<p>D is trying to find a flight to Dallas on the cheap to visit her BGF (best guy friend ). Of course, she hasn’t planned too much ahead and would like to go later in March or maybe shortly after Easter. She is just doing a long weekend - leaving Thurs. late afternoon, returning later Sunday.</p>
<p>To HER surprise, flights were more expensive than expected when finally sitting down to look last night (I warned her to plan ahead!!!). She was looking at $450ish for a flight from Ohio to Dallas. More than she really wants to/can spend.</p>
<p>I’ve used Hotwire for hotels - any cautions using it for flights??? Neither of us has used Priceline for anything - is it worth checking out? Or is Priceline more successful when you are closer to the date???</p>
<p>She has checked the standard sites - Kayak, Travelocity, etc. Any other suggestions for a trip probably only 4-6 weeks out???</p>
<p>Keep checking prices as they tend to come down about 30 days out, but you are dealing with prime spring break time so everything is going to cost more. Biggest issue with Priceline is lack of control over flight times. It’s very possible that she could fly out at 11:00PM on Thursday, arrive at 4:00AM Friday. Knowing your airport schedules is a big advantage. When we flew out of smaller airports, they closed at 11:00 PM so we knew that we would never get in later than that flying Priceline so that helped. Also, they can and do reschedule flights, often, and that can be an issue with such a short time frame. If she is ok with losing a day to save money, it’s worth trying. I also have to say that I have had minimal success with Priceline in the past 5 years and the fees and “taxes” applied often end up costing as much as a regular flight/hotel, etc.</p>
<p>I can’t remember where I saw this (otherwise I’d post the link) but apparently there’s a sweet spot in buying tickets – you don’t want to be too close to the departure date, but you don’t want to buy them too far out either. And one article said that airlines “dump” (sell at a discount) tickets on Tuesdays (vs on the weekends when there are no deals to be had). Maybe have her try searching prices at different times of day and different days to see if the price changes. Good luck!</p>
<p>I saw a list on farecompare.com of the supposed “sweet spots.” I think American was 21 days and some of the others were as little as 14 days. I had booked a non-stop flight out of DFW to Las Vegas last week, leaving at 8 p.m. on Sunday. The flight was canceled (no reason given as to why) and I was not able to get out until Monday afternoon. I recommend booking earlier flights so if this happens, it may still be possible to get on a flight the same day, especially if she needs to get back at a certain time.</p>
). Of course, she hasn’t planned too much ahead and would like to go later in March or maybe shortly after Easter. She is just doing a long weekend - leaving Thurs. late afternoon, returning later Sunday.</p>