How To Fly Cheap

If you can't fly for free, the next best thing is to fly on a major airline at a reasonable price. There are a lot of people claiming to give you a great price on tickets.  Check their prices against the sources listed below.  If you find anyone that can give you a significantly cheaper price, please let us know so we can check out their prices for our next trip and publish them on this site.

Check the marketplace.

To get a good fare, you need to have a low price target.  The places listed below have historically provided us with good prices.  Remember that no one place will always have the best deal so check out several of the choices on this page.

For flights to EUROPE, try  EconomyTravel.com or Discountfares. They've got great prices, particularly to London.  They also have good hotel prices. 

We have had REALLY good luck at Travelocity. The first time you go there they will let you log in as a guest when you run the Travelocity best fare finder.  This will give you a list of the best fares offered for your destination and list the rules associated with that fare. Sometimes there is a weird requirement like leaving and returning in the middle of the week, but if you're flexible, you can really save some money.   Warning - Be very careful and watch the passenger name that you use.  If you are ordering multiple tickets and don't put in the name of each passenger, the screen defaults to the original passenger's name and the airlines will try to charge you for a name change! 

The interesting thing about Travelocity.com is that they will sometimes beat the airlines themselves. I recently priced a ticket there at $250.  I had a $300 American Airlines flight voucher from one of my past "bumps" that I wanted to use, (and which Travelocity won't accept), so I called the AAdvantage desk and was quoted a price of $400 for the exact same itinerary. (It worked out o.k. in the end, though.  Since I was already armed with a price from Travelocity, I asked what they had available for around $250 and was able to get a price of $270 by flying an hour later in the day.) Since the voucher didn't get charged tax, the final price was lowered to $240.  You could also try using Travelocity's American Airlines Web Fares service.

Hotwire claims that you can achieve major savings on major airlines with specially negotiated Hotwire Hot-Fares!. 

Orbitz.com is another good place to try, and often has the best prices on the web, even better than what is on the airlines' websites. 

And of course, there is always Priceline.com, but be careful here, you have to take what they give you when you bid to get the cheapest deals but you can check prices other ways now also.

 
Travel to and From Washington DC! Round-Trip from $84!