We want to get somewhere warm and sunny (Vitamin D deficiency). Could leave Friday night and come back Saturday night, or leave Saturday morning and come back Saturday night. Or come back Sunday morning. This week or next. Don't really care. Flying out of Chicago (ORD, MDW, RDF, MKE). Flying into [Tampa, Fort Meyers, Miami, Phoenix, Houston, San Juan...].
Any sites for this? That would let me enter in a range of dates to fly, and a number of cities?
I've flown Spirit for cheap flights. I couldn't find lower prices, and that was only a week out.
Google Flights/ITA Matrix should help here. You can enter a list of departure and arriving airport codes, separated by commas (so for example a Chicago-metro departure would be ORD, MDW, MKE). Same idea in the destination field. http://matrix.itasoftware.com
ITA Matrix doesn't sell tickets itself though, so you are going to need to take the winning itinerary and replicate it on Kayak or the airline's website.
Is there some way of browsing what the cheapest routes are for a flexible date? Lets say I wanted to go on vacation in a few months, but I didn't care where or when. I want a cheap flight on a good carrier. Maybe even first class.
I've had great luck using Kayak. com for flights----although you'll need to let them know where you are planning on going. You also may want to check Southwest.com, as they aren't listed on Kayak.
Since you are in Chicagoland--- I'd also check with the Rockford airport. Occasionally they have ridiculously inexpensive fares to Sanford FL. (near Orlando) They may have cheap flights to other destinations as well--- especially if your travel schedule is flexible.
PHeller wrote: Is there some way of browsing what the cheapest routes are for a flexible date? Lets say I wanted to go on vacation in a few months, but I didn't care where or when. I want a cheap flight on a good carrier. Maybe even first class.
This is what you want: http://www.kayak.com/explore/
I usually start with sites like Expedia or travelocity.
If I do find a good price on those sites, I then go over directly to the airline's website and find an even slightly cheaper price for the same flight.
Said another way, I use the travel sites that show multiple airlines and then when I find a good price I go directly to that airline and find it for a few dollars cheaper. I figure those dollars saved are what the airline would have paid the travel site as a commission.
Joe Gearin wrote: Since you are in Chicagoland--- I'd also check with the Rockford airport. Occasionally they have ridiculously inexpensive fares to Sanford FL. (near Orlando) They may have cheap flights to other destinations as well--- especially if your travel schedule is flexible.
Original post:
mtn wrote: We want to get somewhere warm and sunny (Vitamin D deficiency). Could leave Friday night and come back Saturday night, or leave Saturday morning and come back Saturday night. Or come back Sunday morning. This week or next. Don't really care. Flying out of Chicago (ORD, MDW, RDF, MKE). Flying into [Tampa, Fort Meyers, Miami, Phoenix, Houston, San Juan...].
Thanks for the Sanford tip.
szeis4cookie wrote:PHeller wrote: Is there some way of browsing what the cheapest routes are for a flexible date? Lets say I wanted to go on vacation in a few months, but I didn't care where or when. I want a cheap flight on a good carrier. Maybe even first class.This is what you want: http://www.kayak.com/explore/
Thanks!
I think you should focus more on where you're going on less on how you get there. For example, you assume that the tropics will be sunny, when the weather there could easily be overcast the whole time. I haven't had much sunlight since Sunday afternoon and might not have more for over a week from now (which is fine with me, I got enough for the rest of the month on Sunday afternoon).
I think you should look for somewhere in the desert that's close to you (shorter flights being generally cheaper). For example, there will be practically zero risk of you not getting uninterrupted, horrible, relentless sunlight during daylight hours in Arizona or New Mexico.
Trying to go to Hawaii in August, this thread is relevant to my interests. Someone told me to wait about 2 months before departure date to buy my tickets, any merits to that?
I've had good experience buying "the dip" in ticket prices about 6-8 weeks out for tickets to Europe, so yes, there is some merit to this.
Yes, buying plane tickets far enough ahead of time to get an honorary membership in the Long Now Foundation is a great way to get cheap tickets for two reasons: First, because you can avoid competing with the people who want their vacation tickets RIGHT NOW during popular vacation times (that's generally winter if you're going somewhere tropical), and second, because airlines like having their planes full well in advance so much that you'll get a big discount for committing yourself early.
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