airplane tickets?

[TooPatient]

Where do you buy your airplane tickets through? Who has good prices and is reliable? Which days are best to fly?

We need to fly someone from the LA area to Seattle and then home again. I haven't looked for tickets in a long time and don't know where to start. Expedia had tickets at $250 each way. Some other place I'd never seen (cheaptickets.com) has $230 round trip.

She needs to come up the morning of 10/16/13 (a day earlier would be fine too) and then go home again on 10/19/13 (or a day earlier would be fine too).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


ETA:

It is almost 1:00am here. I'm exhausted and just finished a glass of wine. She's coming from San Fransisco (or san jose).
I also learned how to read the Expedia information... they are actually quoting $213

I'd still appreciate any airport/flight advice you can offer so that we can make her trip as easy as possible.

 

[justginger]

I always do my searching with Kayak.com - then depending on their results, book with the cheapest provider of whatever specific time/route combo I'm wanting. Oftentimes it's the actual carrier itself, so you can't get much more reliable than that!

 

[LoveLikeCrazy]

I always do my searching with Kayak.com - then depending on their results, book with the cheapest provider of whatever specific time/route combo I'm wanting. Oftentimes it's the actual carrier itself, so you can't get much more reliable than that!

southwest and jetblue are usually the cheapest and most direct flights for my use

 

[vc10um]

I also search with kayak.com and then book directly through the airline. If you're looking at cities served by Southwest, though (which you are) you'll have to do an additional search as they won't show up in kayak searches.

The only time I haven't done that was when I got a spectacular deal through expedia.com on the combination of hotel and airfare I had chosen.

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

I usually start with Kayak but almost always pick Expedia. Lowest fees and rates.

I believe I always use Alaska Airlines. They end up being the cheapest with the least amount of stops and best layovers.

Also, the rumors that if you book late Tuesday night that the flights are cheaper, are true. I waited till Tuesday night to book for the gtg and got a discount. Mine was only $10 dollars but depending on where you're traveling, prices differ.

 

[minousbijoux]

Thanks for asking the question - these are all great tips.