Flight deals

I love finding the best travel deals possible (since I travel almost every weekend), and one of the best tools in my box right now is www.kayak.com. Kayak is different from other flight search engines because it helps you find the best airfare available for only the flights you want, and it's so easy and uncluttered. I have pretty strict requirements- I need to leave Friday evenings after work and I usually like to stay at my destnation through Sunday evening, but not arrive in NYC too late, so I just adjust the "depart by" and "arrive by" bars so that I don't get fooled by cheap flights that leave at inconvenient times. You can also select (or de-select) a group of airlines to search from, include a range of nearby airports, and choose from all kinds of other search criteria. Note, I am not sponsored by Kayak to laud them, I just love them so much because they help make my fantasy vacations become reality!

One of the best new features at kayak.com is the "weekend" search function, which will find the best fares to a destination for a variety of weekends over a period of time, perfect for this weekend traveler! Instead of having to separately search for multiple weekends and compare prices, it does all the work for you! That means that I will be more likely to visit my brother in Ft. Lauderdale this fall, and maybe even squeeze in another trip to Vegas, and since my schedule is flexible, I will just go when it is cheapest!

If you're obsessive-compulsive about getting good deals on plane tickets like I am, then you might also like www.yapta.com, which tracks the prices of any flights you are watching or have purchased, and notifies you when the prices go down. You can see at a glance how the prices have changed, and if you've purchased a ticket and the price goes down significantly, Yapta gives you advice on how to get a refund from the airline, if possible. I find that airlines are being stingy about giving refunds these days, though. Virgin America wasn't too sympathetic when my recently purchased ticket went down $70 during their sale, but Jet Blue has awarded me flight credits for lowered fares in the past.

Also, be sure to check out the sale that Jet Blue and Virgin America are having right now.... I really wish I had waited to buy that wedding ticket...

Last of my flight-website shout-outs is www.airfarewatchdog.com. They post amazingly low deals each day found by real people, not computers, and you can stay ahead of the airlines' shenanigans such as checked-baggage fees and discontinued flight routes by reading their blog.

Happy traveling!