Any tips on finding plane tickets that won't break the bank?

Thanks for the sites, burunduk34. I’ll be checking those in the morning.

I’d love to be flexible but we’re flying in for a convention and my husband can only get the days off which correspond to the convention. (ALA, if your’e curious.) I’d love for him to get a couple of extra days off but he’s missed quite a bit of work since his hospitalization back in October.

I have heard you should clear your cookies if you are going to re-check prices on an airline’s website

You Americans are a lot luckier with airfares. Here in Canada, the flights from Toronto-Montreal (think Boston-DC) are about $250-$375 and flying across the country is at least $500. A lot of people here actually just cross the border to an American airport to save a few hundred bucks if they’re flying to another US city. Anyways, I usually fly international but here are some of the things that I’ve found helpful:

  1. Search early and regularly to get a general idea of the price and then buy if you find a really good deal. I saved a few hundred dollars this way! Toronto-Bangkok is usually at least $1,300+ but I found a United Airlines deal for only $950 and it only lasted for about a week.

  2. Searching for alternative airports close by can sometimes pay off. You can save well over $100 by flying from Newark to San Francisco instead of to Sacramento. However, you then need to make the 80 mile journey just to save $50 or so each way.

  3. Use points if you have enough or if you have a premium credit card. My Visa lets you exchange 120 points for every $1 cash, 100 points for every $1 on a hotel, and a special rate for flights. I can get a $1,200 flight for about 60,000 points, which would only get me $600 in hotels or $500 cash.