How to get a Steal on Airfare

[OakLeaf]

The other thing is that you usually save a LOT of money by flying at ungodly hours. If you're capable of getting to an airport at 4 a.m. to fly at 5:30, and getting home at midnight on your return trip - just for example - the fare can be half or less of what it costs to fly at normal human hours. I'm not physically capable of it myself, but I sure have looked longingly at those fares.

And finally - use the travel agent sites to do your comparison shopping, play around with different schedules, etc., but make your final booking on the airline's own site. We've found out the hard way that if you can't make your own reservation the way you want it, there's a reason. The first two issues we had were with brick-and-mortar travel agents, but more recently we've had an issue with an online travel agent too. Trust me, you do NOT want to arrive at an airport in another country where you don't really speak the language, what you thought was three hours early for your flight ... to discover that the e-tickets that were reserved in your name don't match the itinerary you have from the travel agent, and that you and your spouse are booked on different flights. (Still enormously grateful to the ticket agent who spent most of those three hours on the phone to the USA and got everything straight in time for us to literally RUN for the plane.)

(Also - Pittsburgh to Columbus isn't a difficult drive, but it's over three hours ... You might could check Dayton or even Cincinnati, though. But if you do consider Cincinnati, take rush hour traffic schedules into consideration, because the airport is on the opposite side of the city from Columbus, and it could easily wind up being a four-hour drive if the traffic is bad.)

[Possegal]

(Also - Pittsburgh to Columbus isn't a difficult drive, but it's over three hours ... You might could check Dayton or even Cincinnati, though. But if you do consider Cincinnati, take rush hour traffic schedules into consideration, because the airport is on the opposite side of the city from Columbus, and it could easily wind up being a four-hour drive if the traffic is bad.)

My point was about Jet Blue. And as was stated, they don't fly into Ohio. Pittsburgh is the closest city to Columbus that she could fly to via Jet Blue. Not saying that is the answer, but that it may be worth checking out if Jet Blue really was much cheaper than other airlines.

[Owlie]

Cleveland's airport is about the same distance from Columbus as Cincinnati's. Dayton's is closer. All three are under three hours. Southwest flies into Columbus (I'm 80% sure on that) and Cleveland, if Southwest's an option.

[blue_angel]

Your airfare is going to be expensive because you're flying in and out of two non-major airports. If you could drive from Austin to a larger airport (what's closest, Houston?) that would probably bring the price down quite a bit.

[bmccasland]

I heard recently that the cheapest fares are generally available Tuesday through Thursday and that it's best to book four to six weeks out.

This is the same information that was published in the travel section of our local paper. Also to buy your tickets on a tuesday or wednesday. Apparently the day of the week you buy your tickets comes into play on the price you see, even if you want to travel on some other day of the week. Obviously monday and friday are heavy travel days due to business travelers, therefore the tickets will be more expensive.

Your airfare is going to be expensive because you're flying in and out of two non-major airports. If you could drive from Austin to a larger airport (what's closest, Houston?) that would probably bring the price down quite a bit.

When I lived in NorCal, I calculated the time and cost from flying out of my local puddle jumper airport, to the 3 hr drive to Sacramento. Long haul flights it wasn't worth it to drive to Sac. Tickets may be cheaper from a larger futher airport, but you have to figure your time + the cost of gas and parking to get there and back.

[indysteel]

This is the same information that was published in the travel section of our local paper. Also to buy your tickets on a tuesday or wednesday. Apparently the day of the week you buy your tickets comes into play on the price you see, even if you want to travel on some other day of the week. Obviously monday and friday are heavy travel days due to business travelers, therefore the tickets will be more expensive.



When I lived in NorCal, I calculated the time and cost from flying out of my local puddle jumper airport, to the 3 hr drive to Sacramento. Long haul flights it wasn't worth it to drive to Sac. Tickets may be cheaper from a larger futher airport, but you have to figure your time + the cost of gas and parking to get there and back.

Oops; I should clarify that the advice I heard recently (on NPR I believe) was that you should book your flight Tuesday through Thursday. In my experience, you can generally fly cheaper if you travel Monday through Thursday, too. Of course, for a weekend wedding, I doubt that helps much.

[Aggie_Ama]

Houston is about 2.5-3 hours been a while since I have been to Intercontinental so I can't remember exactly, for us it would need to be a substantial savings for the trip to be worth it. It appears San Antonio (107 miles from my door) is substantially cheaper than Austin, so we may do that. Since the Austin airport is actually about 40-45 miles it isn't exactly next door anyway. I am not quite ready to book but already found I could use one of the travel sites to figure out which airline is likely to be the cheapest, then hopped directly to the airline site and saw the same flight for about $40-50 cheaper for the total trip. I will try to watch Tuesday-Thursday. Unfortunately with my dog just having a $500 vet bill I am having to save a little money before I can buy but didn't want to ask for the day if it was going to cost way too much.