Whether you spent your holidays working, baking, or with aunts questioning your non-existent love life and non-paying career, you could use a vacation. Thank the getaway gods, airlines are in discount mode, trying to get butts in half-full flights. If you have a sense of adventure (read: you’re not too particular about where you go), January and February are key times for last-minute fares. Prices will drop as kids go back to school, and stay low through mid-March (with the exception of Valentine’s weekend).
The search begins at SkyScanner. Type “everywhere” as the destination (bonus option: you can enter “January” or “2011” as your time frame). You have to add taxes, but SkyScanner has a lovely selection of Caribbean flights for about $300, and major Western European destinations for under $500. SkyScanner’s characteristically easy-to-use search style makes it the go-to for easily digesting a variety of travel options, whether it’s timing, destination, or departure cities (no, you don’t have to search JFK/LaGuardia/Newark separately).
Kayak’s Buzz feature is alright for domestic, Mexican, or European travel ($181 Puerto Rico, $450 London, $262 Los Angeles). The downside: it only shows the deals to “Top 25” cities, so you’re missing out on $281 flights to the Dutch Antilles.
People suggest sites like Res99’s 11th Hour Vacations. These sites only seem useful if you have more money than imagination/time. Weekend getaways to the Carolinas, Maine, or Pennsylvania for about $300 don’t exactly do it for us, but flight, hotel, and taxes are included, so… not shabby.
AirFareWatchDog (and SmarterTravel, which has a similar engine) is the big sexy. At this moment, the fares are just “good” – ($567 Paris, $316 Dominican Republic), but most fares include taxes and fees (therefore one of the few sites you can book travel to London for less than $600). Almost all domestic flights go for $250 or much less ($38 roundtrip to Ft. Lauderdale!), and sometimes you can go trans-Atlantic for under $300. It’s easy to search all 3 major airports (plus White Plains). Oh, baby.
FareCompare’s prices prove rather lame, but their map feature is a good way to get ideas for destinations. A surprising number of sites like LastMinute require you to enter a destination when searching for last-minute deals, which kind of ruins the whole concept, in my humble.
Basic rules of cheap travel apply: fly Tuesday or Wednesday if possible, and consider any flight to Asia less than $800 a miracle. If none of these flights satisfy your exotic fixation, try flying to a European hub city and proceeding with a discount airline, like Ryan Air or Lufthansa. I’m only sharing these close-to-the-vest tips in hopes that you, in turn, share your peanuts if we sit next to each other. Wheels up and away!
Related Articles
The Brokesters’ guide to a weekend in DC
No money, no problem – Here’s how to have fun in DC on the cheap when you’re not busy protesting the Trump administration.
We stayed a tiny house and you can too
We’ve got a rundown of vacationing in tiny houses in the Northeast for when you’re ready to escape the city and live like a giant.
Williamsburg Airbnb vs. Wythe Hotel: where should you spend your Labor Day staycation?
The Staycation is a contentious affordance here in Brooklyn. Amidst an ongoing affordable housing crisis that leads to things like this and this, there’s just […]
7 Comments
Leave a Reply
Wish I had this when I was booking a trip last week. Great piece, Anna!
I just read about this site Hipmunk on Mashable too: http://www.hipmunk.com/
looks like it could be helpful too, once you get used to the interface
Before Christmas I used Kayak to secure round-trip tickets to Istanbul for under $600, all taxes and fees included.
I got a flight from NYC to Beijing for $730, tax incl last summer. It just took a LOT of stalking all the websites, and I ended up booking it straight off the Air China website.
Amazing Europe fares on sidesstep today:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/europe-on-sale/public/en_us?DM1_Mkt=US&DM1_Channel=DIS&DM1_Campaign=JanEconomy2011&DM1_Site=Kayak&utm_source=Kayak&utm_medium=Display&utm_campaign=JanEconomy2011
Team Brokelyn field trip!!
Hi Anna,
I just wanted to stop by and say “thanks” for recommending Skyscanner to your readers! We have some cool, new features coming out in 2011; so be sure to keep an eye on the site!
And of course, Happy Flying!
Scot