<p>We rarely fly, so I haven’t had much experience searching for flights. </p>
<p>I am looking at the possibility of a round trip flight for a family member right after Christmas.</p>
<p>And then there is the possibility of looking at more flights soon for college accepted students days, and future trips to and from college. </p>
<p>Where/how do you find the best deals? </p>
<p>I use kayak.com. They have a feature where you can check surrounding airports and also surrounding dates. Southwest Airlines is not in their data bank, so I check that separately.</p>
<p>Fly Southwest 90% of the time - it gets me a better fare about 90% of the time, without even taking into consideration the two bags checked free policy.</p>
<p>I ended up having to book a trip the Friday evening before Thanksgiving, for travel between Chicago and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas on Sunday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I expected to pay at least $1000 RT. It was $510 RT on Southwest… again the week of Thanksgiving. And both legs of each flight were on time, in fact early for three of those legs.</p>
<p>We are also fans of Southwest. The actual flying experience isn’t great in my opinion (competing for seats), but the flexibility of changing flights with no penalty and being able to check bags free makes up for that. I have the credit card that gives me SW points, so we’ve already gotten a few free flights.</p>
<p>And you can sign up for Bing with southwest. You choose the cities you have interest in, and get notices about fares.</p>
<p>There are sites to help. The above mentioned Kayak works. Pricing wise, Southwest has done a masterful job convincing the world that they have the cheapest fares. For most of the routes I fly … SW does NOT. It is competitive because of the free bags, but not always cheaper. In addition, a number of credit cards offer free bags on the affinity airline. In certain routes, SW is a pain with planned cancellations to merge planes. Between Texas and California, and within those states, SW is rarely the bottom feeder. With free upgrades, the choice between the jolly cattle car and the others is easy. The value of a chosen seat is in the eye of the beholder. </p>
<p>There is a rumor that buying tickets on a Tuesday around midnight gets the best deals, I think it is mostly about the day flown. </p>
<p>You have to have your dates months in advance so that you can get decent rates. My dd tries to fly when there is less impact to business people like late evening hours. I book Southwest as well and book very early for my kids’ college finals and breaks. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think you mean DING??</p>
<p>Our most traveled routes on SW are Chicago to Boston/Houston/LA; they are almost always cheaper on SW, and often many, many flight choices every day. I also prefer, in some of these locations, flying in/out of the smaller airports such as Midway (over O’Hare), Hobby (over Intercontinental) and Burbank (over LAX). </p>
<p>^^
The proof it pays to compare. I end up buying tickets on SW as their credit policy is great. The fact I always have credits attest that I found a better value later. My point is that blindly believing SW is the cheapest because it’s lacking amenities is not wise. Obviously, they are very successful and even among people with HyperUber Platinum cards. However, SW used to be much better. And used is the important distinction. </p>
<p>I was born in SW backyard. My mother loves SW. My dad always tried to avoid them at all cost and preferred to drive to DFW. I am ambivalent. </p>
<p>Right ding! Not bing!</p>
<p>Xiggi brings up a good point. I’ve gotten the very best airfares when I’ve flown on Tuesdays and Thursdays. </p>
<p>It also helps if you can be flexible about travel,dates and times…and also have multiple airports from which to choose.</p>
<p>I do think because Midway is a major hub, it helps us with the better fares on Southwest. But then again, O’Hare is a major hub for United, and again, Southwest almost always beats United’s fares for the places we travel most. </p>
<p>Southwest finally started flying into Maine, but very rarely are their fares cheapest. I don’t think they’re trying to attract business from Mainers! </p>
<p>The recent merger between AirTran and Sputhwest has opened up a lot more direct flights from a lot more places for Southwest. For us…the two free bags make it worth the proce. We have a kid flying here for Christmas who needs his second bag to take home his presents (we send him with an OLD suitcase that can be thrown away).</p>
<p>I always research Kayak and I do also look at Expedia and Orbitz but I usually always book direct with the airline. I try to use airlines where I have mileage but with the changes in how airlines award points and the lack of ease in getting to use points, not so important any more.</p>
<p><a href=“http://matrix.itasoftware.com”>http://matrix.itasoftware.com</a></p>
<p>This site is used by travel agents and is the most comprehensive site out there, but it doesn’t include Southwest. You can plug in a lot of variables to see what is the best deal.</p>
<p>Yes, I use the website in post 14 to search and then book directly with the carrier I prefer flying. United has worked pretty well for us, so that is mostly what we fly. Had flown American for a few years but love that UAL has more nonstops between the cities I prefer. </p>
<p>If you are at all flexible, I believe that google flights <a href=“https://www.google.com/flights/”>https://www.google.com/flights/</a> uses the ITA data (I read that somewhere) but presents it in an easier to use format. Once you put your info and an initial guess at dates into google flights and hit enter, you get results and a tiny bar graph icon (which is easily overlooked) appears to the right under the dates and before the results. That little bar graph is the best thing ever. Click on it and you will see a bar graph showing the fares on your route for as far in the future as you want to go. I usually play around with it (look at both legs of a round trip as two one ways to find best dates for each) . Just find the shortest bar on the graph that coincides with a date that works for you and click on it and it will show the flights and airlines. You can’t book on google, but then you go to the airline book there. It will show options that even the particular airline computers won’t but once you know about the flight you can find the seat at the price shown. I use it for domestic flights all the time. It answers questions like what is the cheapest day in June to fly to see relatives this year, and so forth. .</p>
<p>Day of week matters, as does departure time in the day. Price is dictated by supply, demand, need for flexibility. </p>
<p>High demand times to avoid:
<p>Low demand times:
<p>How to shop:
Surf for fares on Expedia, Travelocity, etc, but BUY THE TICKET DIRECTLY FROM THE AIRLINE’S OWN WEBSITE. For SW Airlines, u can only surf & buy directly from them</p>
<p>Use flights.google.com to get an idea of what the fare is for the dates you want. They don’t show southwest - so you’ll have to check that separately. Google also shows you that the fare could be lower if you left a day early, returned a day later etc - so if you are flexible about your dates, that helps. And yes, if you are flying midweek, fares will typically be lower.</p>
<p>Southwest is not always the cheapest - if your dates are fixed, it might be better to go with another airline. But if you think the dates might change, southwest’s cancellation policy/change policy helps. Sometimes, if I am booking tickets for the kids for a holiday break months in advance, I use southwest because I know the kids will call and want me to change from a wed flight to a tuesday flight at the last minute :)</p>
<p>About booking the actual flights - keep looking. I do find that the fares usually drop a bit tuesday night into wed morning. If you kind of observe the patterns over a week, you will know what a "good " fare is for the route you are looking at and then you can buy.</p>
<p>Another site that is easy to view options… hipmunk.com You can sort by “agony” which is a combination of price and duration 
</p>