cheapest place to get airfare?

[purbeast0]

i have searched expedia and priceline, as well as travelocity, and the prices to where I'm looking to fly are very expensive. I realize that it might just be an expensive place to fly to in general, but I was going to try and look for even cheaper places.

i am going to acapulco in June (5 months away) and it's still looking to run about $650 - $750 per ticket. I figured since it was pretty early in advance the price would be much cheapter than that. however it is not. i will be flying from baltimore, MD most likely, or possibly from DC or Dulles in VA.

i was just wondering if there are any other cheaper ways to get a flight there. I was looking to spend about $500 on a ticket if possible, but right now it's not looking like that is going to happen.

 

[iamwiz82]

Prices will still be high right now, and the will lower until late April/early May, I would say, and then they will rise again.

Have you tried the indiviual carriers? They tend to be competitive with Expedia and the like now.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

check with a travel agent or maybe a site like travelzoo

 

[dullard]

I tend to find that most online places have prices that are only a couple dollars apart. The exception is with individual airline websites. I've found those to be significantly cheaper at times.

I also tend to find the best deals starting ~3 months prior to the trips. I rarely find any specials before that and thus the prices are often high. For some reason everyone recommends buying as early as possible, but I've never found this to be the best price. Maybe I'm just odd though.

 

[conjur]

Have you adjusted the day of the week (and even the time) for the departure and/or return?

 

[TravisT]

Yeah, as some have already mentioned, a lot of times it can be cheaper to go directly to the airlines websites.

But here are some others that i've found useful before:

expedia.com
hotwire.com
cheapairfares.com

Hope that helps!

 

[ActuaryTm]

Originally posted by: conjur
Have you adjusted the day of the week (and even the time) for the departure and/or return?

Orbitz is rather nice for this, as one can select select up to three days before and after (simultaneously) for both leave and return dates, and have the results presented in a 7x7 matrix by lowest price.

Example.

In general (other than high demand fly dates - holidays, and such), the best deals will most likely be found 2 to 3 weeks before departing.

 

[UDT89]

traveling on thursdays and mondays are good.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

Step 1:
Get a general feel for the pricing

expedia
orbitz
hotwire
etc.

Step 2:
Check out other carriers by visiting their sites

southwest
independence air
air tran
etc.

Step 3:

Keep an eye on fares for a couple days to see if there is much fluctuation (they can change VERY frequently). Once you have a good feel for the appropriate price, buy directly through the carriers site (not orbitz, expedia etc.) (those sites charge a bit more usually). If you find a good fare, some airlines will allow you to reserve it at that price for 24 hr to think it over. You can just do this over and over and keep looking for cheaper fares.

Step 4:

Profit! (obviously)

 

[Spydermag68]

Do not use Orbits. Cendent outsourced most of the programming to India.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Include a saturday in your stay and you'll save cash that way... Other than that, it's luck of the draw depending on if they're running 80% of the fleets. Usually expedia, travelocity, travel agents, etc are all pretty close to the same rate unless you go through priceline or hotwire cause they actually buy tickets in bulk and get a group rate.

 

[thegimp03]

Travelocity and Expedia have good fares. In my experience, Expedia is cheaper.