Any tips on buying domestic airline tickets? What are the best sites to buy from, best times to buy and to fly. I live in Portland. Cities I may have reason to visit in the next year or so: San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, and Cleveland. Thanks
spirit airlines. but they charge you for carry on unless its a small backpack. chicago is one of their hubs but depends if you can pack lite or not.
Based on your choices, maybe USAir? I'm biased b/c I'm 1k on United (their partner airline) there, but SFO and ORD are two of UA hubs, and USAir has a big presence in CLE and PHX
Southwest. Bar none. Awesome prices, and great product (leather seats, REAL SNACKS, and 2 bags fly free!). And they fly to airports that are in the city like LGA or Midway.
Spirit is dirt cheap, but they SUCK! The planes are old as shit, and unless you are about 5'1" you won't have enough leg room and will be incredibly uncomfortable. They also nickel and dime you to death. I flew Spirit once. Never again! I love Southwest. I'm on a Southwest flight from MDW to PDX right now ($5.00 Wi-Fi). Book far enough in advance and you can get some cheap fares. This is my 5th round trip between PDX and MDW since May - all on Southwest. They also don't charge chance fees. Another place to check for low fares is kayak.com BNM
Sounds like a good tip here: [video=youtube;DJQlugKdBsE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJQlugKdBsE&feature=related[/video]
One other thing I like about Southwest... I've flown the PDX to MDW route round trip 5 times in the last 5 months and every flight, both directions has landed on, or ahead of schedule. My flight from MDW to PDX Friday night landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and even though I had checked luggage, I had deplaned, picked up my luggage and was in my car and headed home 20 minutes later (aka: the time my flight was scheduled to land). Now, that's just one route and I always fly non-stop (Southwest has multiple non-stop flights everyday between PDX and MDW), so I don' know how Southwest's overall on-time stats compare to other airlines, but for me, they are at 100% - so far. BNM