My boy told me Kayak as well. Got 3 nights comped at a hotel in Manhattan and am surprising HCPJr. and taking him out there after the NBA season. The companies I work for always does my travel, so I just sat down to look at some prices and didn't know where to look!!!
LOL!! HCP, I've tried all the sites and I often get the best prices going to the airline sites and checking out costs for specific dates and comparing to other dates around it. A few times I've beaten Kayak on price that way. Also, be creative. We have to get to Rochester, NY in April, so I checked all flights (including mixing airlines) and alternative locations and I eventually saved us about $300 RT. It was time consuming, but when you're a pauper you do what you have to do.
Fly virgin america if you can. they always have deals. Jetblue...i hear is ok, but I've never flown them. Plus they have TV on the flights and decent seats and hot stewerdesses. What I do is price check using yahoo.travel.com and then book directly on the airline website, its usually the same price but easier for me to track my flights for miles, etc. Southwest, Virgin and JetBlue don't show up on travel booking sites, you can only get them on their website directly.
Agree, go straight to airlines website. Don't you have tons of airlines miles you can cash in on or do you fly mainly charter?
I only get frequent flyer miles when I'm working during the summer and just cashed them all in on a family Disney trip 2 summers ago. Team plane=no frequent flyer miles.....
Go to the airport the day you want to fly and stand just outside and ask people going in if they have extra tickets to sell. barfo
Sign up for the frequent flyer emails for Southwest and they will let you know if they are running specials. Got a flight into Indy for the Superbowl week extra cheap and never a bag fee. They will probably not have sales this far out though. My buddy swears by JetBlue, but I have never flown with them.
My wife hooked us up! Went straight onto JetBlue's website and found us a red-eye flight. About $320 round trip!
Thats what I usually do, 'cept last time he said it was first class ticket to Hawaii; I ended up in coach to Nebraska. Snorkle was worthless there.