Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
9/30/15 9:58 a.m.

Buying a vehicle from a fellow forum member. Need to fly from IND to SAN around October 9th.

The 8th is doable if necessary, the 10th is doable (and gives me a fighting chance of not using PTO).

I've been using Kayak, which is actually pretty frustrating because they'll list rates from Expedia and Travelocity that sound good, then you get to their site and they say "Whoops! This rate no longer available, how does THIS much higher rate sound?"

Any other new sites that i don't know about that might have super cheap flights? Last time i did this my ticket was less than $200, so the idea of paying $300-$400 sounds pretty awful.

So far the best i've found is arriving the morning of the 10th for $275, or LATE night on the 10th for $200. Morning means i might not have to burn PTO, late night means i'd have to at least take the 12th off.

BoxheadTim
BoxheadTim GRM+ Memberand UltimaDork
9/30/15 10:00 a.m.

I assume you're also checking the sites for the discount airlines that don't show up on Kayak like Southwest, Spirit, Frontier and the like?

Not that Southwest seems to be competitive, they seem to be in the $400-550 range for those dates.

Joe Gearin
Joe Gearin Associate Publisher
9/30/15 10:03 a.m.

Keep in mind if you book on Frontier, or Spirit (or perhaps other "bargain carriers") , they will charge you for seat selection, and for your carry-on bag. (yes, your carry on)

With Frontier it was $30 to check your 1st bag......or $40 to carry it on!

Those cheap flights aren't so cheap when you add up the costs--- so keep that in mind.

I use Kayak very regularly to book flights. You can turn off the Expedia / Travelocity windows if they bother you.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
9/30/15 10:03 a.m.

Frontier is showing up. Most of the flights i'm looking at are Frontier.

Didn't check Spirit, will do now, thanks!

Bummer, they don't run out of IND.

cmcgregor
cmcgregor Reader
9/30/15 10:03 a.m.

I'm partial to Google's flight matrix, myself

https://www.google.com/flights/

Captures the cheap flights too.

Unfortunately flying is just ridiculously expensive.

alfadriver
alfadriver UltimaDork
9/30/15 10:03 a.m.

Have you considered going to the airlines sites directly? I get e-mail from our local big carrier every week for specials like you are looking for.

classicJackets
classicJackets Reader
9/30/15 10:04 a.m.

Make sure you browse for flights in Incognito mode -otherwise, the websites collect data and can/will raise the rates as you keep checking

johndej
johndej Reader
9/30/15 10:06 a.m.

I've had great luck using google, you can select the dates and it'll plot the prices for the days near it. You can also select nearby airports and see what's cheapest all in the same search. Cheapest I see right now is the 10th for $200 even flying through Denver https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=IND;t=SAN;d=2015-10-10;r=2015-11-04;tt=o;q=IND+to+SAN

T.J.
T.J. UltimaDork
9/30/15 10:18 a.m.

I like it how when the price of oil goes up, the ticket prices immediately jump up. Now that oil has dropped 50% one may think that plane ticket prices would also plummet, but I guess that is just wishful thinking.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
9/30/15 10:20 a.m.

Looks like Frontier has one for $245 Saturday morning arriving at 9:30ish AM. Their baggage charges look like my backpack would actually be checked free due to small size.

Saturday night IS a possibility, but i'd prefer to not make him pick me up that late, and it would mean that i'd definitely have to take Monday off from work.

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