Getting the best Air-Deal

After you select your hotel room for your January escape to the City that never sleeps the next step is to buy airline tickets to get there. I am going to mention the tickets I just recently bought for my January trip. I decided on visiting the city again around June and July. In late July is when tickets starting becoming available for the week I am going. I naturally looked at travel sites, but at this point in the game they are not cheaper, and do not provide the companies I prefer to use. 

What do I use? I check out each airline company individually to see which has the cheapest fare. I have noticed that the bigger airlines are far too expensive. Delta, American, Continental and United airlines all total over a thousand dollars round trip. That price does not include a bag check either. I am not sure as to why they charge so much more for their services, but they do. In the past I’ve used AirTran to fly to New York but in the recent past Southwest Airlines has purchased AirTran therefore their destinations are slowly intergrading. AirTran was my choice in the past because Southwest did not fly into LaGuardia, the nearest airport was Newark New Jersey. AirTran for my trip this year was running around $380 round trip. This seemed like a great deal, but after some research I discovered they no longer include a check-bag for free, and there is a $24-50 fee to check one. I browsed Southwest to see if going into Newark was cheaper, and that is when I discovered they flew into LaGuardia now. The price for the trip was the same as AirTran’s, but offers two free checked bags.  This is the one I purchased. 

A good tip for frequent travelers is to sign up for airline rewards programs. I have found that Sountwest is typically the best to use, because I do fly Southwest much more because of their low fares. Their rapid rewards program is very good and useful when trying to save money on travel. I have received enough points to total a decent savings on next year’s trip to the City.

Quick Tips: Make sure that you do not wait till the last minute to book your airline ticket. The earlier you book them the better.  Typically I have found that tickets are at their cheapest as soon as they become available. Though, I have been surprised before. The cut off for “cheap” tickets is always three weeks before desired departure. But as a whole buying months in advanced is always the safest and cheapest.