAR to use those $$ and NO FEES, applies to current fares, not your bargain...
I like Kayak to search for flights but the best domestic (US) flight deals I get are via emails from Southwest and Jet Blue. If you are looking for last minute travel, get the weekly email from Travelzoo. They have some crazy domestic and international bargains if you are flexible and can go with one month (or less) notice.
We really don't go by deals, we fly Delta most of the time because of our status. It's usually within $20 of another airline, so it really makes no big difference. We're flying to Turks & Caicos on Sunday, using miles, and just received an email saying we're both upgraded to first class. What other airline upgrades reward travelers to first class?
As far as deals, TravelZoo is great. We've booked trips a few days before departing because of deals.
You can also use Bing's Farecast to predict whether or not to buy now or wait. They seem to be accurate.
While Kayak is great, not all airlines are included and when I was pricing out itineraries for my friend so that she can come visit, I found it much cheaper on the airline's website than anything Kayak found.
Once you do book the flight, check out Seat Guru to pick the best seat on that particular flight.
And honestly, the best thing to do is pick an airline (one that has a hub in your city) and stick to it. Sign up for ff programs and rack up the miles. We're very loyal to Delta and have gotten a ton of free flights this year as a result.
One thing to remember, as there is a number of references to Southwest Airlines. You can't compare their prices on any other web site. SW does not participle in any "check rates" sites. So check price at Southwest.com then look around...
One thing to remember, as there is a number of references to Southwest Airlines. You can't compare their prices on any other web site. SW does not participle in any "check rates" sites. So check price at Southwest.com then look around...
Yes, this is what I do for domestic flights. Southwest is the cheapest, they are always giving us free flights and I like that 1 point= 1 flight; they make it easy. And I've read they are the most dependable. I've tried kayak and I'd much prefer travelocity.com. Of all those types of sites I've found travelocity to be the cheapest. Usually the days that are cheapest to fly are Tues, Wed and Thursday.
This has been asked many many times before.
In reality, all these sites carry the same standard airline published rates, plus possibly an "administrative fee" mark up. Yes, you may be actually paying more for a flight when you use these "discount" sites compared to directly with the airline.
An exception may be consolidator fares, generally you have to do some heavy planning for that.
The standard suggestion that is generally offered by this forum (the travelors that know better) - use a good travel search engine that checks all airline fares (ITA is a good site) and be flexible both in time and airport to get the cheapest flight, then book directly with the airlines website.
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