Money Matters
Dear Community,

Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.

If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.

Thank you.

Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.

Flight Deals

I'm planning to take my three girls (6, 3, 3) to California for spring break in April. My husband will be unable to come along. I've been watching flights but they are astronomical. We're flying from the East coast. I obviously have time to watch them and pray they go down, but how early or late do you usually book to get the best deals? As of now they lingering in the $450 a ticket range x4 makes me a tad sick. Especially for a leisure trip.

I have the Hopper App but I'm not sure that it takes into account all the airlines.

Re: Flight Deals

  • jtmh2012jtmh2012 mod
    Moderator Eighth Anniversary 2500 Comments 500 Love Its
    edited January 2017
    Hopper misses a few.  Like Southwest who I don't think lets anybody sell their tickets.  I might be wrong on the anybody part.

    I usually try to start watching prices and also play around with Hopper.  Eventually you'll get an idea where the "good deal" is.  You probably won't buy at bottom dollar, but you shouldn't be paying top dollar either.

    Plus....spring break.  Everyone wants to fly.....
    Daisypath Anniversary tickers
  • jtmh2012 said:
    Hopper misses a few.  Like Southwest who I don't think lets anybody sell their tickets.  I might be wrong on the anybody part.

    I usually try to start watching prices and also play around with Hopper.  Eventually you'll get an idea where the "good deal" is.  You probably won't buy at bottom dollar, but you shouldn't be paying top dollar either.

    Plus....spring break.  Everyone wants to fly.....
    I know. If I can just get them down to the $350 range I'd pull the trigger.
  • Where in CA are you flying to?  Have you looked at alternate airports... like instead of LAX, flying into John Wayne or Ontario?  I know I've flown into Ontario before and it was cheaper than LAX.  Or, if it's the bay area, flying into San Jose is often cheaper than SFO.  
  • jtmh2012 said:
    Hopper misses a few.  Like Southwest who I don't think lets anybody sell their tickets.  I might be wrong on the anybody part.

    I usually try to start watching prices and also play around with Hopper.  Eventually you'll get an idea where the "good deal" is.  You probably won't buy at bottom dollar, but you shouldn't be paying top dollar either.

    Plus....spring break.  Everyone wants to fly.....
    I know. If I can just get them down to the $350 range I'd pull the trigger.
    Set price alerts on airfarewatchdog and Google flights.  The best deals are typically 3-6 months out, so you are right in the window.  However, PP is right that the time of year is working against you.

    Someday (hopefully soon) Scott's Cheap Flights will extend to domestic flights as well.  That's going to be a game changer.

    Frankly, H and I can often find international flights for about the same price as flying to the west coast.... which is why we rarely visit the west coast for pleasure.  Obviously with kids this calculus changes since international flights can be much longer.

    If this is a pleasure trip, are you open to other destinations/dates?  Do you have points with any airlines?
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • My family lives in So. CA and I fly there from NOLA every couple years or so.  For that area, LAX is usually the cheapest, but not always.  San Diego and Santa Ana (Orange County) are typically around the same, with SD sometimes cheaper.

    I've never flown into Ontario, but I'm glad @julieanne912 reminded me about it.  I'd meant to check it out for my next trip.

    The time of year is probably what is most tripping you up.  If you have flexibility on days, departing/arriving on Tues./Wed./Sat. are typically the cheaper days to fly.

  • My favorite airport in the LA area is Long Beach. We can usually find decent flights with Jet Blue. It is a very small airport thought. We recently visited San Fran and found the best price was flying into San Jose. Check out all the airports in the surrounding areas.
    Anniversary Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • I ended up booking last week for $332 each on United. :)
  • edited January 2017
    Which part of CA? What about flying into Las Vegas and renting a car to drive to CA?It's five hours from Vegas airport to San Diego airport. You could see sites on the way.
  • Which part of CA? What about flying into Las Vegas and renting a car to drive to CA?It's five hours from Vegas airport to San Diego airport. You could see sites on the way.
    We're flying into Los Angeles. I'll be traveling by myself with the 3 kids. I think I'd rather pay the extra money to fly into LA then to travel cross country and then drive in the car with a 6 year old and two 3 year olds for 5 hours. haha
Sign In or Register to comment.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards