Tips for Booking Flights

Hi Vegas fans,

I spend a lot of time looking for good, inexpensive flights to Sin City. This year, I've been fortunate, obviously, because of the economy. However, I wanted to pass my top 5 tips that always help me when I'm thinking about a trip to Vegas:

1. Shop early. Even if you don't plan on purchasing early, shopping early can help you by providing a baseline for what flights are going to cost you at a given time (think at least 6-8 months before your trip). You can see if rates start to rise, and if so you can buy your flight before it continues to go up in price. Even better - sign up for a website's alert program (many have them) where they email you when prices go up or down by a certain amount.

2. Look for package deals. Many people like to argue that you should book separately and use the codes available for reduce rates for hotels. However, I still find that package deals are usually a better discount for me when comparing overall price.

3. Check out at least 3 websites. Kayak and Sidestep are good meta-search engines that will surf a few different travel sites for you. Once you narrow down your results from one of these sites, go directly to the airline's site to see if you can get a better deal or flight to meet your needs.

4. Look very carefully at the times, routes, and layovers for your flights. I like to leave my home early (thus arriving in Vegas early) and leave Vegas anywhere between noon and 3pm. I try to get flights with no more than an hour layover, and I try not to fly through Atlanta airport. I've got nothing against Atlanta, but the airport is huge, busy, and can be a hassle to navigate. Memphis or Charlotte work better for me. However, for those of you on the East coast, beware of US Air through Charlotte... I've heard many a horror story about the airline, although I have not experienced problems myself.

5. Take your time and find the best flight for you. It' hard to be patient (at least for me!) when booking a trip to Las Vegas. But, I know that if I spend some time up front looking for the best flight, I'll find what I want and come pretty close to the price I want. I'm usually willing to compromise on some things. For example, if I can save $100, I'll arrive in Vegas a few hours later than I usually like. I'll fly through Atlanta if it's a good price and good timing. I'll layover for an hour and a half if it's a really good deal. Are you willing to compromise? Think about the aspects of your trip that matter most to you, and it'll be easier to book your flight.

I hope you have success the next time you book your flight when you are ready to... Go to Vegas. It's that Simple.

Viva,
Mike