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.
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:
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.
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.
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.