Airline Tickets

Also, follow the flights for a few weeks if you have the time. Flights are usually cheapest to buy on a Tuesday. I read an article about it once, and they explained it, but I can't remember now why. I arrange travel at work quite often and I've found the Tuesday thing to usually (Not always) be true. If you will be staying at a hotel, or renting a car do it as a bundle and you'll save money overall. Also, pay attention on the travel sites to whether fees and taxes are included in their price. Some do and some don't, it always looks like the ones that do have a higher price, when one forgets to take that into consideration!

you don't say when you need to fly - but Southwest has webonly fares for about $170 each way.

have you tried checking departures from another airport - if that is doable for you?

EVERYTHING out of MSP is 2x the price of a normal ticket. it's like they've looked at the map and said 'these folks have no alternative!"

seriously, go to the websites of all carriers that fly out of MSP. including sun country and southwest. some carriers don't show up on the search websites. we recently flew to las vegas on sun country for about 1/2 the price of what was coming up on the searches. same thing with our one way flight to denver (via southwest.)

also, amtrak heads out of winona daily, and is very affordable and has lots of tracks in the east. your only hurdle will be a layover in chicago.

The best deals are 21+ days in advance.

I never ever deal with discounters because you have no help if something goes wrong (and it does) at the airport. You only have an 800#.

I book tickets weekly for our business and pleasure travel and I only go through the specific airline website. Southwest and American are my go to's. If you can plan enough in advance, you can get good deals.

Sometimes you just luck into one.. we just flew our daughter from DFW to Phoenix for $300 on American on a last minute ticket.

Make sure you read all the fine print as well.

Set up a "price alert" on Kayak.com and they will email you daily what the ticket prices are.

Southwest is usually great, if it goes from there. And changes can be made with only the cost of the ticket difference.

Did you check Southwest, and are you able to take a non-direct flight? If so, I found flights between MSP and Dulles for under $300 (round trip) - via Chicago Midway.

Tuesday at around midnight is when you get the bst fairs.

I have gotten good deals from this website:
http://www.cheapoair.com/travel/cheap-flights/airtran-air...