If I am open to travel times, how do I get good deals on flights?

Question

Basically I would love to be offered good deals from Detroit to Philadelphia, round trip, at any random time. Depending on my work schedule or how far in advance I know about the trip, I'd love to find really low prices or have them automatically emailed to me. (My husband and I live in Michigan but my family is near Philadelphia.) Usually I book through Northwest for holidays etc.

Answer 1

find a cute airline pilot to have an affair with

Answer 2

This is what I do..first I make sure I know all the airlines which fly into my destination (go to the airports website) because their maybe regional airlines which don't pop up on the common travel websties, make a list of all the airlines.

Then I go to www.Kayak.com for a general search. This gives me a good estimate about rates, times and days.

For the most part, I have found, you normally get better fares when you go to the airlines website directly. So after searching Kayak, go directly to the airlines site; however, to be sure, go ahead and check your search data against the big three:
www.travelocity.com, www.expedia.com, and www.orbitz.com. I would also check www.hotwire.com before buying to make sure.

However, don't stop there. Fares change all the time and usually go in the following increments - 6-9 months before, 3 months, 21 days, 14 days, 7 days, 3 days and day of. Depending how far in advance you book your flight, check the airlines website periodically before you actual fly, if the price for your flight goes down, call the airline and get a credit for the difference.

As for getting stuff emailed to you, all of the big three have functionality to send the latest info to you, just register. Then register for email updates from the airlines you are interested in. Personally, I get up to 20 a week because I love to travel.

Note: Southwest Airlines does not show up on any of the travel sites, to book them you will need to go directly to their website.

Another great tool is www.bestfares.com, you don't need to be a member to use their discount codes.

Of course, if you are really flexible, Priceline is always an option!

Answer 3

I would look into southwest airlines. Im not sure if they fly to detriot but i know they definately fly into philadelphia. I just got a round trip flight columbus day weekend from NY to FLA for $110. If you go on the website you can sign up for a DING special. It will be placed on the bottom of the screen, and when new deals come up you can check them. They always have specials. But all airlines have deals in which they can email you or you'll get pop ups.

Answer 4

Put the flights you want to take on the My Yahoo "Best Fare Tracker." This is the one I use most. Book at least 30 days in advanced. Check all of the travel sites, but go straight to the airlines website to buy the ticket. The airlines will be $5 cheaper than travel sites like Price line, Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and Cheap Tickets. Check Jet Blue and Southwest. READ ALL OF THE FARE RULES to know what you are agreeing to. Booking travel for mid-week departure and return. Mon-Thurs and Saturday are best. It is also cheaper to buy your ticket on line so you won't have to pay additional charges. The cheaper tickets will be early in the morning or late at night when most people don't want to fly.

Answer 5

I would recommend try book through southwest,
Expedia ,Travelocity or Hotwire you can sign up to all of these sites and receive information to your specific destination you are looking for.Basically they will send you and alert from your home town to the destination you choose when savings come up. That way you can compare pricing and choose the best deal. I was helping a friend find flights for Nov to Florida and its good to really shop around it can save you quite a bit of money. She thought I got her awesome rates. I also had a long distance relationship for a while and expedia,Southwest and travelocity gave us the best deals. Good luck hopes this helps.

Answer 6

I read other people's answers and nothing is as good as Yahoo! as I've found. But it's tricky. Here's how to do it:

Go to Yahoo Travel, then enter your "To" and "From" airports and instead of listing the dates, click on the "My dates are flexible". It will give you the lowest published fares from all kinds of airlines that you won't find elsewhere. I went to Paris from San Francisco for $400 including taxes this way (they have limited to domestic fares only since then, but that seems OK for you!)

If that doesn't work, go to FareChaser which is the tab all the way to the right on Yahoo Travel. That searches all of the "discount" airfare websites all in one so you don't have to search around. That's really good if you're looking for specific dates, though.

I have bought so many unbeatable fares this way. Have fun!!

Answer 7

Sometimes booking directly with America West or United online will provide you with the best fare and you have more choices about departure and arrival based on price, length of flight, etc. I have saved $$ this way and I travel a lot for work.

Answer 8

Priceline.com! You quote your price, airport or hotel if you want a hotel, I am not sure if you can choose a carrier. But the problem here is you cannot choose the departure time of your flight. They will only show your flight details once you already paid for the tickets. Its really up to 50% off!



Check out travelocity.com so you can have an idea how much to quote.

Answer 9

Southwest is you best choice. You can't fly nonstop from detroit but you can connect through Chicago (midway) or Nashville. Flights from Detroit to Philadelphia nonstop start from $80 roundtrip. You can also fly with Airtran Airways. Once again you can't fly nonstop you would have to connect. Airtran stars from $94 roundtrip. Northwest goes nonstop but is very expensive.

Answer 10

Go sit in an airport.

Anything can happen.

If an airline has seats available at departure time they may let them go real cheap just to fill them to make another almighty buck.

Sometimes somebody want a courier to take something for them and they will pay you the price of an airline ticket or more to take their package.

Answer 11

You have to book early! Whichever website you use, booking early always saves you the money. One other trick is to toggle the flexibility option and view their best fares per a day earlier or later because sometimes it makes a lot of difference! Always has with me! Remember to be consistent in the airline to get their frequent flyer miles and get ne of these flights for free sometime!