Airfare tips?

[librarychica]

I am flying 5 or 6 people to Albany NY a few days after Christmas. I don’t expect any really good deals owing to the time of year but, experiences fliers, any booking tips?

[mommyatty]

Try setting up a fare alert and watch the fares for a few weeks. I would wait until after summer to try to book.

[sdlaura]

Try booking on a Tuesday or Wednesday rather than over the weekend if you can. If my travel dates are flexible I also like to search for a couple days before and after my ideal dates - sometimes a day or two can make a huge difference.

All 5 of us are flying to the east coast around Xmas. Even using less than ideal dates and times, flights would have been $3500 if I hadn’t had points. Luckily it was under $2k with points. We’ll also save on camps for the kids by going then so at least that helps.

[waverly]

I also try to search aggregators like Expedia and then try to match that flight on the airline website for actual booking. I see more possible flights and flexibility that way.

Mostly we’ve used points though so once they are gone I think the plan is to do a lot more road trips. Wouldn’t recommend that for you at that time of year though.

[phdmomma]

Southwest also typically doesn't show in the aggregators, so it is typically worth checking their site at well. We were planning on flying out on the 25th in the afternoon this year, but are flying out on the 26th to Florida instead because it was actually cheaper.