How to pick flight dates and airports?

[Exterous]

Long story short, my wife and I are considering a trip to Spain later this year or next year. Both our works are fairly flexible with time off so we can pretty much go any time we want. Plus we are willing to fly into pretty much any airport in Spain from DTW, O'hare, or Toledo. Does anyone have any tips for finding cheap flights when you don't have firm dates or airports? (Using the 'guess and check' method is a bit tedious). About the only time we don't want to fly is before Sept or from November through mid Feb.

Plus, while we have both traveled to Europe before, this is the first international trip we have planned solely on our own, so any additional input is welcome

 

[DeviousTrap]

Text

 

[KK]

I would just look for best deals straight from the airlines themselves. I believe most good deals will have a limit to how far out you can book a flight for. Like looking for something in September, it's too probably too early now. But just keep an eye open just in case til you get closer. I would really start looking around 3 monthes in advanced.

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: DeviousTrap
Text

Yeah, I saw that, but when you add in 3 departure cities with 4 arrival cities and time increments of only 30 days thats still (assuming only 6 months where we want to travel) 72 combinations to be checked per website

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: KK
I would just look for best deals straight from the airlines themselves. I believe most good deals will have a limit to how far out you can book a flight for. Like looking for something in September, it's too probably too early now. But just keep an eye open just in case til you get closer. I would really start looking around 3 monthes in advanced.

Thanks. I noticed the rather large fees associated with using the travel sites.

I guess we might have to narrow down our destination cities

 

[Parasitic]

What if you called up your local travel agent to inquire about stuff like when the fares are typically the cheapest and pick out your choice of airlines or route?
Then you at least have an idea of when you want to leave.

 

[2Xtreme21]

The cheapest flights will be to the two biggest airports in the country: Madrid (MAD) and Palma (PMI). You'll most likely be flying in to Madrid, so I would pretty much just say that is your arrival city. Not much, but it's a start.

 

[Mill]

www.kayak.com