I am going to San Diego in July and after hearing a ton of advice, I am looking for more. I have been told to book ASAP no matter how long in advance, and also to wait 4 weeks before I want to leave. I need 3 tickets (it is crap I have to pay full price for my 2 1/2 y/o) to SAN from OKC. What have you had the best luck with pricing? We plan on leaving on Thurday the 15 and returning the 22nd.

I haved looked at the big discount sites, and now pricing are going up, and notice travelocity was charging $160 for taxes and fees, pluus a $15 service fee vs priceline charging $131 for taxes and fees with no service fee. So it looks like priceline was better on this example, although they were only $3 better overall. So now I am more confused, but I want to hold off for now as prices went from $240/ticket (I saw some for June that were under $200) to $300 from 2 weeks ago.

Not sure I understand your math? How is $160+$15 only $3 more than $131?

Why didn't you go with the $131, that seems a fair price.

When buying tickets, I always check the preferred airline's website (e.g. United or Delta), and then Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz.

Check with a local travel agent as well.

You can get tips that the airlines wont tell you. For the dates you want the cheapest I see is $339.70 per ticket ( including all taxes )

If you can travel Tuesday or Wednesday there is a price of $213.70 per ticket on Delta or Frontier. (There is the tip that no website will tell you)

So Tuesday/Wednesday is cheaper than Thursday, we might be able to handle that.



The 2 sites had different prices of tickets, one was total of $728 and the other was $725; travelocity was $728 total with the additional $45 ($30 extra taxes and $15 fee) making their "cheaper" ticket more expensive.

Why? He's going to use the whole seat.

i've used hotwire for best fares...if your flexible that's an awesome site

Exactly. He sure isn't going to be sitting on my lap.

Anyways, if you're a really flexible and sort of a gambler, you could wait until about 10 days before your flight and try site59.com

Great site for last minute deals, I use them often since my fam lives in hawaii and the tickets are much cheaper than going through the airlines for the most part. Just can't plan ahead.

Try http://www.sidestep.com/air/, I love that site.

I'll second that. Not only do they consolidate the results from several airline's sites and Orbitz, their interface is easily customizable to include (or exclude) flights that depart during certain hours, specify the number of stops, include/exclude specific airports or airlines, etc. When booking travel, I use this and Southwest.com and can quickly find the best deal/date/time combo between city pairs.

Good luck!

Wow. Nice search engine for travel needs

Sweet Sassy, Sidestep is great site. This is the only site I ever found that actually found cheaper fights than the carrier's website. Thanks!

Who is Sweet Sassy????

They have discounts for seniors and they use the whole seat, why not for little kids under 5 or 4?



Thanks for the help guys.

It should have been Sweet Sassy!

If you are flexible on the dates, try Southwest - I 'got you there" for $600 if you went July 19-25. (for three tickets)

They have a $99 one way ticket, but it depends on the dates - appears the dates you want are really booked for some reason.

Because little kids under 5 or 4 aren't members of one of the largest lobby groups in the country that puts extraordinary pressure on companies to provide ridiculous discounts?

I had the dates wrong, it should be Thursday the 13th not the 15th, I think I was looking at the June calender. I have a wedding on the 15th, and a bunch of family will be out there the week before the wedding so I am trying to be there as little as possible with everyone, too much chaos. Southwest is how I have always flown, but their prices are not as good as I have found through other carriers, best being Delta right now, and I have not seen a $99 special from OKC-SD through Southwest in some time, cheapest was $140 one way and $180 on the return.

Thanks again everyone. Any chance the fuel prices are jacking up rates and in June the prices will be lower? I am waiting on our tax return to pick these up and I will go with the Delta @ $588 ($196/ticket) on Wednesday or $618 ($206) on Thursday; which is not their cheapest, $519 is, but a 3 hour layover each way is not an option with a 2 1/2 year old.

Not to be confused with Sweet Sassy Molassy.

Where did you find this? I thought I found it, but I did not read an important part of the price. What I thought was the total price for the 3 tickets at Delta, was the price per person. And the cheapest was $514 per person.
I found Southwest now has a $99 special so I can get all 3 for $718 total.

Sometimes I use this site to see where good deals exist:

http://www.farecompare.com