I always use cheaptickets.com meself.

My son scored a round trip from Denver to Raleigh for less than 200 bucks late last year (He was coming home for Christmas.)

Southwest is usually cheapest.

I search through all the cheap ticket sites and I have also installed the Sidestep program. When I find the least expensive fare then I go to that airline's website and look around more- sometimes I can find an even cheaper fare through that airline by adjusting the departure or return dates or times a little (and it might be an airline whose miles I collect). It's time consuming, but I fly a lot from coast to coast and rarely spend more than 250 a trip. If all else fails I do Priceline.

In my experience, Mondays and Fridays are usually the most expensive. Also, I book at least a month ahead because a) the cheap sites generally don't have flights available for shorter lead times, and b) if they do, they are expensive.

the best place

"Southwest is usually cheapest"

Southwest is like taking a Greyhound bus through the sky. NEVER EVER EVER fly SWA.

Personally, I use Yahoo! travel unless an agency's available to do the legwork for me.

Fatwallet's post on finding best airfares.

Southwest is like taking a Greyhound bus through the sky. NEVER EVER EVER fly SWA.

I like southwest. It's the populist in me.

So far I've found one on Cheaptickets that's about 15 bucks off of what I found on Priceline, but it's a Ted to LAX and then a turboprop to John Wayne Airport. Which could be fun. There's also a direct shot to SNA/JWA from Phoenix on American, which is what I should probably do.

But being a masochist, getting to fly into LAX and then out again on a prop plane to SNA is mighty tempting. The only other time I've flown I was involuntarily making delighted whooping noises when we hit some heavy turbulance. I think I made some people nervous. Com'on, what's not to love about pockets of freefall and microgravity?

Can Southwest actually be worse/more miserly than Alaskan? That's the only airline I've ever flown.

I'm also considering Greyhound, anyway. I've done Greyhound and know how to do the Greyhound shuffle pretty well. It's like being herded through stock pens to a slaughter house. And when your ticket and itinerary says "ETA: 32 hours" you should expect that number to double or triple.

Thank you very much for the well seasoned leads, you gorgeous bunnys.